Steve Schlesinger
FrSky Fixed-Wing
Segment Manager
Jay Smith: How did you become involved with model aviation?
Steve Schlesinger: I was fascinated with it as a kid. I bought my first RC airplane in 1998 and never could get it to fly. It sat in my garage as a reminder of my past failures. In 2015, I asked for help from a friend who knew how to fly. Soon, I was flying on my own, including the airplane I couldn’t get to fly.
RC gave me new confidence in my abilities and taught me to keep chasing after things that I might not be good at. Asking for help and helping others was the takeaway from the experience. I continue to pay it forward by helping those who seek my assistance.
JS: How has model aviation impacted your life and/or career?
SS: Are you kidding? I’m living the dream! My career is model aviation. I get paid to go to model aviation fields and hang out with great people. I wasn’t always “FrSky Steve,” but now I am. I am so grateful to my management at FrSky for empowering me to go places and do things on behalf of the company.
I’m grateful to the customers (who are friends) for the many great experiences I get to take part in. I am grateful to the dealers who continue to partner with me to share the word about FrSky with their clients. I’m going to see the doctor this month and will ask her if I can keep this going for a couple hundred more years!
JS: Which disciplines of modeling do you currently participate in?
SS: In the past, I did a lot of FPV flying and still do some to this day. I had a thing for flying wings in particular. Now I am more about traditional airplanes—mostly foamies—and I like slow, lazy flying. Sorry; you’ll never see me do a noontime demo. I have a growing affinity with gliders. When you hook a thermal, it’s just an amazing experience.
JS: What other hobbies do you have?
SS: Cycling, photography, traveling with the wife, spending time with the family, and making training videos. I also have a new fascination with cleaning. I really hope it sticks around!
JS: Who or what has influenced you the most?
SS: When I was in my 20s, I had a boss, Mike Sandlin, who taught me skills that I still use to this day. Today, I am influenced by the relationships I have with my dealers, my coworkers, and my customers.
To me, relationships are more important than anything else that I do. I find myself with a growing sense of personal accountability. Since I have a voice and a growing ability to get to key people, I feel that I need to use it to make things better for the hobby. The RC hobby means personal growth, our ability to relate to and work with others, and having common bonds with people we normally might never meet.
The issue isn’t that the hobby is dying; it’s just that we need to be more effective in getting the people who would benefit from the hobby to our fields and flying. Meeting my fellow pilots is super motivating to me. We have new products or changes to existing products because of conversations we’ve had with pilots at events. You won’t believe how much of this feedback influences what we do.
There have been times where I was asked to make a fast decision, and it was based on feedback that I’ve had from 30 prior conversations with pilots that gave me a clear idea of what to do. People sometimes mistake me as the president of FrSky—I’m not. That said, I’ve been a part of some of the largest decisions the company has made in the past few years.
I’m also a bit of a fix-it guy in the company. When something needs to get done or a problem needs to be resolved, I can usually figure out who to talk to for advice or assistance. Again, it all revolves around relationships.
JS: Do you have any thoughts around how RC radio technology might continue to evolve going forward?
SS: We’ve seen rapid growth with the RC transmitter when it comes to technology. It has become smarter and capable of doing more. The growth in receivers isn’t as great. We are going to start seeing smarter receivers in 2026.
This won’t take away from the RC experience, but it will assist pilots should they lose control of their airplane. I can see safer RC airplanes in the future with less crashes, less risk of injury, or property loss.
This will also mean that smarter trainer airplanes will come along. People will be able to learn to fly RC airplanes by themselves. I am someone who learned to fly RC in parks and made my way to the AMA flying fields.
