My name in the real world is Ashok, from Bengaluru and I am happy to join this [rc] house.

Aeromodelling happened into my life almost nearly 2.5 decades back. Before everything, I really want to thank my dad - my ultimate guide of my younger years until he departed us for ever, some 9yrs back. It was him who introduced me to this wonderful world of flying. He was an Airwing NCC cadet himself, had done PPL and was pursing to get CPL [back in his youth], but couldn't since he was regularly transferred while working in railways. Well that was him and his days.  

So my first taste into aeromodelling during summer after 7th grade exams, was at Bal bhavan, Coles Park, Bangalore, by my calc it must be 88'. My instructor was so impressed with my hand skills and grasping gift, he said that I should get into aeromodelling at 1 Air Kar NCC under the guidance of the then AMI, Mr.Gnanasubramani, which I definitely did later. The same message was conveyed to my dad from my first AMI, for which he already had in mind too. Being my bad in remembering names, very conveniently forgot my first AMI's name to-date. However, he was a mallu and hopefully I will find him here, as this house is full of mallus!

Got enrolled in a Govt. school for my high, both due to some financial hurdles [at home back then] and also due to it housed the jr division in 1 air. There I got my 'A' cert   , fun apart I really did get it, and is the first certificate for completion of 2 years in jr division of NCC. Later for my 1 PUC, I was guided to the sr division [again by my dad] and there I met my senior most AMI and had many high flying days there. Literally it was, with some first/gold placings in a few national level competition in NCC and also in SMAE. Along with the aeromodelling, came the next series of cert's 'B' & 'C' in NCC.

It was after these high-fly days, I got back to the real world and found a different one altogether. Still unaffordable hobby to me back then, had an opportunity to make a scale model [RC] to my fellow mate at NCC. It was both a success and a failure of a project. Success in terms of the turnout of the model, failure in terms to be a good flier. Reasons a galore! Will shoot a different thread for that later.

After that stint of private hobby affair, I got lost into the 'other' world - to the advent of the y2k tech's and alike. Took all sort of career verticals, both learn & earn, although for a brief time only in each of them. Starting with a software trainee role, then moved to electronic security/safety systems engineer, Infra-facility/project management for quite a while. A valuable learning experience in this varying career paths, was enough to earn a decent living in the process. Yet still, aeromodelling remained unaffordable for some [un?!]explained reasons, maybe my toys were getting bigger too. I even went a step ahead to restore a rusty car to its glory, with almost 100% work by me and was successful to a greater extent. But that is a different story and out of scope of this forum. I always like to out do my history and try not to get into a smaller circle, but thats just me - not of the world.

So my latest greed to learn something new and big in life led me into motorsport, at an age that normally people exit this adrenaline pumping sport - on 2 wheels. Cannot say I was very successful with just a couple of events, but got placed 2nd in my 2nd event, of the class entered. Again, a different learning experience and living the life of it. Being a privateer and making some expensive hobbies is not for the average, the truth was evident!

However, the noise of the engine humming from a nearby airfield kept me haunting me for eternity. Yes, I desperately needed to get back to flying days - at the least aeromodelling. RC and non-RC.

The thought of re-entering aeromodelling was quite scary, both with the advancement of the technologies and the expenses was mesmerising. But my knowledge in fields of electronics, computing, automotive, and even trained by my dad of his knowledge in railway technology proved of great help here and I managed to get hold of the jargon in relatively few days. Again, my dad's mentoring was of help here.

QuoteI may have stressed way too much about my dad all over this post, and it is not just because he was my dad. But to emphasise the gift of a knowledgeable, sensible and guiding parent that every kid needs, regardless of the generation. Be it my gen, previous or later, the true value of parenting should never be lost at teaching a kid in terms of just minting money, or anything equally horrendous, is what I feel. Yes, money and financial status is absolutely essential in today's world, but there is a even greater void that is growing at some scary pace. Technology is both a boon in terms of the shrinking the world, to get even a tiniest experience that we could never imagine before, but it is also shrinking the mindsets of the larger public, which is quite disgraceful. May be if there is a dad's thread or a 'my idol' thread, will share his +ve's and -ve's, along with mine too, if possible. Being this forum a home for strictly rc/aeromodelling, I guess it may not be apt.

Rolling back to my making of comeback to aeromodelling, I had planned to start with a few summer camps this year. But to my disgust, I was involved in a stupid and my first road accident [ever in 25+yrs of being a roadie] during the running around of making thing happen. I was equally at fault to this incident as was the other party, but when I apologised for being at fault too I was penalised to bear the expenses including the damages to both the bikes and also my hospital bill. Yes, I was the one who was injured to the most, like 95:5 and I was made to be the bearer of the expenses, just because I accepted it as my fault. A BIG MISTAKE, I THINK! I big fat loss of funds and morale.

So with much self-bickering with a fractured and wounded leg, I had to resort to being indoors for nearly 2 months and try to make atleast one summer camp later time. But things don't fall in place easily and it never happened.

I wanted to [re]start from tutoring the future aeromodellers mostly for one reason, as I have found in my experience that to share and teach the lesser known people, is the best to learn it from a newer perspective. Also having achieved some heights in past, without divulging the art & knowledge it to the fresh minds would be no less of an evil. Hopefully, I will [really] start it sooner.

Ah, one more reason why I stayed away from this [nice!?] forum for this long was of previous experiences in other forums [aero/non-aero]. After many hours in a recent few days of strolling around, gathered enough guts to enroll.   Also noticed the mods/admins are relatively the same as of the real world people, and not emperor's of the ethernet!  

Hope I landed safely at home here!

Welcome to Rcindia   

Welcome  on board ....  Happy  flying

very welcome and happy to see some one with same interest

Cheers !!! & Welcome

Thanks for the warm welcome guys

Welcome Ashok ! you are in good hands ! rest assured

Welcome Ashok

Thank you sirs'