“I little over a year ago, I came across some YouTube videos from Flite Test that taught me how to build a small free-flight glider called the Sparrow. I traced and cutout the parts, and then gave the parts to Lily, my daughter who was three years old at the time, to color with crayons. When she finished coloring the parts I spent the next couple pf evenings assembling the plane and that weekend we went out to give it a try. This is the video I recorded of her and I having what was probably the most fun we had playing: https://photos.google.com/search/tvvideo/photo/AF1QipMtI3iE4awc5CE-iTTEcreO4TeJ9pzta-589uQo That day, the kids at the park gathered and watched us fly the airplane and I answered questions about how we built it together while we toss it around. And that is how it started. Since then, I have built five remote controlled model aircraft and (safely) crashed three. Everywhere we go now, if she sees an airplane or especially a remote controlled one, she is quick to point it out to me because she knows Daddy love’s airplanes — and so does she. As I am sure all parents would say about their own children, my kid is very bright. She is four years old, and is beginning to read and write on her own. Her fifth birthday is in July, and she has been asking for her own remote control plane to fly at the park together with me. I think she is quite capable of flying with a buddy box (we have already done it), and I want to build her an airplane with a SAFE receiver to help her transition to solo-flight. I think this is important to share so that you know that the seeds of flight are being sown and the love is growing in a young child, and it would be crushing to have to throw that all away in a not too distant future. There is another story in this as well. I am a self-taught software and electrical engineer. I have build robots, complex distributed systems, and now I have become a self-taught RC pilot learning the physics of flight. This hobby is teaching me things I would have never thought to learn before. Stuff you don’t even expect, like how to paint and surprisingly how to deal with failure in a positive way. When I crash a plane I spent days on, I don’t get angry — instead I often laugh and learn from the mistake to prevent repeating it in the future. My story is not unique, and it is only the beginning of what I hope to learn and share with my family and friends. As for my concerns. I have encountered people who don’t even realize the rules when flying, and I understand the spirit of the rules to try and use technology to enforce them. Unfortunately, these rules are very difficult for those whom wish to be compliant to follow, and far too easy to disregard for those whom do not. Consider this, the television and movie industry has been combating piracy for about as long as these mediums have been around — going as far as to put encryption into TVs and even the data streams themselves — yet they have never stopped piracy. In the case of those whom do not care about the rules, they just won’t. Those like myself whom are willing to comply, are going to have a hard time doing so since it will prevent us from being able to safely fly our own creations.”