“I have loved aviation since I was a child. A neighbor a few years older than I took the time to explain the basic priciples of flight to me when I was still drawing plane cockpits in chalk on the sidewalk and pretending to be a fighter pilot. Growing up, I flew a few different types of models with my dad: mainly model rockets and air powered free flight planes. At the time, the radio control side of the hobby was too cost prohibitive, so I didn’t fly a radio control electric model until much later. Regardless, those early expereinces left an impression and inspired me to study engineering. In college, the technology for electric planes had improved drastically and I dove into scratch building airplanes from foamboard. My favorite part of scratch building is the technical understanding you gain of the aircraft and the confidence it gives you that if you crash, you can fix or rebuild. That has led to good experiences with friends passing the transmitter around for a small foamboard aircraft and not worrying about how many tears or dents it has when leaving the flying field. I really do appreciate how the hobby can be such a fun and fullfilling shared expereince with friends that gets us outside into our communities.”