Who is this epilot guy?

My name is Michael and I first saw the light of day in 1968. I've been an active modeller for most of my life - started out with simple stick and tissue models in my pre-teens. I have flown R/C since the late 80's. I have exclusively flown electric models for close to 20 years now. I'm especially fond of micro/indoor and for a while I was the owner of Indoor Flyer, a shop that specialised in micro R/C equipment. I design models and equipment from time to time.

I'm originally from Denmark but have lived in Zambia, USA, Germany and United Kingdom. I currently live on the Faroe Islands with my family. My wife was born and raised here.

The Faroe Islands consist of a few bits of rock that stick out of the North Atlantic. During the winter months we have storm upon storm so outdoor flying is nearly impossible. If there is no storm it rains! From April to September the weather is not too bad and we have many days with winds below 10mph. Because we are so far north it's possible to fly until midnight in July. We live in Sandur on the island Sandoy. There are 1300 inhabitants on the island and about 550 in the village. There is a large gym next to the school and it's hardly ever used on Sundays so we rent it for indoor flying. From August to June we fly a couple of hours every second Sunday.

When I arrived here in 2013 no one on the island was flying R/C. I held an info evening about indoor flying at the local library and about 10-12 people turned up. A few weeks later we met up in the gym and many people had a go with one of my MacZip models. 5 of the guys were keen to start flying so we imported Champ RTF sets from Denmark. Since then a few more have joined in the fun and 3 of them have built MacZips. I laser cut the kits and import the required bits from various suppliers.

Five of us are also building/flying outdoor models. We meet up at my workshop and I show the guys how to build models and install equipment. We are currently all flying BUMPs, an old indoor design of mine that has been enlarged to 80cm span. The models fly extremely well even if I say so myself and will handle a surprising amount of wind - I have flown in up to 20mph wind.

UPDATE January 2017:

One pilot moved to another islands and some don't have time to fly due to work/childred. Currently we are down to 3 active pilots and I'm the only one flying regularly. We still have access to the Gym every second Sunday and sometimes a couple of guys from Torshavn take the ferry across to fly here.

I have stared getting involved in multirotor FPV flying. Still somewhat of a beginner but slowly getting better. I have also persuaded a few other guys to give it a try so perhaps we will have our first micro quad indoor race.

In a lot of my posts you will see me referring to products from Banggood. The reason for that is simple - the have most of the equipment I need and postage is low. Plus the can actually ship to Faroe Islands. A lot of European online retailers either cannot ship here or charge so much that the total value exceeds the tax free import threshold. Once goods+shipping goes above DKK 300 I have to pay VAT, duty and fees which can nearly double the cost of an order. Amazon do not ship here and Ebay does not acknowledge that Faroe Islands is a country.

Biggest headache is lipo shipping. With the new rules that came into effect in April 2016, lipo batteries can no longer be transported on their own in the cargo hold of passenger aircraft. Since all mail to Faroes Islands is flown here in passenger carrying aircraft that means lipos cannot be sent here. There is a regular ferry service from Denmark but surface mail is no longer offered as it was not used much.

At the moment I am in full time employment as a contractor for a major global telco. I'm very fortunate in that I am able to work from home. Contracts are extended on a 3 month rolling basis so I never know when I might be out of a job again. To prepare for that day I run a part time business doing laser cutting for local designers, mainly decorative items in acrylic and plywood. I have a LG6040N laser with a 80W RECI tube. A second machine is on its way - a LG900N with 100W tube. I import materials from Germany as none are available from stock locally.

I have an extensive workshop with woodworking equipment, metalworking equipment such as lathe, mill, saw and TIG and MIG welders. I also dabble a bit in foundry work. There isn't much I can't fabricate althoug getting a hold of materials can be a bit of an issue as shipping costs are high.

I have a Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/epilotdk