Zach Smith graduated from Paso Robles High School in June 2018. He was ranked first in his class out of 462 students. Zach has spent his life pursuing academic excellence while maintaining a balanced life outside of the classroom and he has had the honor of being named a National Merit Scholarship finalist this year. Some of Zach’s activities other than aeromodeling include being on the varsity golf team and working as an academic tutor, a photoshoot assistant, and a guitar teacher. Zach looks forward to continuing his hard work at California Polytechnic State University in the fall where he will be majoring in Biochemistry. After college Zach hopes to live and work on the California central coast as a dentist and give back to my community by providing free dental care to those in need. Zach has been a member of my local flying club, The North Country Cloud Clippers, since 2010 where he began flying remote controlled helicopters. As a member of the NCCC, Zach has had the opportunity to fly demonstration flights at numerous community airshows and local elementary schools each year. Over the course of his time in the hobby, he has built, maintained, and repaired his model helicopters using the knowledge he gathered from mentors at the NCCC and hours of internet research. Zach has also built helicopters for other modelists at the club. In 2012, he was offered the opportunity to become a sponsored helicopter pilot representing SAB Heli Division. Zach began to travel to fun flys throughout California and surrounding states (including the Helifreak, Las Vegas, Morgan Hill, and New Years Heli Bash events) to fly demonstration flights and offer assistance and feedback to other modelists regarding SAB helicopters. Zach looks forward to being involved in this hobby for years to come and being an ambassador to promote RC modeling to future generations.
