Welcome to Torrey Pines GullsPepper Kay – Modeler of the Year - 1981
Norman E. “Pepper” Kay, started his career working odd jobs at Gillespie Field in return for flight time in private aircraft. This included a P-51D Mustang that a friend (and ex-USAF instructor) owned. It was a 2-place P-51 and he enjoyed two flights of about 90 min each cruising around the skies of San Diego. He eventually worked his way up to Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) receiving his jet training and experience as a flight engineer with PSA. He then started working for an overseas airline flying routes in Asia before leaving the airline industry altogether and joining Forrest E. Olson, a residential real estate firm in Clairmont Mesa. Pepper had been with Olson for 5 years when he started coming out to the TPG activities at Hourglass field in 1978 and enjoying thermal duration. Pepper worked closely with Al Doig to get the monthly newsletter out to club members – every month it was Pepper’s responsibility to get the stamps and mailing labels on the newsletters and get them out on time. Pepper enjoyed flying in the “new” 2-meter wingspan class, which was up-and-coming at the time. He also flew an Airtonics Olympic II.
In general, Pepper Kay was a “behind the scenes” kind of guy. But he kindly volunteered for the office of TPG President in 1980. Perhaps this was a result of his winning the December 1979 thermal duration contest as he rarely entered contests before then. The Gulls were quite a vibrant club in 1980. In addition to monthly TD contests, there were slope races, build-and-fly meets at Torrey, night flight contests, and even the “TPG Inter-Galactic Cosmic Thermal Championships” in May 1980. The winner was proclaimed the “Supreme Thermal Pilot of the Cosmos.” (Not bad, eh?) This was Bob Worley for 2 meter, Don Edberg for Open A, and Harry Sollers for Open B. Too bad they didn’t have a fly off to see who the real Supremo pilot was.
After his term as President in 1980, Pepper volunteered for newsletter editor in 1981. He began flying an Airtronics Olympic 650 and enjoyed it throughout much of 1981. For all of his service to the club over the two years 1980-1981, the club honored him with the Modeler of the Year trophy. Pepper remained active with the Gulls in the 1980s, after which it is unclear what became of him. In the 2000s he moved to the Dallas area and continued flying RC, however, he unfortunately passed away on December 21, 2011.