146 MODEL AVIATION
IN THE PAST we looked at the 2007 Basic International
Miniature Aerobatic Club (IMAC) sequence. I described each
maneuver and its placement within the aerobatic box, and I wrote
briefly about Aresti.
This month I will take a short break from Scale Aerobatics
because I would like to share a recent interview I conducted with
Mr. Don Anderson. I have had the pleasure of knowing Mr.
Anderson for the past few years, and he is someone we can learn
from in both a business and family-oriented sense. Throughout
this interview you will see how Don’s interest in aviation
developed and how he turned that passion into a career.
JG: What sparked your interest in aviation, and in particular
radio-control airplanes?
DA: I grew up on a farm in East Central Illinois and was the third
of four children, all spaced four years apart. Dad was a bank loan
officer by day and a cattle and grain farmer by night. I was his
helping hand between the time I was about 9 and when I started
high school.
When growing up, my hobbies included getting to build an
occasional plastic model plus some hunting and fishing on the
farm. Mom had a big garden and did lots of canning, sewing, and
craft projects. She was a 4-H leader and thus I was in 4-H!
In the summers, when not helping do the garden and cattle
chores, I mowed the yard, drove a tractor, built fences to keep the
cattle in, cut weeds out of soybean fields, and, in general, worked.
Once in the seventh and eight grades, I got to play one sport at a
time including softball [during the spring and summer] and
basketball [fall and winter].
My model building progressed up to the point where I started
to build a Guillow’s World War II fighter while I was in high
An interview with Hobbico’s Don Anderson
[[email protected]]
Radio Control Scale Aerobatics John Glezellis
Don with the new Sukhoi SU-31, which is one of many models in
the Performance Series by Great Planes. Hobbico photo.
Don Anderson and Matt Chapman, a full-scale air-show pilot, in
front of Matt’s CAP 580. Hobbico photo.
A recent photo of Don Anderson, who is the president and
founder of Great Planes Model Manufacturing. Hobbico photo.
04sig5.QXD 2/25/08 9:06 AM Page 146
146 MODEL AVIATION
IN THE PAST we looked at the 2007 Basic International
Miniature Aerobatic Club (IMAC) sequence. I described each
maneuver and its placement within the aerobatic box, and I wrote
briefly about Aresti.
This month I will take a short break from Scale Aerobatics
because I would like to share a recent interview I conducted with
Mr. Don Anderson. I have had the pleasure of knowing Mr.
Anderson for the past few years, and he is someone we can learn
from in both a business and family-oriented sense. Throughout
this interview you will see how Don’s interest in aviation
developed and how he turned that passion into a career.
JG: What sparked your interest in aviation, and in particular
radio-control airplanes?
DA: I grew up on a farm in East Central Illinois and was the third
of four children, all spaced four years apart. Dad was a bank loan
officer by day and a cattle and grain farmer by night. I was his
helping hand between the time I was about 9 and when I started
high school.
When growing up, my hobbies included getting to build an
occasional plastic model plus some hunting and fishing on the
farm. Mom had a big garden and did lots of canning, sewing, and
craft projects. She was a 4-H leader and thus I was in 4-H!
In the summers, when not helping do the garden and cattle
chores, I mowed the yard, drove a tractor, built fences to keep the
cattle in, cut weeds out of soybean fields, and, in general, worked.
Once in the seventh and eight grades, I got to play one sport at a
time including softball [during the spring and summer] and
basketball [fall and winter].
My model building progressed up to the point where I started
to build a Guillow’s World War II fighter while I was in high
An interview with Hobbico’s Don Anderson
[[email protected]]
Radio Control Scale Aerobatics John Glezellis
Don with the new Sukhoi SU-31, which is one of many models in
the Performance Series by Great Planes. Hobbico photo.
Don Anderson and Matt Chapman, a full-scale air-show pilot, in
front of Matt’s CAP 580. Hobbico photo.
A recent photo of Don Anderson, who is the president and
founder of Great Planes Model Manufacturing. Hobbico photo.
04sig5.QXD 2/25/08 9:06 AM Page 146
April 2008 147
The author and Don Anderson have a quick chat at the 2007 Extreme Flight
Championships in Muncie IN. Photo by Peter Glezellis.
school. However, my dad had a heart
attack the summer before I started high
school.
Resulting, we sold the farm and
moved to town on a small lake. I got the
Guillow’s model framework together,
but the project stalled once I found that it
was difficult to apply the covering. The
only balsa airplanes that I ever owned
that flew were rubber-powered gliders.
During my sophomore year in
college, I lived in a dorm across the hall
from a guy that introduced himself as
someone needing help with a computer
science class. We studied some together
and soon became good friends. I had
bought some cheap golf clubs and began
playing some during high school and he
played as well, so we played golf quite a
bit.
Over the next summer I got married
and he began building model airplanes.
When he returned that fall he brought me
a copy of Model Airplane News and told
me he thought we should try flying RC
airplanes, which resulted in us going to a
hobby shop and getting one RC system
and two engines and airplane kits. Our
first flights got me hooked on the hobby!
It turns out that the guy I started
flying with in 1968 was Bruce Holecek,
who later founded Tower Hobbies. He
initially bought products for himself and
me at a distributor in Chicago, and he
then sold excess parts to our local RC
club members. He began the mail-order
company the year that I graduated from
college, 1971.
Once I was able to fly on my own, I
wanted to learn aerobatics. Even though I
had never once dreamed of flying a fullscale
airplane, I was intrigued by
floatplanes that I saw in outdoor
magazines as well as aerobatic
barnstormers who put on air shows each
summer. I wanted to learn to fly just like
they did!
JG: What other hobby interests have you
pursued and/or are your currently
pursuing?
DA: I have always loved to play golf,
fish, and hunt. I think I have gone to
either Minnesota or Canada fishing
nearly every year since 1973. I may have
missed one year along the way, but there
were others that I have gone multiple
times.
I’ve fished locally some, but mostly
on a small lake that I now live on. I’ve
also hunted regularly since I was young,
initially hunting quail and pheasants over
a bird dog, but more recently hunting
deer with both a compound bow and a
shotgun. I’ve hunted moose in Canada
four different times.
Since being in the hobby business, it
seems I pursue these other hobbies
mostly while on vacation! Golf has
definitely taken a backseat to other
interests in recent years; however, I still
enjoy playing whenever I get a chance.
My fishing hobby also turned into a
business in the late 1980s when I decided
to make fishing bobbers as a second
balsa-wood product line. I set up Thill
Fishing Tackle, a company that was sold
to Lindy-Little Joe in 1992. I became part
owner of Lindy a couple years later and
have since enjoyed multiple fishing trips
with numerous outstanding fishermen.
JG: What are your primary interests in
RC modeling (e.g., Scale aircraft,
aerobatic models, etc.)?
DA: I initially liked Pattern [RC
Aerobatics] flying and racing back in the
early and mid-1970s. I also got into
Giant Scale in the late 1970s. I’ve always
liked aerobatic models and still enjoy
flying them today, but doing them as a
business has made my hobby interest
give way to my “business interest.”
JG: Have you designed many models
yourself? If so, what models were they,
when were they brought to market, etc.?
DA: The first designs that I did mostly
on my own were back in 1978 and 1979.
Both were done initially as airplanes for
me to fly, but with hopes that Bud Nosen
might make them into kits. The first was
the Nosen Big Stik, which he did kit and
sell.
I later completed a 102-inch Phil
Kraft Super Fli, which never did go into
production. However, I did fly it for
several years.
In 1981 I bought Bridi Hobby
Enterprises and began manufacturing
airplanes on my own. I was involved to a
large degree in many of the early Great
Planes Model Manufacturing designs;
however, my role has become more and
more managerial as time has gone by.
Today at Hobbico we have an
Engineering/R&D Department who
designs, tests, and creates the products
that we sell.
JG: What was your previous work
experience before working at Hobbico?
DA: I worked my way through high
school as a draftsman, working
summers and a few evenings after
school at a local manufacturing
company. I did engineering drawings of
truck beds one summer, then inked
drawings of highways and road
construction for the State Highway
Department another summer. One
summer I was a survey assistant and
helped to survey Interstate 70 through a
forest about 75 miles south of
Champaign [Illinois].
After I graduated from college in
1971 I went to work at Pontiac Motor
Division of GM for two years. I spent my
first year testing bumpers on cars. My
second year I supervised a dynamometer
lab where we tested engines for
durability. I was then put in charge of
setting up cars for emission tests, and
that was what I was doing when I
decided to return to Champaign in 1973
and try setting up a model distributing
company to supply hobby shops.
I founded Great Planes Model
Distributors Company in May of 1973
and operated it until I sold it to the owner
of Hobbico in 1984. At that point I
retained ownership of Great Planes
04sig5.QXD 2/25/08 9:06 AM Page 147
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/04
Page Numbers: 146,147
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/04
Page Numbers: 146,147
146 MODEL AVIATION
IN THE PAST we looked at the 2007 Basic International
Miniature Aerobatic Club (IMAC) sequence. I described each
maneuver and its placement within the aerobatic box, and I wrote
briefly about Aresti.
This month I will take a short break from Scale Aerobatics
because I would like to share a recent interview I conducted with
Mr. Don Anderson. I have had the pleasure of knowing Mr.
Anderson for the past few years, and he is someone we can learn
from in both a business and family-oriented sense. Throughout
this interview you will see how Don’s interest in aviation
developed and how he turned that passion into a career.
JG: What sparked your interest in aviation, and in particular
radio-control airplanes?
DA: I grew up on a farm in East Central Illinois and was the third
of four children, all spaced four years apart. Dad was a bank loan
officer by day and a cattle and grain farmer by night. I was his
helping hand between the time I was about 9 and when I started
high school.
When growing up, my hobbies included getting to build an
occasional plastic model plus some hunting and fishing on the
farm. Mom had a big garden and did lots of canning, sewing, and
craft projects. She was a 4-H leader and thus I was in 4-H!
In the summers, when not helping do the garden and cattle
chores, I mowed the yard, drove a tractor, built fences to keep the
cattle in, cut weeds out of soybean fields, and, in general, worked.
Once in the seventh and eight grades, I got to play one sport at a
time including softball [during the spring and summer] and
basketball [fall and winter].
My model building progressed up to the point where I started
to build a Guillow’s World War II fighter while I was in high
An interview with Hobbico’s Don Anderson
[[email protected]]
Radio Control Scale Aerobatics John Glezellis
Don with the new Sukhoi SU-31, which is one of many models in
the Performance Series by Great Planes. Hobbico photo.
Don Anderson and Matt Chapman, a full-scale air-show pilot, in
front of Matt’s CAP 580. Hobbico photo.
A recent photo of Don Anderson, who is the president and
founder of Great Planes Model Manufacturing. Hobbico photo.
04sig5.QXD 2/25/08 9:06 AM Page 146
146 MODEL AVIATION
IN THE PAST we looked at the 2007 Basic International
Miniature Aerobatic Club (IMAC) sequence. I described each
maneuver and its placement within the aerobatic box, and I wrote
briefly about Aresti.
This month I will take a short break from Scale Aerobatics
because I would like to share a recent interview I conducted with
Mr. Don Anderson. I have had the pleasure of knowing Mr.
Anderson for the past few years, and he is someone we can learn
from in both a business and family-oriented sense. Throughout
this interview you will see how Don’s interest in aviation
developed and how he turned that passion into a career.
JG: What sparked your interest in aviation, and in particular
radio-control airplanes?
DA: I grew up on a farm in East Central Illinois and was the third
of four children, all spaced four years apart. Dad was a bank loan
officer by day and a cattle and grain farmer by night. I was his
helping hand between the time I was about 9 and when I started
high school.
When growing up, my hobbies included getting to build an
occasional plastic model plus some hunting and fishing on the
farm. Mom had a big garden and did lots of canning, sewing, and
craft projects. She was a 4-H leader and thus I was in 4-H!
In the summers, when not helping do the garden and cattle
chores, I mowed the yard, drove a tractor, built fences to keep the
cattle in, cut weeds out of soybean fields, and, in general, worked.
Once in the seventh and eight grades, I got to play one sport at a
time including softball [during the spring and summer] and
basketball [fall and winter].
My model building progressed up to the point where I started
to build a Guillow’s World War II fighter while I was in high
An interview with Hobbico’s Don Anderson
[[email protected]]
Radio Control Scale Aerobatics John Glezellis
Don with the new Sukhoi SU-31, which is one of many models in
the Performance Series by Great Planes. Hobbico photo.
Don Anderson and Matt Chapman, a full-scale air-show pilot, in
front of Matt’s CAP 580. Hobbico photo.
A recent photo of Don Anderson, who is the president and
founder of Great Planes Model Manufacturing. Hobbico photo.
04sig5.QXD 2/25/08 9:06 AM Page 146
April 2008 147
The author and Don Anderson have a quick chat at the 2007 Extreme Flight
Championships in Muncie IN. Photo by Peter Glezellis.
school. However, my dad had a heart
attack the summer before I started high
school.
Resulting, we sold the farm and
moved to town on a small lake. I got the
Guillow’s model framework together,
but the project stalled once I found that it
was difficult to apply the covering. The
only balsa airplanes that I ever owned
that flew were rubber-powered gliders.
During my sophomore year in
college, I lived in a dorm across the hall
from a guy that introduced himself as
someone needing help with a computer
science class. We studied some together
and soon became good friends. I had
bought some cheap golf clubs and began
playing some during high school and he
played as well, so we played golf quite a
bit.
Over the next summer I got married
and he began building model airplanes.
When he returned that fall he brought me
a copy of Model Airplane News and told
me he thought we should try flying RC
airplanes, which resulted in us going to a
hobby shop and getting one RC system
and two engines and airplane kits. Our
first flights got me hooked on the hobby!
It turns out that the guy I started
flying with in 1968 was Bruce Holecek,
who later founded Tower Hobbies. He
initially bought products for himself and
me at a distributor in Chicago, and he
then sold excess parts to our local RC
club members. He began the mail-order
company the year that I graduated from
college, 1971.
Once I was able to fly on my own, I
wanted to learn aerobatics. Even though I
had never once dreamed of flying a fullscale
airplane, I was intrigued by
floatplanes that I saw in outdoor
magazines as well as aerobatic
barnstormers who put on air shows each
summer. I wanted to learn to fly just like
they did!
JG: What other hobby interests have you
pursued and/or are your currently
pursuing?
DA: I have always loved to play golf,
fish, and hunt. I think I have gone to
either Minnesota or Canada fishing
nearly every year since 1973. I may have
missed one year along the way, but there
were others that I have gone multiple
times.
I’ve fished locally some, but mostly
on a small lake that I now live on. I’ve
also hunted regularly since I was young,
initially hunting quail and pheasants over
a bird dog, but more recently hunting
deer with both a compound bow and a
shotgun. I’ve hunted moose in Canada
four different times.
Since being in the hobby business, it
seems I pursue these other hobbies
mostly while on vacation! Golf has
definitely taken a backseat to other
interests in recent years; however, I still
enjoy playing whenever I get a chance.
My fishing hobby also turned into a
business in the late 1980s when I decided
to make fishing bobbers as a second
balsa-wood product line. I set up Thill
Fishing Tackle, a company that was sold
to Lindy-Little Joe in 1992. I became part
owner of Lindy a couple years later and
have since enjoyed multiple fishing trips
with numerous outstanding fishermen.
JG: What are your primary interests in
RC modeling (e.g., Scale aircraft,
aerobatic models, etc.)?
DA: I initially liked Pattern [RC
Aerobatics] flying and racing back in the
early and mid-1970s. I also got into
Giant Scale in the late 1970s. I’ve always
liked aerobatic models and still enjoy
flying them today, but doing them as a
business has made my hobby interest
give way to my “business interest.”
JG: Have you designed many models
yourself? If so, what models were they,
when were they brought to market, etc.?
DA: The first designs that I did mostly
on my own were back in 1978 and 1979.
Both were done initially as airplanes for
me to fly, but with hopes that Bud Nosen
might make them into kits. The first was
the Nosen Big Stik, which he did kit and
sell.
I later completed a 102-inch Phil
Kraft Super Fli, which never did go into
production. However, I did fly it for
several years.
In 1981 I bought Bridi Hobby
Enterprises and began manufacturing
airplanes on my own. I was involved to a
large degree in many of the early Great
Planes Model Manufacturing designs;
however, my role has become more and
more managerial as time has gone by.
Today at Hobbico we have an
Engineering/R&D Department who
designs, tests, and creates the products
that we sell.
JG: What was your previous work
experience before working at Hobbico?
DA: I worked my way through high
school as a draftsman, working
summers and a few evenings after
school at a local manufacturing
company. I did engineering drawings of
truck beds one summer, then inked
drawings of highways and road
construction for the State Highway
Department another summer. One
summer I was a survey assistant and
helped to survey Interstate 70 through a
forest about 75 miles south of
Champaign [Illinois].
After I graduated from college in
1971 I went to work at Pontiac Motor
Division of GM for two years. I spent my
first year testing bumpers on cars. My
second year I supervised a dynamometer
lab where we tested engines for
durability. I was then put in charge of
setting up cars for emission tests, and
that was what I was doing when I
decided to return to Champaign in 1973
and try setting up a model distributing
company to supply hobby shops.
I founded Great Planes Model
Distributors Company in May of 1973
and operated it until I sold it to the owner
of Hobbico in 1984. At that point I
retained ownership of Great Planes
04sig5.QXD 2/25/08 9:06 AM Page 147