Welcome to Torrey Pines GullsDrew Arnett – Modeler of the Year – 2007
Drew Arnett grew up in central Illinois and, although model airplanes weren’t generally a part of the picture, he did enjoy model rockets for a while. He remembers reviewing a Tower Hobbies catalog in the early 1980s with a friend and, while the RC sailplane section got his attention, flying something like that seemed unachievable at that age.
Drew eventually studied electrical engineering receiving a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois. He also took up an interest in amateur radio and received his ham license. After college he worked for a few years in Illinois before coming to San Diego and finding a job in the wireless communications industry.
In about 1999, a co-worker purchased a Great Planes “Fling” RC glider. This caught Drew’s attention and he bought a MAD Aircraft Works “Highlander” EPP 2-meter glider kit. The Highlander was a popular trainer at the time capable of both slope and thermal. Drew learned that the Torrey Pines Gulls had a “late-in-the-day” training program at the Poway field and decided to check it out first before finishing his Highlander build. There he met George Joy who was instructing not one, not two, but three students at the same time all with their gliders in the air. Drew felt a little timid about going up to a guy who had three things in parallel but upon seeing another trainee, George said “come over here!” Soon after George was putting up the club’s (immaculately covered) Olympic II on the winch and handed the transmitter to Drew and just like that, Drew was flying. George had Drew repeatedly fly a landing pattern but high up in the sky, just getting used to turns, etc. When the plane got closer to the ground, George took command and landed it safely. A few repeats of this and Drew was hooked. He returned the next time with his finished Highlander, got it straightened out and after two sessions with George was hi-starting the glider on his own at Poway, and he joined the Gulls. George had properly hooked another “victim.”
With the Poway slope nearby offering additional airtime than hi-start practice, Drew built a delta-wing glider made of foamboard called a Pibros https://rc-soar.com/pibros/ to learn elevon flying.
Slope combat was also en vogue at the time and Drew build a Zagi 3C and joined with the slope combat guys who were flying every weekend at Poway slope.
He also started flying in TPG thermal duration contests occasionally with one plane or another. TPG raffle did add to his stable and picked up a used “Sapphire” at some point.
However, in the early 2000s Drew attended a TPG DLG contest and, as if the hook wasn’t already set, DLG really made it more permanent. The contest saw everyone flying javelin-launched gliders while one person flew a discus-launched “Uplink”.The difference in launch height was the difference in finding lift for an easy victory! Drew purchased a Mountain Models DL-50 kit and began flying in DLG contests as well as the IHLGF.
TPG was a slope and thermal club, and Drew loved flying both (though not a fan of the crowded airspace at Torrey on the weekends.) TPG was great, offering slope and thermal contests and fun flies. He enjoyed attending the club meetings and rapidly became an active force in the TPG making even more stuff happen. The internet, a brand new RCGroups system, and the club mailing list were useful for doing that.
Drew and several others lit a fire in members attending monthly DLG contests. This started in 2006 with the “IHLGF-or-bust” contest series.
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5084144\&postcount=1
The events continued as regularly monthly contests that the DLG crew organized and CD’ed. Drew learned lessons about organizing and promoting that he was able to use later on. (Secret: make noise before and after events. RCGroups and the TPG mailing list were great for that.) This warm-up series continued through the rest of 2006, 2007, and got going in 2008 before Drew dropped out.
Drew wrote a bit of software to build a timing “tape” and used MP3 player and guitar amp which he described in the March 2003 issue of RC Soaring Digest. For those of you used to our current systems this is really worth your read (page 26)!
https://rcsoaringdigest.com/pdfs/RCSD-2007/RCSD-2007-03.pdf
Here are some examples from that time (August 2006):
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5864964\&postcount=6
Mid 2006 monthly contest paperwork:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?539088-SoCal-TPG-HLG-Contest#post5864987
Summaries for the 2007 DLG series:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?790054-2007-TPG-HLG-results#post8786427
Drew and other members cooked up a summer fun fly series in 2006. With an after-work start time of 6pm, there was a good amount of evening flight time for almost 4 months during the summer. As a bonus, Torrey Pines wasn’t too crowded for anybody on weekday evenings. During 2006, this alternated each week between Torrey and Poway. In 2007, this was modified to 3 weeks at Torrey and 1 week at Poway. This generated camaraderie and post flight meals with the gang.
Drew attended club meetings. but helped make the summer fun fly series a reality, actively emailing people in advance of events to foster increased participation, helping to set up monthly DLGs, etc. Because of his considerable effort and impact on club success, he was awarded the Modeler of the Year trophy in 2007. Other members nominated that year included Parviz Kamiab, David Klein, and Ron Scharck.
Drew made his career at Qualcomm, most recently as part of a millimeter wave R\&D team, working with software and hardware and doing radio. He hasn’t had the time to be flying with TPG much lately, but always enjoyed flying with so many great folks and great pilots. When asked what pilots were influential, Drew reeled off two dozen names without slowing down and then realized that “it was everyone.” Thank you Drew!
