BayRC Profiles:Bob McGowan
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.”
Bob’s first direct experience with radio-controlled flight, at age 12, was with a 117” wingspan ASW 17 scale sailplane. Flight controls were rudder and elevator and it had, in Bob’s words, “lots of dihedral.” His first radio? Kraft.
Thermal flying off of a high start soon turned into competition flying. In 1977, following Ray’s suggestion, Bob entered a thermal duration contest held by the South Bay Soaring Society at Curtis Field. Ray had urged his son to participate as a way for them to check out what other modelers were building and flying. Bob said that the competitors only had to exceed the minimum flight times and there were no precision landing points. Naturally, Bob put himself on the podium in the novice class in his first contest - he still has the trophy! 
Thirty years later Bob is still winning contests. His adventures have taken him all over the state and to Virginia for the 1988 Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) National Championships. Bob competed in the Scale (with a Soar Craft Libelle) Unlimited, 2 Meter and Standard classes. Of his adventures at the NATS, Bob said, “I didn’t win any titles but I did get some trophies.”
Bob’s current passion is building, flying, testing, reviewing and competing with the latest in high-tech discuss-launched gliders. His first discuss-launched glider was an Apache which he built and reviewed for Quiet Flyer in 2004. It was a watershed glider for Bob not only launching his professional model aviation journalism career, but also his son AJ’s own meteoric rise as a national-caliber DLG competition pilot.
In 2004 there were few pilots flying discus launched gliders in the Bay Area, but Bob became interested after reading about the innovative sailplanes and launching techniques. Bob said that after more than 30 years of flying, hand launch is his favorite, “It’s more challenging than other forms I’ve tried.”
It was during this time that Bob entered a new phase in his model aviation career – contest director. “I was heavily into competition before hand launch and it was just natural to compete. No one in the Bay Area was holding contests so I had to do it.” With the help of his family, Bob has cultivated an active and vibrant DLG competition scene. Several local competitors have taken skills learned at these events to high-level contests including the International Hand-Launched Glider contest in Poway, California. Asked what’s more fun competing or running a contest, without hesitation Bob said, “Competing! But they’re both fun. Its fun to make other people happy and everyone seems to enjoy it.”
You can find Bob almost every Saturday flying with the Diablo Valley Soaring Society at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds and many Sundays practicing his DLG launches and teaching new “flingers” at Irvington High School. There are many great resources for both new and veteran pilots to improve their skills and Bob McGowan is one of them. Friendly, approachable, experienced and enthusiastic are just a few of the ways to describe one of the best pilots in the Bay Area RC scene – Bob McGowan.