Welcome to Torrey Pines GullsJohn Bruner – Modeler of the Year – 2010
John Bruner joined the TPG sometime in the late 1970s. He mainly flew for the enjoyment of the hobby and camaraderie with friends and did not partake in too many contests. He was often found at Hourglass Field in Mira Mesa enjoying thermals from the winch on the weekends. As the Class B – 2-meter category was then new on the scene, John became interested in it and began flying a Questor. Again, not being a contest sort of guy, he placed 12th out of 12 but had a good time with friends Frank Cox, Bob Peck, Larry Fogel, Roger Taylor, Alex Mladineo, and contest winner Al Doig. John also enjoyed flying an Olympic 650.
In 1979, John volunteered to assist as Newsletter Editor and also club photographer, and this continued into 1980. That same year, the first “2 meter World Cup Contest” was held at Lancaster, California. This was well attended by 50 contestants including Al Doig, Don Edberg, Rick Schrameck, Roger Taylor, Bob Torres, and Bob Worley. There was a lot of growth in 2-meter at that time, John helped do his part locally to encourage that enthusiasm. Under tough and cold conditions on January 19-20, 1980, TPGer Bob Torres flying his “Buteo” took first place with Don Edberg second by only 3.9 points flying a Sagitta 600.
During 1980 as Editor, John took many different aliases in the list of the Board of Directors; sometimes calling himself Tony DeThermal. By mid-1980, Pepper Kay expressed interest in the role of Newsletter Editor and the job became his. I’m not sure what was going on for John such that his term was so limited. In 1983, John volunteered to serve as Secretary for the Gulls. In those days the club still had its monthly meetings at the Aerospace Museum. But once again, by 1984 he was back to just having fun flying with the club. Throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, John would appear every now and then at a contest or a fun fly, always keeping in touch with friends. He also enjoyed being a member of the Torrey Pines Scale Soaring Society for a time, flying with them at their thermal field in Rancho Penasquitos for weekly fun flys.
In the late 2000s the club was in dire need of a solid raffle chairman. The job was done so expertly for so many years by Ron Scharck and others to amass amazing prizes at each general meeting. It often felt like there were so many prizes that despite more than 80 people attending a meeting, a majority went home with something. The raffles and guest speakers became a main attraction, and the club needed someone to step up to continue it. John volunteered for this post in 2007. Assisted by Alan “Moose” Butler for periods, between 2007-2010 John really pushed hard to continue the excellence of the raffle. Month after month going to the hobby shops; with a TPG budget in mind, buying up stuff, advertising it in the newsletter, encouraging people to attend at the field, holding out some gems for the end of year holiday party, etc. It’s a lot of work! As a result of all of this hard work, TPG decided in 2010 to honor John with the Modeler of the Year Award. He was definitely in the trenches helping to make the club meetings fun and exciting for all.
John continued flying with the club through the 2010s but health issues made it harder to do so. John was one of those guys who was always behind the scenes doing what was needed for the club in a very friendly and happy way.