Written by AMA staff (03/2006); Transcribed by JS (02/2008), Reformatted by JS (02/2010)
Tim Smith is a graduate of Shelby County High School in Shelbyville, Kentucky. The son of Greg and Mary Ann Smith, Tim graduated with a 3.97 grade point average. He is the recipient of a $3,500 Charles Hampson Grant award and plans to attend Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky, and major in aviation.
Tim received his full-scale pilot’s license and flies a Cessna 172 out of Bowman Field in Louisville, Kentucky. In addition to AMA membership, he is a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. He has been involved in model aviation for eight years and in model rocketry for more than 12 years.
“My father helped me become interested in rocketry because he is a science teacher and always shot model rockets off for his classes,” Tim wrote. “This sparked my interest. Ever since then, I began to learn as much as I could about this hobby and ended up giving the lecture to his high school classes on rocketry and Newton’s Law.”
Although he primarily flies Radio Control sport and aerobatic aircraft, Tim and his father have built and flown two Control Line airplanes. The airplane with which he made his first solo flight was a Dynaflite Butterfly .20. His second airplane was an ARF Tower Trainer, which helped increase his skills before advancing to more aerobatic aircraft.
A Carl Goldberg Tiger 2 .40 was the first kit he built by himself. He gave his father a Tower Hobbies Voyager as a birthday gift. “I aided and supervised his construction since he is new to RC aircraft,” he wrote. “I also made the Voyager’s maiden flight and helped teach my father how to fly this aircraft.”
Tim has held a variety of jobs including that of house sitter, farm sitter, landscaper, and farm hand, working on a number of small and large farms in his rural community, assisting with livestock and agricultural duties as needed. He worked full time as a lifeguard at a Baptist summer camp.
A three-year member of the Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC), Tim was a member of the Honor Guard and was the platoon sergeant and squad leader. He was the Cadet Commanding Officer of Shelby County High School’s JROTC for the 2004-2005 school year. Tim was a member of the National Beta Club, an organization that encourages involvement and community service, and a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Tim sings and plays bass guitar in a family band named Legacy that has recorded and marketed three CDs. He was a member of the soccer team and attends a martial arts school where he is studying tae kwon do.
He is active in his church as a choir musician, altar server, and Eucharistic and Hospitality Minister. He has been involved in Operation Christmas Child, collecting and packing gifts to send to children in third-world countries. Tim coordinated an Adopt-a-Child project, purchasing and giving Christmas gifts to underprivileged children, and was a participant in the Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots program.
Tim wrote about how excited he was to receive the Grant Scholarship. “…it is associated with something I truly love and enjoy. It is from an organization that has for many years helped the modelers like me who still get goose bumps when they see a model rocket blast off or a radiocontrolled aircraft fly overhead.” Congratulations, Tim, and we wish you the best in your endeavors.
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