Welcome to Torrey Pines GullsDan Cummins – Modeler of the Year – 2017
Dan grew up in Tucson, Arizona in a large neighborhood near Fort Lowell Park on the northeast side of town. By about age 7 or 9, Dan’s father helped Dan and a friend named Frank fly a Cox U-control model airplane. These were the type that didn’t last long and so rather quickly Dan learned how to fix motors. The park included a pond, and he enjoyed also building RC airboats with throttle and rudder to skim along on both the water and grass. These made use of an OS 10 engine for propulsion. As a teenager he had an interest in automotive repair, go carts, and things that go fast with wheels on the ground. High school and college got in the way of anything having to do with model airplanes. He attended the University of Arizona in Tucson, earning a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1990.
After graduation, Dan took a position at NAVAIR at NAS North Island in San Diego. While employed there he began flying RC gliders at the slope at Blossom Valley east of El Cajon. Dan had heard about the Torrey Pines Gulls and soaring at Torrey but it felt too “political” at the time for the cliff to be enjoyable. He took a hiatus from RC soaring in the mid to late 1990s as work and family life took too much time.
In the mid-2000s, another NAVAIR employee Roger Stensland lived right near Blossom. Roger encouraged Dan to get back into RC, took him out to Blossom and taught him how to fly. Dan’s first RC glider was a Wing Warrior Raider and the slope was a lot of fun! Together Roger and Dan found other like-minded slopers on RC Groups and soon they became interested in EPP foam Power Slope Scale (PSS) planes. A “San Diego Slope” thread on RC Groups was started by this crowd at Blossom and really got the communication going. They heard about a “PSS Fest” at Cajon Pass put on by the Inland Slope Rebels (ISR). Dan attended his first PSS Fest in about 2006, and befriended many others including Brian Laird, Carl Maas, Ray Pili, Matin Taraz, and others. At the time Ray was a member of the TPG, and Matin involved with North County Flying Machines (NCFM). After the PSS Fest, Dan was hooked on PSS and attended all sorts of PSS events regionally. Members of the ISR would often do “group builds” on one or another type of PSS aircraft, and Dan enjoyed solving these types of puzzles with other like-minded slopers. The building process itself was its own fun, and he was able to learn many new construction techniques from this group setting. He participated in a couple of group builds of his own through about 2020. In the late 2000s, Dan finally checked out to see what Torrey was like and really enjoyed flying PSS there on heavy-wind days during winter storms. Those epic conditions alone justified joining the TPG! But it also gave him a purpose to fly with other people and other aircraft.
Dan’s network of friends continued to grow. In the late 2000s he befriended Brian Courtice who lived in Maui and also enjoyed PSS and pitcheron (“twisty wing”) aircraft. Dan took a trip to fly with Brian at Maui and ended up doing so every afternoon for a week! It was awesome. Another San Diegan, Louis DeCarlo, happened to also be at Maui later that same week and also enjoyed the fun as they went on a local slope safari of the island together and became close friends.
Dan also met many cool slopers in San Diego. Oran Bloodsworth had a group build of CR Turbo models. During this session Dan met Ward Hagaman and Dan got hooked on pitcherons! Ward assisted with thoughts on scratch building, especially portable planes. He made a purpose-built 60” high-wing loading flying wing for his next trip to Maui in 2010/2011.
Dan started flying additional slopes throughout southern California, but Blossom was still his main “go to” place. One day a young man from New Zealand, Jordan Smith, posted on RC Groups that he would be visiting San Diego and wondered if there were good slope spots close to public transportation. We all know what public transportation is like in San Diego, so the group at Blossom, especially Dan, took Jordan under their wing and took him to all of the main slope spots (Blossom, Torrey, Laguna, etc.) through the end of 2008. Through Jordan, Dan learned of the Manilla Slope Fest in Australia. Airfare was reasonable due to the recession and so off Dan went! It was a wonderful social experience and Jordan was there too! Dan ended up flying twisty wings, aerotowed a foam Ka-8, started to thermal, and flew at locations in southeast Australia. He returned several other times to attend the Manilla Slope Fest and enjoy the camaraderie of this distant group of sloper friends.
Back in San Diego, the Torrey Pines Gulls were under the leadership of Marty Dine and Mark Canfield. Both encouraged Dan to think about running for club President as there were no other volunteers and Dan would do a great job. To our reward, Dan said yes, first serving as Secretary, then Vice President, then President for two terms. By that time the club meetings were still at the Automotive Museum in Balboa Park, but attendance was dwindling. Dan promoted the idea of having more flying events for the social interaction rather than meetings. This worked well and brought people out to all flying sites, especially Torrey. Dan also helped encourage a fun and relaxing format of slope racing with foamy aircraft. This differed from the racing circuit offered by the SCSR with its expensive slope planes and competition. The relaxed slope racing format worked well for quite a few years and help rebuild group interest in those types of events and slope racing in general.
The TPG honored Dan with the Modeler of the Year Award in 2017 for his efforts as TPG President, to help renew a “fun first” direction with the club, especially at the slope. Dan continues to enjoy flying PSS on Cajon Days with Matin, Greg Houck, Dale Gottdank, Marty Dine, Ray Pili and others. He encourages everyone to find something that they specifically enjoy about RC gliding and the club and figure out how to contribute to growing that from within TPG. It could be a social aspect, it could be a building aspect, could be fun flying, competition, or whatever – just step up and help volunteer your time to make it happen.
Thanks, Dan, for all of your volunteer support of TPG!
