“Both my grandfather and father served in the Navy. I grew up with the ability to see military aircraft flying over my house, including the Blue Angles. While in middle school, my dad handed me an old model car that he never put together. From there I learned how much I loved to build. Through high school, I started to learn how to build things from scratch and also how electronics worked. One year, for my grandfather’s birthday, I bought a model of a F4U Corsair and installed a small motor in it so that the propeller would turn while sitting on it’s base that I built to look like a runway. After high school, I enlisted in the Air Force. Unfortunately that was short lived because of a spinal injury, and instead of fixing it, they decided to simply throw me out the door. I still suffer from the extreme pain caused by the injury, but I also feel into a pit of anxiety and depression. My family didn’t understand it, and I lost all but a few friends because I was lashing out. My best friend stayed by my side and helped me get back to what I loved, building things from scratch. I started getting back into model kits and tried going to college. My mental problems and lack of money led to me having to give up on education, but I still tried my hardest to have a project I could focus on so I could heal. One day I see a video on a model kit conversion into remote control and decided to try that out with a model of a Coast Guard patrol boat. It worked and I love putting it in the water. I found that making something into remote control was an amazing way to breath life into what I built. Since then i have made my own remote control battleship, modified store bought cars, and am currently working on a remote control F-117 Nighthawk that is built from scratch and weighs around about 3 pounds. I’m currently rebuilding it for the third time because it never did fly quiet right, but I’m learning and trying new things. It’s not the cheapest hobby in the world, and I’ve spent months saving up to buy one or two of the components at a time. I’m honestly scared that if I have to pay a constant fee in order to be able to fly, then I won’t be able to ever fly again. I also worry about being required to check in through an app or some other method because the area i fly in the most has no cell phone or internet access. I could work a simple, light weight beacon into any aircraft I build, assuming that it doesn’t cost much and doesn’t require subscription fee. I want to be able to hold on to this hobby, not just for my own mental health, but my best friend’s youngest sister has been looking up to me and asking me to teach her how to build things like me, I want to be able to show her how great it of a feeling it is to make something “live” and how to find ways to fix it if it doesn’t work instead of feeling defeat.”