Welcome to Torrey Pines GullsJustin Tolman – Modeler of the Year – 2024
Justin Tolman was born in 1984 in Orange County but grew up in the Chino Hills area of the Inland Empire. Justin’s father Nick had enjoyed aeromodelling of all sorts throughout his life and passed along a love for rocketry and model aircraft to Justin. Together as a father-son team they would make many trips to El Mirage Dry Lake in the high desert of the Mojave to fly model rockets. Justin graduated early from an Estes Alpha to more complex designs including a three-stage Commanche, Scissor Wing, Space Shuttle and others. He continued with rocketry from age 7 to his teenage years.
Justin’s father also enjoyed flying RC gliders powered by .049 gas engines with just enough gas to get them aloft and then soar around. Justin’s uncle, Scott Winneguth owned a 2-place full-scale sailplane and used to enjoy flying cross country out of places like Tehachapi and Hemet-Ryan Airport. The Tolmans frequently served as chase for these adventures driving along and following the sailplane to its final destination. One flight from Hemet to Utah was a particularly long chase day. But by his teenage years, Justin already understood sailplane terminology, lift in the atmosphere, and techniques for soaring.
In 1994, the Tolmans moved from Chino Hills to Valley Center north of Escondido. Justin became very interested in Microsoft Flight Simulator at about that same time. For those that remember the early MS flight simulator games, Meigs Field near Chicago was considered the “home airfield.” Rather than fly from point to point from within the cockpit view, Justin learned he could fly from the perspective of the flight tower and in that regard, it was much like an RC sim – taking off and flying around and flying a circuit and landing on the runway was really fun from the view of an RC operator. These adventures improved Justin’s skills considerably in the days before there were readily available RC flight simulators.
In about 1995 or 1996, Santa kindly left a 2-meter ready-to-fly rudder elevator RC glider under the tree. Justin and his dad tried flying it at a location that is now occupied by Valley Center High School, but, well, it ended up in a tree. After some repairs they found their way to the slope at Lake Hodges and it was there that Justin had his first real flight with RC sailplanes. On that particular day, the lift was everywhere. Not just along the slope but out over the lake; everywhere. It was the perfect day to experience soaring because – well if it’s this easy… After a while it was time for a landing so Justin handed the transmitter to his dad. But alas the approach put the glider in the rotor and then behind the hill, and it was destroyed on the back side of the ridge.
Justin took a break from RC in his high school years, but one of Justin’s friends ended up getting a Multiplex Easy Star. The two of them would fly the Easy Star at various places and slopes around Valley Center during high school, and eventually went through more than one Easy Star. Justin graduated high school in 2002. In the breaks from RC, he went back to flying model rockets occasionally and made one trip out to Clark Dry Lake near Borrego but was told by rangers not to fly there as the dry lake was now part of the State Park.
The Tolmans were still largely unaware of the Torrey Pines Gulls. One year, Justin’s grandfather took him to UC San Diego to watch training camp for the San Diego Chargers. This must have coincided with full-scale sailplane operations at Torrey in the early/mid 1990s as Justin remembers seeing the sailplanes cruising around, and his interest in RC soaring was rekindled. He completed his undergraduate degree at Palomar College in 2005 and became a digital marketing specialist for the North County Times in 2009. He discovered RCGroups in about 2010 and learned about TPG activities at that same time. He continued his marketing career serving as a Campaign Specialist for the San Diego Union-Tribune (2012-2016) and as a Senior Campaign Specialist for the Tribune Company (2016-2019).
During that same period, Justin acquired a Dream Flight Alula and came to a monthly TPG DLG contest in the summer of 2017 flying his Alula via discus launch in the event. He had a great time and had fun. Upon seeing this enthusiasm, Ray Pili gave Justin a Brko and soon Justin was hooked. He flew the Brko for some time in 2017 at Poway and at Long Beach for the monthly Cookie Toss. After wearing out the Brko, he bought a Flitz from someone in Long Beach and flew that until May of 2019 when he took another break from RC to start a family with his wife Amanda. They now have two beautiful girls Emma and Mackenzie.
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Prior to the pandemic, Justin took a position as Senior Performance Manager at Sightly, helping to launch and manage complex high touch-point YouTube video ad campaigns. After the pandemic, Justin came back to DLG and purchased a Snipe from John Blaske and then another Snipe from Gary Fogel. More recently he has been enjoying his Tair and doing very well at monthly contests! Justin also enjoys RC slope combat and has taken part in the F5J foamy fun flies at Poway with his Multiplex Solius. He currently works with Channel Factory helping to direct content to the right audience at the time through the right social channel.
According to F3X Vault, Justin has now taken part in 76 contests since 2017. I’d call that having an interest in RC soaring! Most of those contests include the TPG DLG monthlies but he’s also participated at contests at El Dorado and at the Blue Skies Over Arizona DLG contests in the Fall. Justin has served as TPG Discus Launch Glider Coordinator since 2023 and is doing a fabulous job! He also has helped arrange and host the Poway Invitational in the fall for TPG and makes sure that all of our club DLG programming goes off without a hitch.
In 2023 Justin proposed establishing a Discord server for TPG. While some have not yet heard or used Discord, it is an online tool for group chat that is often used by gamers or in business/academic settings. However, it’s perfect for increased online communication within a group like the TPG. Justin took it upon himself to set up the entire Discord server, setting up channels and threads for discussions on thermal soaring, slope soaring, etc. The TPG Discord server now has a healthy and growing following and provides an opportunity for more real-time communication over other tools like Google Groups. For his efforts to set this up from scratch and improve our collective communication throughout the club, Justin was awarded the 2024 TPG Modeler of the Year trophy at the end of year holiday party. Well-deserved Justin and thanks for all you do!
