“I’ve been flying model aircraft since I was very young. I started with balsa stick, hand built, tissue covered, rubber band powered models. With the building skills I learned from free flight models, I started building and flying RC electric and glow fuel powered planes in 1999. The success I experienced, and the new relationships with great people, gave me the confidence to put myself through Airframe and Powerplant school. I went from being on the verge of total depression, to graduating Valedictorian from Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics in 2007 with an A&P license and Associates Degree in Specialized Technology. Since then, I’ve been working on corporate jets in Savannah, GA and contribute extensive skills to my service team in the service center where I work. Building and flying models has taught me more about aerodynamics, physics, flight controls, weight and balance, working with composite materials, and structural loading than I could’ve ever learned by just reading about it. I have a true advantage, from my empirical testing of flying models, when it comes to making critical flight control adjustments on in service, high performance jets. My recreational flying of all types of multi rotor and fixed wing aircraft also serves as mentally therapeutic, helping me to control my anxiety and depression. In the over 20 years I’ve been flying, I’ve never caused any personal property damage or personal injury, aside from bloody knuckles once from a prop strike on my own hand. Absolutely the safest activity I’ve been involved with. I’ve invested a lot of money over the years on model aircraft and currently have 16 airplanes, ranging from 19 years old to just a few days. In fact, one of my weekly flyers is a 60″ wingspan glider that is 17 years old now. I also have 7 multi rotor aircraft that I use for racing and freestyle flying. I’ve been flying FPV since 2017 and enjoy flying low through racing gates or under, and just over the tree canopies. My FPV flying is always done in what I consider to be unnavigable airspace, too close to obstructions, which full scale aircraft and commercial drones avoid proximity to. This new proposed rule will make it very difficult, if not impossible, for people of all ages to experience the enlightenment this great hobby has brought to me.”