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 Futaba Cleans up at 2008 ETOC!

Andrew Jesky (C), Jason Noll (L) and John Glezellis (R) took the competition by storm at the 2008 ETOC.

Team Futaba invades the Toledo Weak Signals RC Show 2008

Team Futaba takes a break for a photo at the 2008 Weak Signal RC show in Toledo OH.
Many team members worked in the Futaba exhibit all weekend long.

Tampa Helicopter Contest

From left: Dave Sellers, Nob Muraki, Wayne Mann, Cliff Hiatt, Gordie Mead, Dwight Shilling

Phoenix Gold Cup Race

Team Futaba at Phoenix Gold Cup 2008

Springfest Q-500 Race

Whittier CA

Jim Allen receives his award for winning the Q-500 (428) class and setting fast time.

Springfest's stylish ride to the flightline!

AMPS Aerobatic Challenge

Miami, FL February 23-24, 2008

Left to right Ivan Christensen, Don McClellan, Don Hamilton,
Jim Woodward, Stephen Hamilton, Steve Dionne.

Team Futaba members had a great time and did very well at the AMPS Aerobatic Challenge. Ivan Christensen reported that all of the Futaba equipment performed "flawlessly".

Ivan brought home a second in Unlimited with Stephen Hamilton 3rd, Donny McLellan 4th and Steve Dionne 5th.

Congratulations to these team members!

Q-40 Classic 2008

Speedworld RC Flyers
February 23-24, 2008

Team Futaba members AJ Seaholm, Gary Schmidt, Jim Allen, Gino Del Ponte, Mark Parker, Rusty VanBaren, Jaime DeLaVega, Lyle Larson, Pete Reed, and Tanner Pacini turned in great performances at the Phoenix Q-40 Classic hosted by the Speedword RC Flyers.

Speedworld R/C Flyers Winterfest

Phoenix on January 20-21, 2008

Gino Del Ponte, 1st Place Q-500

Team Futaba member Gino Del Ponte raced in Q-500 at the Speedworld R/C Flyers Winterfest in Phoenix on January 20-21, 2008. Gino's low time was 1:06.46 and he ended up with 38 points which gave him first place. Team members Jim Allen and Gary Schmidt also raced placing 11 and 31 respectively.

Gino reported that his Futaba FASST systems worked perfectly during the entire race.

Congratulations to Gino, Jim and Gary!

Team Info: 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007