Personal background:
Since a very young age I’ve always been fascinating with electronics. I learned to solder at 7, and from there continued to build and take apart anything electronic. In that era I owned a Vic 20, Commodore 64, Apple IIC, Apple IIGS, Amiga 500 (which I hacked to de-interlace the display), and other awesome relics. At age 11 I built the famous Heathkit Hero Jr. When it didn’t work, I managed to debug it down to a failed BJT transistor. My future in electronics was very clear at a young age. I also had a passion for Billiards. And during my teens started to get to a fairly competitive level, that eventually culminated at a run at the US Amateur, at which I placed miserably. 🙂 I then attended Cal Poly SLO studying Electrical Engineering. After graduation I went to work in Silicon Valley developing high end networking equipment.
I eventually burned out of billiards as my primary hobby around 2005, and went to golf. I wouldn’t be until early 2009 that I’d find the hobby again.
RC background:
Starting at around age 8 or 9 I had a very strong fascination with anything R/C since it was also tech stuff. I raced cars for some time, and owned awesome relics like the Tamiya Subaru Bratt, RC10, and a few AWD models. I couldn’t afford good NiMH so I always lost the races I entered. 😛 I also had a couple glow powered planes which I really enjoyed flying in my early teen years. There were no simulators at that time, so I never advanced much as a pilot. My father never flew, but just came to watch. So no real mentor. In early 2009 I found myself no longer able to play golf with a 1 year old. It just required huge blocks of time that were no longer a possibility. One day I noticed some Internet adds for heli’s which caught my attention. Christmas 2008, I picked up a simulator and bought my first POS fixed pitch. After 3 flights of failing, I ordered my self a Blade 400. A week later I was hovering away with the training gear. From there, I accelerated rapidly. Moving a few months later to a Protos 500, and then soon after to a Trex 600e. By the end of the first year, I was pretty far into basic 3D. By the end of year 2, I was solidly into piro 3D. And it just continued on from there. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to participate and help in the development of a lot of products, including flybarless systems, airframes, radios, servos, and other products. This has given me good insight into the R/C product development. That coupled with a strong technical background, and a passion to fly has made me fairly unique in the hobby.
Sponsors:
- Helidirect Team Pilot
- MSH Team Pilot
- iKon Team Pilot
RC Interests:
- Helicopters
Fleet:
- MSH Protos Max
- Agile 7.2
- Goblin 700 Competition
- Align 700e
- Compass 6hVu
- Goblin 500
Favorite thing about RC:
- The exponential difficulty of flying as you progress. The constant challenge to improve.
Other hobbies:
- PC’s/gaming
- Billiards (inactive)
- Golf (inactive)
