I want to use the whitespace within my write-up to say thank you to everyone in this club, and to all the family and friends surrounding it.  We are so lucky and fortunate to have the location we do, and the incredible talent that surrounds it. When it was shared with me that I was nominated for a lifetime membership I was incredibly grateful just for the nomination and while cliché..I know…I am already blessed with lifelong friends.

About 6-years ago, I was flying at Lot 19 in Carlsbad, with new found friends and I remember seeing this person doing these incredible things with an airplane that shouldn’t be done. The plane was torque rolling in the cul-de-sac and wasn’t using it’s wings, but just rolling around the propeller in such a tight space. I had never seen anything like that and was in complete disbelief. Months later, this same person, James D’Eliseo, came over to introduce himself and said, “Hey if you want to get better then you may want to consider joining Palomar RC Flyers.” I went to check it out and can only remember how nervous I was to fly as a guest, and then do my checkout. 

From that moment on, it may sound dumb, but my life changed. I’ve always had a love for aviation, but now I had a place to practice and share in it. I am so lucky and grateful to have met people like James, Curt, Dave, Chuck and Steve who have always been my mentors in either building or flying. Because of them, I have continued to want to pay-it-forward and share anything that I may have learned with others. 

When Bill Hill was president of our club, I was so inspired by him, and the work he was doing with the Civil Air Patrol that I signed up to be on the Board and wanted to join he and Patrick on flight instructing. Patrick and Bill…thank you…we have laughed so hard, so many times, and so appreciate the opportunity to share in those times, and near-miss crashes in the gymnasium. As others have done for us, I hope we’ve been able to make some great memories for our future aviators.

Chuck, I want to say thank you to you for allowing me to be part of the instructor program. While I could never make a Monday session, you trusted and allowed me to share in our great hobby with others and continue to pay-it-forward. The best part about instructing is that I have no idea how many people we’ve helped get signed off, which I think is actually the best part of this whole thing, and that we have been able to bring joy to others, and a love and share of our hobby. 

Kelvin and Eric, thank you for the friendship and early morning weekend warrior sessions. Thank you for pushing me to be better and the proverbial yelling from the pits of “loowwweerr!!!” So many good times, laughs and support and forever grateful. Our sitting in the rain, waiting for the storms to pass, just to get one more flight in will always be a great great memory. 

Thank you to all our past and present board members. I’ve been lucky to get a chance to serve with you and see the tireless work you all put into helping make our club a success. Whether 30-years ago or today, your efforts do not go unnoticed or unappreciated. You’ve helped guide our club to what it is today, and we simply wouldn’t exist without you and your foresight. 

Joe, Barb and Ron, I can’t even try to recall how many times I saw you managing the chow line and the amount of hours you put in towards helping make an event or club outing successful. You’ve always put your passion and love into your food and that was obvious from all the compliments. 

Joe Buko, thank you for your inspiration via the Transmitter and the amount of work and time that goes behind it. I’ve actually shared it with my team at work as we stood up our own newsletter and said to them, “we need to make ours look like this.” Thank you for capturing and documenting all our moments and helping keep the history of our club. 

Sammy, Trent, Brody, Mike, Dave, Charlie, Keith, Chris, Pancho, Brian, Steve, Roger, Ron, Andy, Jim, Frank, Varley, Jason, John, Richard, Bill, Patrick, Joe, Doug, Tim, Scott, Hugh, Don, Phil, Ray and so many more…thank you for your friendship, laughs, hugs, warm cups of coffee, and allowing me to be a kids again. This club has nothing but amazing people in it and you help make it better every time. 

Last but not least, I just want to say thank you to my wife, Lisa, for all of her support. Our hobby can get expensive and she has always stood by me in anything I do. 

With the deepest of gratitude and appreciation. 

​

Chris

Roger Cosio feels that there are others in the club that are more deserving of the “PRCF Life Member Award”. I would disagree! 

​

Here is a brief summary of Roger Cosio’s model aviation history (AMA 23222). He first started flying model planes in the mid 50’s, flying the U- Controls and Free Flight models. Roger took a long break to raise a family. In the mid 70’s, he returned to building and flying RC planes. Roger joined the Fallbrook Flyers in 1982. The Fallbrook Flyers lost their flying field 10 years ago. So, the Palomar RC Flyers Club invited the Fallbrook Flyers to fly at PRCF field and consider joining their club. Roger joined the PRCF in 2010, after retiring from the civil engineering field. Then he was free to build and fly radio assisted old timer free flight planes. In addition to RC model planes, Roger enjoys working on old model airplane gas/ nitro vintage engines that were popular in the 1930's and 1940’s. Thanks to the Palomar RC Flyers, Roger has a place to fly his building projects.  In addition to flying, Roger admits he enjoyed an occasional trip into the jungle to harvest misguided planes. 

I am fortunate to have a great friend like Roger. He is the biggest kid I know. Young at heart, he has such enthusiasm and positive energy towards his fellow PRCF club members and the hobby of model aviation!

Tim Hitchcock
 

I joined the PRCF Club in July 2010 and was signed off for flying airplanes and helicopters in August 2010.

Shortly after joining the club I learned that we didn’t have a Heli Chairman so I volunteered for the position. I didn’t know what the responsibilities were other than helping to put on the annual Heli Fun Fly. I always made it my responsibility though to be an advocate for all of the heli pilots in the club.

I was the Heli Chairman for 9 years and a Board Member for most of that time. During my tenure on the Board I served under multiple Presidents including Joe Buko, Bill Hill, Jim Jenkins, and Steve Gebler.

During my time as the Heli Chair I managed the annual Heli Fun Fly and for two years the additional HeliFreak Fun Fly event. During those particular years I was responsible for managing two large heli events a year (the San Diego Heli Fun Fly in May and the HeliFreak Fun Fly in September).  Also, in March 2013 I worked with Lucien Miller from Innov8tive Designs to hold the inaugural Multirotor Challenge at our field. All of these events have been successful in promoting our club and the radio control aircraft hobby to the public.

I continued to promote our club and the hobby as a contributing writer for hobby magazines such as RC Heli Pilot, Fly RC, and Robot. I often wrote about the heli events at our field and other special pieces such as how the RC hobby can help build relationships with younger persons. In all I wrote about 20 different articles which also covered product reviews, special events, an other interest items.

During this time my son and I were both involved with the Boy Scouts of America. I was the Troop Committee Chairman for Troop 510 in Rancho Bernardo. I was also an assistant leader helping the young scouts earn their Aviation merit badge.

It’s been my pleasure to serve on the PRCF Board and to be the Heli Chairman for as long as I did. I want to thank all of you for your continued support and friendship.

I joined Palomar RC Flyers in September 2000 as a student pilot and immediately attended all the club meetings and events. Early on I was asked to run for the board by Bob Lang and became a board member in 2002. A few years later our club had over 400 members. Our work parties included trash clean up days where we cleaned up trash people dumped in the cul-de-sac, field maintenance, spreading gravel in the parking lot, some work installing the helicopter field, work installing, running, then later tearing down our car track. One year we even planted a crop of rye to gain a “farming exemption” for the property owner. We held annual air shows like the Fallbrook Air Fair and the Ramona Air Fair. We also created a few club Air Shows at the field and held mall shows.

From my early days on the board we were considering sealing the runway. We thought about doing it ourselves using volunteers but we figured if we had 10 different people we’d have 10 different textures. So I arranged for the runway to be professionally sealed every 2 to 4 years since. Usually around September before the winter weather hit. When possible just before our helicopter events. Sometime after we built the heli field we raised our board member count from 9 to 11 and included an official safety officer.

About a year after gaining my solo certificate I joined our instructor program and have remained an instructor ever since. I’ve made most Monday night training. Our largest event before we had heli events was Flights of Fancy. It was set up as a summer day-camp event through the Aerospace Museum in Balboa Park. There were two years we had to cut it off at 50 students due to popularity. We would have 5 event stations at the field. They were building Delta Dart rubber powered planes, flight simulator, how to install radio gear, ground school and flying. I was always on the instructor pilot crew where every student had 5, 5 minute flights before they would rotate stations. This event always had the most member volunteers to assist. Tim Hitchcock began having Boy Scouts out to earn their aviation merit badges where we ran it similar to Flights of Fancy and I would hold the ground school with everybody all at once to kick off the day.

RC Combat became my big interest early on. When the pilot count dwindled to as few as four pilots I held one of our first build parties. I purchased and prepped materials for 14 complete combat kits. The kits were all up except for engine and radio. I was getting a club discount from Hobby People and later Hobby Town and provided the kits at cost for the build parties. Eventually we had these kits laser cut by member Richard Martin at no charge. There is a YouTube video of one of the last build parties with kits being constructed in a hanger at French Valley Airport. We always had a team of helpers to work with the new guys directly to be sure everyone could complete their aircraft. With in a few years we ended up getting participation up to as much as 24 pilots for one combat event from these efforts.

Laser cutting kits video. https://youtu.be/ygkHvSHMYK4

Build party video. https://youtu.be/VhK7lhOPWD4

I worked with Varley Longson for several months one year for what I believe was our first rewrite of our by-laws and did the club presentation at the club meeting explaining what each of the changes were. 

I’ve served on the board continually with the exception of one year, 2014 due to company work load and once again work has become so busy I’ve had to step down after 2018. I’ve served under our Presidents, Bob Lang, George Dawe, Jim Mazurek, George Dawe, Joe Buko, Bill Hill,  Varley Longson, Jim Jenkins, Varley Longson, Bill Hill, and our current President, Steve Gebler.

Thank you. I’m honored to be considered for a lifetime membership.

David Drowns. 

Flew full scale sailplanes for 25 years. I competed in 4 or 5 national competitions for a single design sailplane the Schweizer SGS 1-26. I have flown models for 45 years on and off, continuously for the last 30 years

My interest lies mostly in RC sailplanes.

I have been a member of PRCF since ~2010.

I have been on the board of PRCF since 2016.

• As Event Manager I ran 5-6 Bi-Yearly Aerotows at Johnson Field. 

• I worked refurbishing setup tables at Johnson Field. 

• I have been a flight instructor with the training group for the last 2 years. 

• Presently I am hosting the “First Saturday of the Month Aerotow” (FSotMA) at Johnson Field. 

Member since ~ 2014

Board Member since 2017

Club President 2018 - present

Has been known to fly all categories of aircraft including traditional fixed-wing, 3D, Sailplane, Drone, Paramotor, and some very “uncharacteristic” things that still fly.

Special Projects

• Co-founder of Trifecta Combat

• Initiated and ran “Model Aviation Day”

• Initiated and ran “Camp Out and Night Fly”

• Organized weekly slope soaring at Dave’s Beach

• Organize semi-monthly beach night fly events

• Electric Gate installed on my watch (designed and implemented by J. Villarreal & S. Kerrin)

• Recovered shade pavilions with help from many volunteers (especially W. Bonfietti & W. Bendelow)

• Regraded and resurfaced main roads twice to reduce rain damage

• Initiated and organized new table construction with volunteer help from many members

• Assisted in community outreach programs with CAP Cadets, Maker’s Faire, and others

• Obtained used aircraft from non-club members and Auctioneer at November auctions

• Co-Organizer and emcee of annual holiday party

• Initiated the club Drone Racing program (with assistance from Doug Abel)

• Occasional Flight Instructor

• Organizer of off-site club outings to various flight venues and camping destinations

• CEO of the Board of Directors

• Provided informative and entertaining monthly club meetings

• Increased our membership to over 280 members

• Put new energy into creating opportunities for members to enjoy our already wonderful club

President Emeritus

• Member since January 2014

• Offices held:

  • Club secretary 2016 - 2017

  • Club vice president 2018 - 2019

  • Membership Coordinator  2017 to present

• Club projects:

  • With Joe Villarreal, designed and installed the field battery charging system

  • Also with Joe Villarreal, designed and installed the electronics and charging system for the electric entry gate

• Community involvement:

  • President - Deer Springs Fire Safe Council - managing over $250K in community fire safety grants.

  • Chair - Faircrest Road Association

  • Life member - Escondido Amateur Radio Society

Treasurer Emeritus

Board Member, Safety Officer and Club Secretary.  Registrar for club events.

Instructor for the CAP Cadets program.

Board Member and Chief Flight Instructor and proud father of an Eagle Scout and Marine.

Top Chef for the club with his wife Barbara.  Valuable Board Member.  The guy that you can always count on to volunteer for projects at the field.  Co-Builder of the Solar Charging Station and Electronic Gate.

Don does whatever it takes to make the club even more successful.  Accomplished helicopter and fixed wing pilot.  The first to volunteer for any project to make the club better.