I started with my first plane when I started college and was starting a family. I was learning on my own and it was short lived and an expensive couple minutes. Much later in life, I learned a friend of mine flew RC airplanes at a local club field MRRCS Mount Rainier Radio Control Society.
I started going to the field after purchasing my first foam plane and found that going to a club field offered so many benefits.
On my first day as a new face at the field, I was nervous but found that everyone wanted to meet you and find out what you were into and sharing what their passions were. I found everyone was happy to help with anything and everything. Finding a club like MRRCS willing to help and direct me on this journey has been priceless. With AMA supporting all the clubs and helping grow the community with different events, from community outreach to different flying events, I will be in the hobby for the long haul.
I have found club members like Doyle Fiedler that are investing so much time showing me the ropes to becoming a proficient builder and has carved a place in my heart as a lifelong friend, to members like Brian Turner willing to spend time teaching me about 3D flying. There are so many different avenues to this hobby and AMA is here to support them all with clubs all over the world for those interested.
AMA is such a crucial piece of the puzzle to keeping this hobby alive to me. When I first started 25 years ago, there were so many hobby shops and options out there for whatever niche you found yourself in and now that I am back it looks like the hobby is slowly coming to a halt. If we don't do our part to support AMA and our local clubs, we could find ourselves loosing this great hobby. Which I plan on doing all I can do to not let that happen. I have found I love most all aspects of flying and best of all have found lifelong friends to enjoy the hobby with. Thank you, AMA and the Mount Rainier Radio Control Society, for keeping my love alive and well.
Over the couple years of getting back into the hobby, I have taken up scratch building or from kits which are getting hard to find. It is a new found. Which AMA is one of the places you can still get plans. I have found a love for all war birds and 3D planes. But won't pass up a change to fly something different that has nothing to do with the two.
Another part of the fun is the swap meets and wheeling and dealing for parts pieces or full planes, which is another place AMA shines. My hanger can attest to me finding too many meets and deals throughout the community, there are getting to be too many to count but there is always room for one more right. I know I can trust AMA to list all the possible events to attend online or in the magazine. I know I wait, I would like to say patiently, every month for the new issue to arrive with the different articles and stories and new tech hiding within the pages. I can't say thank you enough to AMA and the local clubs and community.
Dan Parsons
