If you’ve flown in a Thermal Duration contest
in California during the last 30 years; read any recent issue of Quiet
Flyer magazine; or ever had a question about hand launched gliders,
then you know Bob McGowan.
Model aviation runs deep in the McGowan clan. His uncle Stan was
an innovator in developing the first generation of radio control
systems, while his uncle Ed was a member of the U.S. Navy model
airplane demo team. The current generation of McGowan model aviators
includes his son AJ and daughter Robin; both seasoned contest pilots.
Bob was introduced to model aviation by his father, Ray. The senior
McGowan was a military aviator and a life-long modeler who still
flies with the Diablo
Valley Soaring Society. Ray taught a young Bob the basics with
hand launched and tow-line free-flight gliders and control-line
powered planes during his childhood in Napa.
While Bob is primarily known as a sailplane pilot, the smell of
glow fuel is not an alien aroma to him. “Before we got into
RC sailplanes, my Dad was dabbling in power,” Bob said. “We
had a couple 40-sized planes. I’d go to the field with him
but got bored. After you’ve seen a few loops and rolls you’ve
seen it all. But when people would call out a dead-stick landing
everyone would get excited. I liked that part. So I suggested to
my Dad that we get a glider so we could fly that way (dead stick)
all the time.”
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