“The love of flight has been a driving motivation for my entire life. One of my first memories is of watching the Apollo moon landing, a very blurry image on a black and white TV. I was only 3 and what I really probably remember is the feeling of excitement in the room about this tremendous human endeavor. One of the people in the room was my father who encouraged and enriched my passion for flight through passing on his love of the model aviation hobby. His history with model aircraft dates back to rubber band driven escapments(the forerunner of electronic servos) and vacuum tube powered single button single channel transmitters. We built balsa and tissue models, gas powered U control and RC. We flew them in our backyard. I had the freedom to experiment with design modifications and build techniques. This ability to build, fly and innovate was a central motivation in obtaining a Mechanical Engineering degree and also obtaining a private pilot’s license. My career path has never taken me into a direct connection with flight but I have sustained my passion through involvement with model aviation. In recent years, the current wave of technological innovation has re-doubled my interest and involvement in model aircraft. My current focus on building, tuning, optimizing and flying FPV quadcopters has pulled together all of my passion and interests in flight. A typical FPV quad copter build is an exercise in systems engineering, involving hardware, software and mechanical design skills. The supply ecosystem for components and software has flourished, enabled by open source development frame works and a community driven by a passion for freedom of flight. We are presented with a unique opportunity to make sure regulations are designed to allow us to foster this innovative community. The clearest example of what we stand to lose as a society by unnecessarily restricting this community, is the inspiration that I started with. It is arguable that the path that Neil Armstrong followed to the moon, may never have started it were not for the passion created by his early involvement in model aviation.”