72,160.82 raised in 2026. We have reached 14% of our goal.
Help us reach this year's goal of $500,000!
I'm 60 and have always been fascinated with RC airplanes. Finally, at 57 years old, I joined a club and started flying. Less than a year after learning to fly, I was diagnosed with throat and lung cancer. I haven't flown in a while because of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, but I look forward to getting back into it this coming summer.
To me, I have always thought that to live a good life, you should be a part of something bigger than yourself; however, one needs to contribute time, money, energy, or something of value to be that most important part.
My name is Katie Pates, and I live in Dearborn, Michigan. I started flying RC planes when I was 13. My grandpa would build the planes, and I would fly them. I flew until I was 18, and then life took me in another direction. When my 40th birthday came around a couple years ago, I thought I would start flying again and I pretty much picked up where I left off. I'm not good at building, so I buy and fly the pre-made foam planes and they are just as fun as the balsa kits were!
I began flying Cox U-control in the early sixties on eastern Long Island. Then I joined the USAF in June 1970 going thru basic in Lackland AFB and weapons tech school at Lowry AFB sent in January 1971 to Nakhon Phanom RTAFB Thailand 456th MMS A-1 Gunshop working on the A-1 E/H/J prop planes.
I am in a family of model flyers. My 93-year-old uncle flew strings 'dogfights' before I was born. My first gas plane was a plastic, stringed, yellow .049 P-51 Mustang in 1973.
I built my first balsa windup in 1973, a stick windup then a 3D balsa windup. We then built the Spirit of St. Louis 4' balsa windup.
When I joined the military, I built and flew my first RC plane in 1985. Fast forward to recently, and I bought my first helicopter, an articulated contra-rotator.
I am the District I senior associate vice president (AVP) and AMA district outreach team (ADOT) coordinator. I've spent a lifetime in and out of the hobby. I started modelling like many have, in a cul-de-sac with .049/ 1/2 A powered Control Line planes with friends until we ran out of glow fuel! This led to bigger models and RC, along with attending airshows in Rhode Island. My love of aviation and aerobatics was fostered by model aviation, and it led to a fulfilling career and now a rewarding hobby.
I flew two tours as a helicopter pilot with the 48th Assault Helicopter Company. We were based out of Ninh Hoa, along the coast, just north of Cam Ranh Bay Air Force Base in Vietnam. I was drafted at 18, just out of high school, and completed the Army Helicopter Pilot program. I ended up being only 19 years of age flying armed helicopter gunships in Vietnam. My call sign was "Joker 70." I was born in Compton, California, and now reside in Lahaina-Maui, Hawaii. I'm retired today and still fly model airplanes. My AMA number is 15016.
