About Mike

 

 

OK, hmmm. About me? Well, I'm 17 years old, in Grade 12, born April 2nd of 1985. I live in the town of Olds, about 100km north of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. My favorite things hobby-wise are flying of all kinds(including radio controlled and the real thing) and building robots and electronic gizmos. I'm a member of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets (Squadron 185) which is how I was fortunate enough to acquire both my Glider Pilot License and also my Private Pilot License.

When I'm not in school, I'm often taking part in a cadet activity. On pretty much every weekend I can be found out at the Netook airfield flying gliders in support of the Air Cadet program where we introduce new cadets to the joy of flying. I love to teach people about flying and when I have the opportunity to take them for glider flights it's just icing on the cake! Also, I am the rank of Warrant Officer 2nd Class (2nd highest) at my local squadron. I currently teach level 3 and 4 Air Navigation as well as "ground school" for those applying to flying related summer camps. (The observant cadets who visit my webpage will notice the rank in the picture does not match my current rank. I got promoted after summer camp :-)  )

My spare time which isn't taken up by flying or Air Cadets is often spent in my basement building robots and electronic critters which you can see documented on this website. I first became interested in BEAM robotics in 1999 when I saw a program on the Discovery Channel about building a solarengine. It featured Dave Hrynkiw of Solarbotics Ltd demonstrating how to "free-form" a FLED solarengine circuit. I was hooked. A few years later, I got my first kit from solarbotics and didn't stop building!

 

In 2000 I went to my first Western Canadian Robot Games (WCRG). To my amazment, I placed 3rd in the photovore event! This encouraged me a lot. I began building other more complicated designs. By the time the 2001 WCRG rolled around, I had amassed a robot army. ;-) With my firefighting robot, photovore, walking robot, and various other machines, I placed 1st, 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively! I was estatic. By this point, I had pretty much decided that robotics and electronics was the industry I wanted to work in; not so much because I could see the potential for profit, but because I enjoyed building these machines.

 

So now you know a little bit about me. If you've got any questions feel free to e-mail me! Everybody loves to get e-mail in their inbox, even me! I can also be found on the MSN Mesenger network occasionally.