I've been a member since September 2003.  I first became interested in building in junior highschool where they had an elective in grade 7 or 8 to build control line airplanes.  I started building RC planes in highschool and took an immediate interest in 'scale' aircraft at that time, building a red box TF P40 with retracts, split flaps, and several other mods.  Over the years, due to university, relocations, etc I've had to stop building and especially stop flying, but I never left the hobby.  So, over 30 yrs now.  I'm a professional engineer (mechanical) and I did take aerodynamics while at school, but i don't work in the aircraft industry.  I don't fly the large 1/4 scale planes I know many of you favour, I'm into the 60-80" span scale planes.  I've collected quite a collection of kits which are now no longer available.  I'm a perfectionist by nature, so I'm never able to build a plane exactly per plan and always end up making major modifications to kits to improve scale appearance.  I also tend to build light but strong with my engineering background perhaps allowing me to know where and how I can and cannot trim weight.  I discovered Brian Taylor plans on this site some time ago and his designs really appeal to me due to their size and light design.  I've gathered plans and accessories for several of his designs but have not been able to start building one yet.  Within the next few weeks I'll be moving from a very cramped, small house where i haven't been able to build to a large house with a large room I'll be able to dedicate to building.  So, I'll be back at it shortly after almost two years being unable to build.  I was working on the design of a 1/6 scale I-16 Rata.  Actually, I've scaled some existing plans that used foam wings and was well into designing the wing when I moved into this small house.  So, if I build the I-16 next I'll post my build for others to see.  I've gained an enormous amount knowledge from so many on this site over the past several years and its time that I contributed.

Glad you spoke up Darren - I really like the looks of the Rata - I have a 30" one from TDM Models that I have to finish some day soon.

Looking forward to your build threads!