Welcome to Torrey Pines GullsRoger Fraser – Modeler of the Year - 1993
Roger Fraser joined the TPG sometime in either the late 1980s or 1990. Gravitating to thermal soaring, by 1992 he volunteered to serve as club winchmaster. This was at a time with high turnover on the board, as well as large regular monthly contests, with lots of demand placed on the winchmaster. Roger served in that role at the time that Steve Condon served as president. The club purchased new deep cycle batteries for all of the winches and Roger Fraser identified a new source of winch line and cleaned and maintained every winch and retriever.
In September 1992, the club arranged for new club shirts and jackets with a nice logo designed by Paul Naton. Roger volunteered to manage the orders and distribution of all of the TPG clothing, doing so at a time when the club had regular monthly meetings with >100 persons each time. Once again, the job required considerable effort but Roger just stepped up and completed the mission.
In 1993, Steve Condon continued on as president and Roger continued on as winchmaster. At the time, Roger was flying an Airtronics Legend at the monthly thermal contests. According to Steve, Roger was also a carpenter at San Diego State University and a general handyman with welding skills. The Airtronics Vision radio that Roger used for his Legend was obtained from Steve in trade for having Roger’s friend in the metal shop machining parts for two Rich Spicer-designed F3B winches. In exchange for that machining, Roger helped his friend with the construction of a garage. It was a trading trifecta! At those times thermal contest aircraft were mainly an assortment of Airtronics Legends, RnR Genesis, Airtronics Falcon 880s, Synergy IIIs, and so forth. Roger routinely finished middle of the pack but was a consistent entrant. Also in 1993, Roger built and installed the gate that we use still to this day at the Poway Flight Center!
By November 1993, the board of directors nominated six Gulls for the honor of Modeler of the Year. In order these were 1) Roger Fraser, 2) Erik Larson, 3) John McNeil, 4) Charlie Richardson, 5) Don Richmond, 6) Ron Scharck. At the December club meeting, a vote of the membership was held by secret ballot with Roger Fraser winning the award for his considerable dedication to the club in 1992 and 1993, especially according to John McNeil because his rebuilding of the winches and retrievers had a catalytic effect on club interest at thermal duration contests. In that golden age of TD contests, it was common for 20-30 participants to be enjoying the day together.
Steve Condon remembers Roger being a super nice and generous guy, even supplying the two large maple slabs that ended up becoming Steve’s workbench!