“Ever since I was a young child I have always wanted to fly, but never had the opportunity. On my 50th birthday, I said if I don’t do this now, I may never get to do it. I took 4 months to teach myself to fly an R/C trainer airplane that I built from a kit. After I finally got it, my then 13 year old son went with me every time to watch me fly. He started to fly a very small $40 drone while I flew my trainer airplane. It became a great Father/Son activity. I took him to an event where he learned to fly an R/C trainer (Horizon Hobby Apprentice) and he was hooked! That Christmas we gave him an electric, Flex Innovations 44″ Extra 300 and he purchased a racing drone kit from Rotor Riot. He built the racing drone himself, learned to solder and improved the design for greater reliability. As a MultiGP drone racing pilot he placed in the top three in just about every race he entered. He took the 44″ aerobatic airplane and learned how to fly 3D and advanced aerobatics. He began experimenting with making things fly, and recently took his younger brother’s ukulele and installed drone parts into it to make it fly….. it flew terrible! This love of flying spilled over into his high school education as he adjusted schedules to enable himself to take 2 years of aviation maintenance classes at the local career center. He is now completing his first year in college at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA studying Aviation Maintenance Management. This May he begins his in-depth training and testing to earn his Airframe & Powerplant certification from the FAA. He plans to work for the local FBO while he completes his four year degree and begins his aviation career after college. He is working with the Liberty University Aviation program to restore a 1931 Curtis Wright Travel Air biplane. Aviation has brought this once shy, bored, unmotivated teenager and turned him into an aviation evangelist! I am glad I took him to a flying field that one Saturday, handed him an R/C plane transmitter and taught him to fly…… turns out that first flight changed his entire future. He is beyond excited to begin his aviation career ensuring that aircraft are well maintained and safe to fly. His name is Joshua Dollenmayer. We became founding members of Flite Test’s Edgewater Airpark to ensure there would be a place for other fathers & sons to go fly together in the future.”