♪ >> It's just a feeling of freedom, just being able to be free in the air and do what I wanted to do.

And, of course, I didn't know how to do what I wanted to do, but it was a start.

Yeah, it was a really cool feeling.

As a kid, my dad worked at the naval air station in Pensacola, Florida, as an E&E, an electronics repairman.

We went to an air show one year, and there were some RC models flying at the air show, which was really cool.

And, I, you know, just really loved that stuff.

The big thing for modelers, especially the folks that have been in it for a little while, you kind of have -- your modeling experience is really a journey through aircraft, whatever type it is.

And typically, it starts at your local model flying field.

You go out to the flying field, and I bring my airplane and there's 20 other guys, and they've got all kind of different stuff, helicopters, jets, sailplanes, all kinds of different stuff, and you get exposed to this thing that maybe you saw online or you saw somewhere, and now you actually get to see it fly.

And then, you know, it's pretty cool.

I like that.

And you just see different things.

And my journey started with just learning to fly.

My club had an activity where they reached out to two other clubs.

I was Pensacola, Florida, at the time, and all three clubs had an event each month.

And so one month, it would be at my club.

One month, it would be at Fort Walton Beach.

The next month, it would be over in Mobile.

And we would just go from, you know, event to event, and go fly these competitions.

And I kind of got into the -- I was a very competitive person.

I liked to play football and baseball and all that good stuff, basketball.

So once I got into competition, I really liked that, and it kind of drove you to be better.

You found out what equipment was better, and then you saw other guys that were doing something better than you were.

And you kind of emulating what they were doing and tried to figure out how I can get better, and that drives your -- your future in the whole process, either building or buying certain types of equipment.

I was hired on in 1974, in the summer of '74, to a model airplane kit company, and I was doing woodworking in high school.

I love woodworking, but the chance to actually work for a company doing woodworking that was model airplanes, it was, like, I don't think it can get any better than that, you know.

And I'm making, you know, $1.25 an hour, but it's awesome, you know, so who cares?

So, yeah, I got to do that.

Well, the kit company I worked for was a competition aerobatics company.

And the guys that owned it were national champions and built some of the airplanes that we manufactured and moved to that.

And I spent 35, 40 years flying competition.

This event that I'm running is called Air Power Over the IAC.

It's in Muncie, Indiana.

It's usually always Labor Day weekend, the Thursday, Friday, Saturday before Labor Day weekend.

And that event has been going on for a while.

It's kind of the -- the Warbird and Classic Alliance kind of want this to be their signature event or their focal event, I guess is to say.

It's not the biggest event.

We had 52 pilots there last year.

I've already -- I've already surpassed that amount in preregistration.

So I'm probably going to be in the 60, 70 size, and that's a good-sized event.

It's not too hard to manage.

But that event has always been a well-attended event, and a lot of spectators come and watch that.

And my wife has been involved with seniors groups for quite a bit, and she wants to, and I want to, get more involved in, like, seniors homes where we could get veterans out there to see some of the military stuff that they might be more aware of.

We play a lot of '40s and '50s music from warbird times and war times, and we also do World War I stuff.

So I think the portion of that is just continuing this legacy of what's happened at that event and making it continue to go on, but also providing events for people to go to.

I put on a competition for 35 years, an event that I ran for 35 years straight, and that was my giving back to that aerobatics community so they had an event to go to.

And those folks would put on events at their club.

And so it's my -- this is kind of my way to provide a place for these folks to come.

I think it's special to me because of the history that it already has.

It's been going on for more than 20 years, but as things go on, people pass the torch along to the next group to continue that.

For that to continue, you had to have people be passionate and carry the torch on to the next group.

Getting our next generation of folks interested in aviation, I think, is important.

We do a lot of things, AMA does a lot of things to try to interest youth.

Doing whatever you can do at your local area, I think is vital that you -- that you reach out to kids, get them involved.

Not only does our government need it, our industries need it, you know, airline industries and all that, whether you are a pilot or an engineer or, you know, whatever.

Inspiring the next generation is a very important part of what all modelers should be doing.