Well,
Where to start?,.... My dad was a sargent in the airforce during vietnam, chopper school training. My grandfather was a pilot in WWII, but the two of them never talked about any of it, never wanted to. I got curious about it and did some research, but that's when I had envisioned my grandfather fighting over in europe, I got hooked. When I turned 11, my dad bribed me into getting better grades by saying he would get me into R/C if I got a good report. So I did and when we went to the hobby shop, I was given a choice of a plane or a car, I really wanted the plane but the hobbyshop owner told my dad the car was a better choice due to instruction and I could use it right away, so I went home with a RC10. A few years later I watched a movie, "Emperor of the Sun", the one with Christian Bail, the kid had all those FF models hanging on the ceiling and it was WWII, all the kid wanted to do is fly and the movie was baised around that. After the movie was over I knew I needed to get what I always wanted, a R/C plane. I talked my brother into driving me to the hobby shop, took all my paper route money and bought a Eagle II and a Super tigre .40 ring, and a futaba conquest 4 channel. Built it and never looked back, it has to be the old saying, "The best things in life are worth waiting for", and for R/C planes, evertime I fly, I feel like I'm 15 again, just me and my dreams. Last year I picked up Heli's, but my dad's comment after watching me fly it was, "not bad, but I'll never get into another wirly bird ever, but good flying." That made my day. Plus I like to spend time talking to the great group of guys at the field everytime I'm down there, and sometimes to gloat at the nice kit you built or scratch built plane.I give back to the hobby, donate trainers, time for training or anything needed to be done. It's just more easy to stand up and help out than to sit back and watch this great hobby fade away.