Welcome to Torrey Pines GullsRay Pili – Modeler of the Year – 2015/2021
Ray Pili was born in Chicago to a physician father and a nurse mother. He spent his early years growing up in the Philippines until the family returned to the States. Ray enjoyed building static plastic model aircraft with his brother, but didn’t have much additional exposure to model aircraft other than that. After high school, Ray went to Marquette University in Milwaukee, earning a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering.
Beech Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas offered a co-op program where it would be possible to work and complete his degree - this simultaneously allowed Ray to explore aviation. He earned a private pilot’s license at Beech, primarily flying Beech Skipper and Musketeers. Beech Aircraft also had a company park equipped with a model aircraft airport.
During Ray’s last semester, engineering jobs were plentiful and he accepted many out-of-state plant interviews. Ray eventually picked Hughes Aircraft in Fullerton, California. Not only did two other Marquette graduates work there, but it was pretty close to both the beach and Disneyland. He worked on a Navy sonar program. Ray liked the effort enough to stay with Hughes Aircraft for more than 15 years. Living in Tustin, he was still largely unaware of model aircraft as a hobby; windsurfing at Cabrillo Beach near San Pedro became his passion. Interestingly, he remembers windsurfing right near Point Fermin, but never did go up to check out the RC gliding activities at the time.
Hughes Aircraft was eventually purchased by Raytheon and the Fullerton office was set to close. The choice of commuting daily from Tustin to El Segundo or moving to Tucson, Arizona wasn’t especially pleasing. He thought about going to Newport, Rhode Island to continue work with Navy Labs but to our good fortune, he instead decided to transfer to San Diego to work on a Navy amphibious ship program. Ray settled in Carlsbad in 1998 with his wife and family.
When Ray’s son RJ was a youngster, Ray’s brother sent him a box with a transmitter and model aircraft so that Ray and his son could have a flying activity together. Ray purchased a Wind Warrior Slayer, an electric powered RC flying wing and took it to Dave’s Beach (Little Beach) near the end of Palomar Airport Road. Ray didn’t know how to fly, but a kind local RCer named Andy flew the maiden flight. Andy suggested learning to fly with a Wing Warrior Raider. This would have been in the early 2000s. His son also enjoyed slope soaring a Dream-Flight Weasel but skateboarding soon took greater interest. Dave’s Beach was close by, and fun, with a good group of pilots helping others learn to fly.
In 2006, Ray decided it was time to go to Torrey to see what that location was like, as he had heard good things about the lift, but not so good things about the politics. He wanted to check it out for himself. By that time, he had purchased a 60” Shark sloper from Oran Bloodsworth (a regular at Dave’s Beach) and took that with him to Torrey. Arriving at the pit area, he met a friendly RCer and TPG member, Kenny Talbert, who helped get the Shark dialed in.
Soon after, David Klein signed Ray off to fly Torrey. Torrey was super, people were friendly, and Ray learned more about TPG. Mark Canfield was also flying at Torrey regularly and knew Ray from shared time at Dave’s Beach. Mark Canfield and others got more into F3F slope racing and Ray went along and participated in a few races at White Point, Grass Mountain, and Vincent.
Around this time, Chris Barkley convinced Ray, Mark, James M, and James D to start dynamic soaring, first at Poway, then later at Bill Hill (Discovered by Bill Hill, Kevin Bagwell’s buddy). This was the start of the “Amateur DS Junkies.” Ray met up with Mark and Gary Legerton (who had also started RC soaring at Dave’s Beach in the early 2000s) at Parker Mountain when a slope race at Vincent was cancelled. There, Ray witnessed chest thumping dynamic soaring flown by Gary. In about 2016 or so, Ray wondered what the fuss was about discus launch gliding, and so he came out to Poway and got hooked on that as well. Then he wondered what the fuss was about aerotowing large scale gliders. Sure enough, after purchasing a DG-100 from Ron Brown and making a trip to Visalia with Thomas Moller and Steffen Peters, he was hooked on that too.
During this journey through different types of RC soaring, Ray decided to help volunteer for the TPG. He first volunteered as Treasurer, then became Slope Coordinator. As Slope Coordinator, he had the goals of maintaining club access to the Torrey Pines Gliderport, encouraging more fun flys at the cliff, and building a better understanding between the RCers and the ultralights. He helped with a trainee program that others participated in as well, both at the slope and at inland locations off hi-starts. He would especially like to thank Mark Canfield, Kevin Bagell, Chris Barkley, James Duarte, and James Muller who helped him learn to fly RC and to explore DS at locations like Poway slope, Bill’s Hill, Parker, Weldon and others. Phil Davy helped show Ray the joy of slope aerobatics at Torrey, and Ray also wanted to thank John McNeil and Gary Fogel for starting him in thermalling with DLGs. Ray’s favorite plane is an Espada R from about 2014 that was once owned by Phil Davy. It’s on its second fuselage now but still is a great flier.
Ray enjoyed a career with General Atomics working on air and space related projects. He served for a time as chair of the Torrey Pines Soaring Council and helps TPG wherever he can at the slope or thermalling. Most recently he has become more involved with paragliding. He’s been a great resource to the club for many years. But his many efforts were recognized in 2015 with a well-deserved Modeler of the Year award. Thanks for all you do Ray!
