“I’ve been amazed by aircraft of all sizes ever since I was a little kid. My Mom grew up next to Hill AFB in Utah, and she would tell me about how she used to lay in her front yard and watch all the demonstration teams practice and perform. I used to build airplanes out of card board tubes, scrap plastic, or anything I could get my hands on. My dad is a farmer, and has a lot of experience building and repairing equipment. He saw how bad I wanted a real model airplane, but we didn’t have much money, so he took me out to the garage and had me help him make a model airplane. It’s not the prettiest, and it’s pretty rudimentary, but it is my most treasured aircraft. Fast forward about ten years, and I was in high school. My Dad was working a full-time job, in addition to the farm, to make ends meet. He had gotten a better job, and I found an rc plane on Amazon that was in my budget. I showed my folks, and I got it for Christmas. But it didn’t go so well. It was a cheap two channel plane. It had a rudder and throttle, and that was it. I didn’t think much of it, since i had bought a walmart plane that flew on the same controls. Well, this plane didn’t even have proportional throttle. It was either all the way on, or off. Needless to say, it didn’t fly. I wasn’t devastated, but I learned my lesson. And that was the way I had to learn it, since at the time we had very poor internet. it was fast, but we could only afford a small amount of data, seeing as there were no other internet providers in our area. Therefore, I couldn’t watch youtube. Then one day, in my senior year, I was at my friends house watching youtube, when I stumbled across Flitetest. I started doing research, watching every episode of Flitetest, and dreaming about the day I could get into the hobby. My brother scratched and saved, and eventually bought some rc equipment from hobbyking and walmart, and we built our first plane. It was a FT Scout. We thought that it was beautiful, and couldn’t wait to try to fly. This was after I graduated, and I was planning to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Thus I wasn’t planning on being around long enough to accumulate enough funds to get into the hobby. Well, that first plane was a disaster. We made the mistake of using some heavy duty foam board. Thus, we learned the adage “A nose-heavy plane will fly poorly. A tail-heavy plane will fly once” wasn’t quite true. Somehow, we attempted to fly that plane three or four times without breaking a prop. After that, we discovered that I had a somewhat serious condition that would not allow me to serve a full-time mission. For three years I went to doctors, in the hopes that I could be diagnosed and cured. I even went to the University of Utah medical center for about six months, but to no avail. Instead, I learned to live with my condition. For three years I went to doctors and pressed on. My faith in God got me through the tough times, but Flitetest helped me keep my sanity. I scraped and saved until I could buy my own rc equipment, as my brother was working on his. There are no flying groups around my home in Nevada, so I taught myself the basics of flight via the FT Tiny Trainer. It wasn’t the prettiest bird, since I couldn’t afford a speed build kit, but it did it’s job. Later, I moved on to the FT Mini Scout. By this time, I moved in with my best friends family. My best friend and his brothers have muscular dystrophy, so I would take care of my friend in high school. And when his family invited me to stay with them, they hired me to take care of their boys and see to their needs. Living in town was much different than the farm. My family’s farm is about 30 miles from Lovelock. Thus, I learned to fly in tight quarters in my friends backyard with the mini scout. I did get called to serve a mission for my church. I finally got approved for a service-mission, which is much different from a regular proselyting mission. I get to live at home, and serve in my local community. The rules for service-missionaries are very different than proselyting missionaries, so I still get to fly my planes, of which I have acquired a couple more. I even have a Tiny Whoop! Which I have been able to use for filming for one of the places I serve. I love being a missionary, and I love being able to use this hobby to serve others. I’m sorry if this is too long, but Flitetest has had quite an impact on my life, and I will be forever grateful that I have been able to learn so much from them.”