This
is a work in progress. If you notice errors or have additional information,
please contact Mark A. Carter at mark@ultrapilot.com
with your input. Thank you for your contributions.
TUFA CLUB HISTORY
Around 1990 a group of ultralight pilots started flying together out
of Turlock Airpark.
Frequent flyers are listed as John Fletcher, Gary Schoep, Tom Van and
Wayne Campbell.
Gary Schoep raced cars competitively although he was handicapped and
confined to a wheel chair. Gary also competed in the Handicap Olympics
in Japan - a dynamic man about 50 years of age. Gary had considerable
experience organizing clubs due to his experience in racecar clubs,
etc. Gary suggested that we get a club started around 1991. Another
one of John's students Tom Van, a real estate agent in Atwater, liked
the idea. Tom owned a Rans S12 that he had purchased from John. Gary
Schoep had purchased a Vector ultralight from John. The Vector ultralight
had all the controls operable by hand which enable Gary to control the
ultralight using his hands. This enabled Gary to fly in spite of his
handicap. Wayne Campbell, a retired army major and schoolteacher, about
70 years old bought a N3 Pup kit from John. John, Gary, Tom and Wayne
were the core members to start the Turlock Ultralight Flyers Association.
Tom Van was the first president of the club, John was the Vice President
and Gary was the Secretary-Treasurer. Wayne Campbell came up with the
TUFA name for the club. Gary Schoep was the first Newsletter editor.
They started posting scheduled Fly-Outs in order to encourage the guys
to fly to other locations other than doing only pattern work. Then from
there the idea of a Fly-In was formed.
TUFA had their first Fly-In either in 1991 or 1992, not sure of the
date, which was very successful. Although, a dark cloud remained over
the event due to a fellow TUFA member, Max, being killed after crashing
his WeedHopper south of the field.
Max had the words Mad Max painted on the back of his WeedHopper. His
WeedHopper was in poor condition, the airframe had been banged up a
few times and his engine didn't run very well. He had pulled his engine
off and poured transmission sealer through it to get the engine to stop
leaking oil so badly. Prior to the Fly-In, Max had gone out for a flight
in the morning and never came back. His wrecked WeedHopper and body
were found between the south end of the field and the Golf course. It
upset several of the members so badly that many of the TUFA members
left the Fly-In. It put a real safety problem on the Fly-In due to the
crowd of people that showed up for the fly-in and lack of members to
do crowd control and assist in their Fly-In duties. However, due to
the crowd that had shown up and the aircraft that had flown in for the
event, the core members proceeded on with the event. The club made about
$400 to $500 for the treasury off this initial fly-in and proved a successful
means at building the club's treasury.
John credit's Gary Schoep for instilling in John and the club the need
to build the club's treasury and the need to keep the treasury built
up. Gary passed away 3 to 4 years ago around 1996 of natural causes.
This was a great loss to both John and TUFA organization.
Tom Van is over in Oceano Rio Grande and still works as a Real Estate
Agent for Century 21.
Wayne Campbell passed away a couple of years ago around 1998 of natural
causes.
Tom Van became John's first BFI and work with John for 6-12 months
prior to moving to Oceano.
The designer of our club patch is a man named Chuck Yeagley who lives
in the Oakdale area. Chuck flew a Honcho ultralight and designed the
club patch around the 1997 time frame.
Since after the first year of forming the club, John Fletcher has been
the president of the club with the exception of one year. During this
year Bob Burns was voted in as president and Peter Olson was voted in
as vice president. During this year many of the members became quite
concerned about their own personal liability risk of belonging to the
club and searched for relief of the situation. It was decided to incorporate
the club in an effort to reduce this risk. The process was quite involved
and was later determined that it did not shield the members at all from
possible lawsuits. Additionally, there was considerable annual paper
work and fees required to maintain the corporation. Then the current
club board members decided to disband the club in its entirety and thus
proceeded. John and Gordon two days later resurrected the club and started
the effort to dissolve the corporation status. This took quite a bit
of effort and time before they were successfully able to remove the
corporate status of the club. It was generally decided among the remaining
members that there was a risk to belonging to the club, but the benefits
of flying and the support from U.S.U.A. outweighed those risks.
Over the years our club has continued to grow in membership and participants.
Younger ultralight pilots have joined the ranks and provided excellent
leadership in promoting safe ultralight flying. Last year, 2000, Michael
Radu was voted to the position of Vice President and was instrumental
in organizing and executing the most successful TUFA Fly-In to date.
There are a few individuals that, while they choose not to be members
of the club in order to reduce their personal liability, still support
the club with financial and personal contributions.
We now provide memberships to both flying and non-flying members alike.
The club even has a special "Newsletter only" subscription
for those wishing only to enjoy our TUFA Newletter.
The club has helped bring a sense of community to our local ultralight
aviators. The club has grown considerably over the years. Several members
have met other pilots through the club and built hangars. Thus sharing
the cost of building a hangar and rent expense.
Two members of our club are colibary badge recipients. Our club needs
to encourage our members to work toward to achieving this rating and
building their skills.