News

Graeme Mears and David Shulman get the attention of the USAF Thunderbirds!

4/16/2008--
When Graeme Mears (builder) and David Shulman (pilot) started putting together their entry for this years Top Gun Invitational, I bet they never thought the model would get them a personal audience with the U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron, the Thunderbirds!

In David's own words...

"The past week sure has been an interesting one. As you can see by the photo's, our new Team Scale entry for Top Gun (Graeme Mears - builder, me - pilot) has garnered the attention of the USAF Thunderbirds team and warranted a special up-close and personal meeting with them at the "Sun-N-Fun" event last weekend here in Florida.

The team was thoroughly impressed by the craftsmanship and you should've seen the look on there faces when we told them, yes, it does fly!"

We passed these incredible photographs around the office here at the Great Planes offices and Don Anderson summed all of our feelings up best when he stated " ...this is one of those few memorable achievements in modeling that makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. That doesn't happen very often any more, but it did when I viewed this picture."

Graeme and David, congratulations on an outstanding achievement! Everyone here is proud to have you as part of Team Futaba and we all wish you the very best at Top Gun!

Team member Darwin Barrie gets a new job and a new ride!

Darwin Barrie and PHI Air Evac Bell 407 Helicopter.

Following a very brief retirement (3.5 years), Team Futaba member Darwin Barrie got a new job and new ride all at the same time when he signed on with PHI (Petroleum Helicopters International, Inc) Air Evac group.

Darwin flew helicopters in law enforcement and search and rescue for years; retiring after a 30 year career. He faced a challenge as he applied for a position with PHI; he did not have the instrument rating that PHI required. Last December he started on his fixed wing rating, finishing this step in January, he immediately jumped into IFR helicopter training. He finished the rating in late February and sent his resume and IFR rating off to PHI via FedEx, two weeks later he was hired.

Darwin is currently doing transition training for the Eurocopter 350 Astar, at the end of March he will begin training for the Bell 407 which will be his new ride as soon as he gets to his base.

Darwin is a member of Team Futaba competing in soaring events around the country. He also enjoys IMAC (Scale Aerobatics) and RC helicopters.

Futaba and Hobbico congratulate Darwin on his new career!

For more information on PHI and their helicopters visit www.phihelico.com

The Fox Valley Aero Club

St. Charles, IL March 13, 2008

Futaba Product Manager John Stokes was recently invited to speak at a Fox Valley Aero Club meeting. John was graciously treated to dinner by the club officers prior to the meeting.

John's presentation talked about some of the history of Futaba as a company, the history of radio control in general, and then the main topic Futaba FASST systems. John stated that the 67 club members in attendance had a lot of great questions about the Futaba FASST systems and Futaba products in general.

John displayed a huge representation of the Futaba radio product line; showing everything from Futaba surface systems to the pinnacle of radio control the 14MZ.

Perhaps one of the hits of the presentation was the Futaba 7C radio system that John gave away as a door prize. This great radio system was won by club member Bill Sponsler. Futaba and Hobbico extend our congratulations to Bill!

Thank you to Fox Valley Aero Club for offering us the opportunity to discuss the Futaba product line at your club meeting.