Donatas Pauzuolis, defending FAI F3P-AFM champion

Age: 40

Occupation: Model aircraft building is my hobby, my job, and my greatest passion. I have a degree in advertising management.

I’ve been flying model airplanes for 29 years. I’ve been flying model airplanes since I was 11 years old. Since 1995, I’ve been enjoying this wonderful hobby with my father. So I’ve been flying model airplanes for $⅜$ of my life.

What I fly: I used to be very active in the F3A/F6A, IMAC, and F3K categories, but now that I have two children, I’ve taken things a bit easier. Currently, I focus on F3P patterns and Aeromusical in the winter, and in the summer I enjoy competing in the F4C semiscale national championship.

Club: Vilnius RC Club

Other Hobbies: Spending time with my family. Since I have two children (ages 2 and 6), I try to spend as much time as possible with them (biking, going to the movies, traveling, and, of course, model flying).

For most of my youth, I was surrounded by things that flew or made cool whirring noises. When I was a little boy, I used to go with my family to tethered-flight competitions or local air shows. My father, Rimutis, is a lifelong model builder himself, and he passed on his love of aviation to me. When I was 11 years old, he sent me to a summer camp where teenagers could fly full-scale gliders. At the same time, we built a small, two-channel radio-controlled glider and started flying it. Before long, I wanted to try something more challenging, so I built our own aerobatics trainer. From then on, I was hooked on remote-controlled model flying. Before long, we began participating in local F3A competitions and improving my flying skills. At that time, 3D flying was just getting started and making its mark in the RC world. Videos from the world-famous TOC competition in Las Vegas inspired me to learn this style of flying. So I spent countless hours training with various RC simulators. Another area I found very appealing was indoor flying. Legendary pilots like Martin Muller inspired many to airbrush Depron parts and build indoor airplanes that flew great and looked fantastic. Luckily, my school wasn’t far from our house. My father works there as a teacher, and he made sure I could practice on the school grounds almost every evening. In the years that followed, I had the pleasure of competing against many great pilots. I’m excited to represent Lithuania at various aerobatics competitions in Europe and the U.S. Now I think it’s time to pass on my experience to the next generation of pilots. That’s why our team consists of many junior pilots. I hope they continue to develop and enjoy the F3P class as much as I have over the past 20 years.