Early Memories: Look, an Airplane!
How a curious child grew up to design a new generation of avionics, shaping what we imagine as the future of avionics.
From childhood dreams to next-gen avionics, my journey began when I first looked up at the sky and shouted to my mom:
“Look, an airplane!”
My childhood was filled with a mysterious fascination for technology. Whenever something at home broke – like the kitchen clock – my parents knew they couldn’t just throw it away. I had to take it apart first, see what was inside, and sometimes I even managed to fix it (smile).
But what fascinated me the most were three things: robotics, artificial intelligence, and aviation. These were the building blocks of my vision for the future of avionics.
🛩️ My First Airplane – From Childhood Dreams to Next-Gen Avionics
In elementary school I built my very first RC airplane – a yellow Hacker Courier powered by a tiny 2.5cc glow engine running on methanol. It was extremely hard to start, and most of the time it didn’t run for long. I had only a two-channel RC transmitter, which controlled just the rudder and elevator.
That meant I had to fuel it so it wouldn’t fly too long, wait for the engine to quit, and then glide it back to the ground.
My very first flight ended in disaster – the nose of the airplane broke apart. But that didn’t stop me. From the remaining balsa and plywood I built a new engine mount, and the very next day the airplane was ready to fly again.
Even then I knew that one day I would build a real airplane, leading me closer to contributing to the avionics’ future.
🛠️ 30 Years of Learning and Experimenting
Thirty years went by. In that time, I worked on:
- programming,
- circuit board design,
- signal processing,
- frontend and backend development,
- designing automatic control systems,
- student robotics competitions, startups, successes and failures.
Along the way I also built about 30 different airplanes and drones – from experimental 3copter drones, to EPP foam delta wings, and many other designs. Each project was a small lesson in aerodynamics, electronics, and control.
Eventually, I fulfilled my childhood dream and built my own LSA 600kg airplane from a Dova Skylark kit https://www.dova-aircraft.cz/au/dv-1-skylark/.
But I knew this was only the beginning of the future of avionics in my life.
💡 The Birth of the Schochman Glass Cockpit – Next-Gen Avionics Vision
When I was a 5-year-old boy sitting in my room dreaming about airplanes and intelligent machines, I never imagined that decades later I would be building my own real airplane and avionics.
The journey from broken clocks, through RC planes and drones, all the way to a kit-built Skylark, has shaped the way I think about flying and technology.
👉 And this journey didn’t stop there. In the next article, I’ll share how these experiences led to the creation of the Schochman AI Glass Cockpit – a new generation of avionics that blends aviation, electronics, software, and artificial intelligence into one system.
For those interested in certification, you can also read about our glass cockpit certification roadmap.
Building airplanes and next-gen avionics is just one part of shaping the future of avionics.