Don Anderson of Mahomet, Illinois, has been chosen by the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) to receive its highest honor — induction into the Model Aviation Hall of Fame. Established in 1936, the AMA is the world’s largest model aviation association with more than 150,000 members. The group promotes model flying as a hobby and sport and serves as its official national body in the United States.

Anderson joins such distinguished Hall of Fame members as Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong and Burt Rutan, designer of the first commercial vehicles capable of sub-orbital flight. “This award was created for modelers who do extraordinary things,” explains AMA President Dave Matthewson. “It’s a well-deserved tribute to Don, who has done so much to foster the hobby industry for more than 36 years.”

An active model pilot since 1969, Anderson often designed and custom-built his own early aircraft. Today he works as the Senior Vice President of Product Development at Hobbico, headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. He is also president and founder of Great Planes Model Manufacturing Company — one of the hobby’s most enduring and respected brands. His drive for perfection shapes the concept, design, testing and manufacturing of products enjoyed by countless other model enthusiasts.

Fellow AMA member Arthur Pesch, Senior Manager of Service and Support at Hobbico, nominated Anderson for the Hall of Fame. “Don’s companies are directly responsible for many of the finest radio-control model airplane products available today,” Pesch says.

Anderson gratefully acknowledges those who helped him along the way. “I want to thank Art Pesch for the nomination, and the AMA for selecting me to receive this award,” he says. “Historically, very few of us in the hobby industry who had dreams of starting a business were successful at it. In my case, I have seen my dreams come true.

“Back in the early 1970s, Bruce Holecek — founder of Tower Hobbies — and I were the first to establish model businesses in Champaign. Clint Atkins purchased both companies in 1984 and formed Hobbico, which grew into one the largest employers in the Champaign-Urbana area. Today we’re an ESOP, and all employees share in our success.

“I also want to thank my wife, Paula, and my family for working with me through the rough times. I only wish everyone could have had the ride I’ve had!”

In addition to his many other accomplishments, Anderson has been president of the Champaign County R/C Club and twice donated the money to help build new asphalt runways. He also co-founded and has served in executive positions for RCHTA, the Radio-Control Hobby Trade Association.

Don Anderson Biographical Highlights:

I’m so excited to announce our first ever RCCarBasher.com Contest!

To kick things off with the recent launch of the site, we’re hosting a contest where we’ll be giving away hundreds of dollars worth of prizes to all participants.

Prizes Up For Grabs

These are the prizes up for grabs.  We will be adding more prizes as we sign on more sponsors, but here are the prizes we have up for grabs so far:

MORE PRIZES COMING SOON!!!

We are currently actively seeking more sponsors for our contest.  If you’d like donate prizes for the contest, please contact us today.

Contest Sponsors

We’d like to thank our contest sponsors:

• GH Racing
• Hobbico
• O’Donnell Racing

We are currently actively seeking more sponsors for our contest.  If you’d like donate prizes for the contest, please contact us today.  We’re accepting prizes of various sizes, and we’d be glad to work with you to promote your brand on our site.

Participation Requirements

Free.  No Purchase Necessary!

Winning prizes in our contest is easy.  We are going to be following a Ticket System where you can earn multiple Tickets for the contest by helping us spread the word about our new site.

Contest Date

Our contest runs until September 15th.  All tickets must be earned prior to 11:59pm (PST) – September 15th, 2009 to be eligible.  Prizes will be drawn shortly thereafter.

How Prizes Will Be Selected

Each ticket you earn into the contest will be assigned a number.  At the end of the contest, we will randomly select a number for each prize in the contest.  The person assigned to that number wins the prize.

How to Earn Tickets

There are multiple ways you can earn ticket in our contest.  The more tickets you earn, the higher your chances of winning.  Throughout the contest, we will be updating our subscribers with additional ways they can earn tickets, as well as updating them on additional prizes we add to the contest.

Here are the current ways you can earn tickets into the contest:

1. Subscribe to our newsletter.  (Earn 5 Tickets) Simply enter your name & email address in the top right hand corner box on this page to sign up for our free newsletter.  This will allow us to contact you with additional ways you can earn tickets in our contest, and update you on any additional prizes we add to the contest.  If you are already subscribed to our newsletter, you already earned 5 tickets!
2. Follow Us on Twitter.  (Earn 2 Tickets) Simply follow us on Twitter.  If you are already following us on Twitter, you’ve already earned two tickets!  Please note that you must stay as a follower for at least the duration of the contest to qualify for tickets.
3. Re-Tweet This Contest Post.  (Earn 2 Tickets) Re-Tweet this post and earn two additional tickets in the contest.  Please use the Re-Tween button at the bottom of this post to ensure your Tweet is properly formatted and counts towards the contest.  Please note, you may Re-Tweet as often as you’d like, but you only earn 2 tickets total, regardless how many times you Re-Tweet.
4. Refer a Friend. (Earn 5 Tickets For Each Referral) Know a friend who’s into RC Cars?  Let them know about our contest and earn an additional 5 tickets for each qualified referral.  A qualified  referral is someone who participates in the contest by earning at least one ticket, and who fills out the registration form below with your name as the referrer.  (That’s the only way we know you referred them!)

Once you’ve earned entries with the methods listed above, you must also leave a comment to register for the contest below.  Copy and Paste this form into the comment box and replace the filed in the [ brackets ] with your information to register your earned tickets.

Registration Form

Please copy and paste this registration form into a comment on this form to register your tickets in the contest.

——————- COPY BELOW THIS LINE ————————————-

Who Are You? [ Your Name ] from [ City ]
RC Cars: [ Tell Us About Your RCs ]
Referred By: [ If You Were Referred Here by Someone, List Their Name.  Otherwise List How You Heard About Our Contest ]
Subscribed to Newsletter? [ Yes | No ]
Twitter Follower? [ Yes | No ]
Re-Tweet? [ Yes | No ]
# Of Friends You Referred: [ Enter # of Qualified Referrals You've Made.  Please note they must first fill out a registration form themselves, listing you as a referral in order for it to count. ]
Which RCs Would You Like to See Referred On Our Site? [ List as many as you'd like ]
What Would You Like to See in Our Review Process & Track? [ We're planning on building a track to bash & review RC's.  Any ideas what you'd like to see most on our track?  Jumps, speedy straight-aways? Spikes? Water-Pit?  Share Your Crazy Ideas. ]

——————- END OF REGISTRATION FORM —————————–

Once you submit your registration form, if later on you end up earning additional tickets ( such as for example by referring your friends ), simply cut and paste your registration form and leave a follow-up comment with the new registration with the updated numbers.  We’ll count your last registration entry for the contest.

Contest Rules

All tickets earned and registrations must be completed prior to 11:59pm (PST) on September 15th, 2009.

All tickets will be verified.  No cheating! :)

Contest open to participants in North America only.  Sorry, shipping costs outside of North America often end up costing more than the prizes themselves and some prizes (ie. DVD etc.) only work in North America.

Although we don’t have any intention to do so, we reserve the right to change or modify contest rules at any time, and add/withdraw/exchange prizes based on availability.

RC Car Basher . com has officially launched!

We’re looking forward to bringing you some RC Car Basher action along with RC Car Reviews, pics, videos, news and more.  Take a minute to join our RC Car Basher newsletter and we’ll keep you up to date with what’s happening at RC Car Basher . com.