I've had an interest in aviation as long as I can remember. I grew up a Navy brat and moved quite a bit. When I was in 3rd grade, we moved back to my birthplace in Iceland, the former home of the 57th FIS (Fighter Interceptor Squadron). This was a unit of F-15 Eagles that at one point had intercepted a Soviet "Bear" bomber. I remember hearing the rumble of those fighters taking off with full afterburner. This was also where I had my first exposure to "hobby" RC, in the form of planes hanging on the wall at the base's hobby/craft center and my friend's dad building a gold tub RC10 buggy. I was stuck with Tyco/Nikko/Radio Shack cars/trucks.

Later in life my love of aviation was instilled in me by my mom's late step-father, who devoted his life to military and civilian aviation. So much so that my goal was to become an airline pilot. My route of attempting to reaching that goal started with me working for a GA A&P at my hometown's municipal airport. Unfortunately, life got in the way of my plans and I was out of aviation for a few years. During that time, I picked up "hobby" RC in the form of a Team Losi XXX-T electric stadium truck (2004). I really didn't think to much about aviation except for occasionally, until in 2006 I was assigned to an Army aviation unit. The aviation bug bit me again, and HARD. This time, it was in the form of a Blade CX coaxial heli (this was a few months before the CX2 hit the shelves). At this time, I was also racing 1/10th scale electric touring cars.

In 2007, I deployed with my unit to Afghanistan. Well, this left me with a little extra $$$ in my pockets and a little bit of free time without much to do, so I ordered RealFlight G3.5 to build on my heli flying since I didn't have a heli with me. I got to flying airplanes on that, and got pretty decent with them.

Now on to 2008, I had returned from overseas and picked back up on my racing. In the year I was gone, the people that I raced with improved vastly on their skills and started putting about 4x's the $$$ into their cars than I could put into mine, plus they had everyone of all skill levels race in the same race. Meaning a beginner was racing with an expert (yes, we also had sponsored drivers race with us occasionally). This got old QUICK. I was doing nothing but spending an hour tweaking my car just to make sure it would run for 5 minutes, not even having a chance to keep up with the pack, much less be competitive. So I began putting more emphasis on my helis, for the time being. I was looking for people to fly helis with, but in this area, the only place that has a decent number of heli flyers is at a guys back yard and it was difficult to get with the guy to get out there.

About that time, I ended up selling my classic car and decided why not? I wanted one for a while, now I had a means to get one, so I got 2. I got 2 planes, joined the AMA, found a club and joined it. That was all it took to get me hooked. I've been flying since June of this year. I get that "twitch" when I don't get to fly.

As far as what I like about the hobby:
-Relaxing: I can go at my own pace and not worry about competing with anyone (vs. Racing)
-Exciting: That thrill that you get every time you take off, do a stunt, a flyby, or land
-Pucker factor: That butt clinching feeling you get when you come close to losing your pride and joy.
-Satisfaction: Knowing that you are piloting that plane, and that you are doing something not everyone can
-Accomplishment: Performing that new maneuver that you thought you'd never do, or recovering from a situation that you thought you had lost
-Comraderie: Hanging out at the field talking with fellow RC pilots and making lifelong friends
-The smell: The smell of nitro fuel burning, gotta love it. There ain't nothing like it.
-Tinkering: The constant "What if I do "X" to my plane?", and the tuning and repairing of the plane.
-The Look: The look on non-RCer's faces when they see one, or even a picture of one. IE, the "Wow, that thing is huge", when in all reality, it's only a small .60 size plane

Just to much to love about the hobby. Even going into the hobby shop just to chat. Gosh, that makes me feel like an old man at a barber shop or a park chess table when I think about it, but I still enjoy it. To heck with what everyone else says.

Happy flying, and may all your landings be greasers.