John Wondra at TAS

[Dan767]

A little back ground on John at this years TAS: September 2, at Snohomish,WA, John's ZDZ 160 on his Comp-Arf has a major failure. He gets a "loan" from one of the RAMS club members on Sept. 10th to buy a DA-150. He wins Northwest regional Championships in Advanced on October 6th. His Futaba 9Z fails about a week before TAS, and he now has no radio. Many offers from FG members, he ends up using a Futaba 9C Super from one of the RAMS club members (a great guy, Mr. Corby is). In practice on Tuesday, his Comp arf is toast (crashed, I don't know the full story yet). Kevin Miller has his airplane in Tucson in case some one needs a back up airplane (another true, stand up real nice guy). John flies Kevin's airplane (borrowed) and a borrowed Futaba transmitter to 2nd place in Advanced. Nice work John. Congrats!

[madmax]

Dan, I couldn't agree with you more. I've known John mostly from the online thing for the past few years, and had the opprotunity to hang with him at the past few shootouts. He's definately come into his own as a competitor, and was a complete class act at this year's event. We even spent quite a bit of camp fire time together this year with the Northwest crew which was pretty cool. We were all stoked to see John on the podium this year, and the saga to get there must make the win even sweeter. .... And Kevin Miller.. All I can say is this dude kicks ass, is a blast to hang with, nicest guy on the flight line, and an excellent boat race competitor. BTW, your coin is in my shrine dude.

[mwick]

I've known John since he was a kid in Texas, jumping the fence at our club hoping to get some flight time with our members. Even then it was easy to see he had talent on the sticks. Brett and I both consider John a good friend and a great competitor. Good luck in the future.

Mike Wickizer

[DATech]

John has had a real tough time going into the last two Shootouts. Both times he has really hung tough and showed some real fortitude. He has the skills and the right attitude, and with friends like Kevin Miller he can't go wrong. We look forward to seeing him in many Shootouts to come.
Dave

[Boghatize]

I too am proud to call Jon, my friend.
When another friend in the hobby bizz need help filling back orders, Jon boy stepped up and worked for food, and all the foamy's he could eat/crash/hang from the light fixtures, for weeks the laddy Wondra stepped up and gave help where needed, when needed.
I am also exceedingly proud how Jon has finished up growing into manhood, with the respect of his fellow modelers, Jon has matured beyond his years, considering his upbringing, he really exceeded many folks expectations with class, respect and humility.
I knew Jon when he was a wee teen, newly sac-dropped young buck, man could that boy git excited, and from time to time, plumb wear you out talking this plane or that, and I don't think he ever forgot any "hot tip" he ever heard.

In fact the night before the local RC Expo last year Jon came over to my house with a couple of other whack jobs and pulled a all niter building Foamies, (while everybody else crashed and slept)and by Noon the next day, Jon was sponsored by at least 3 different companies. Jon didnt disappoint, with every flight ending Jon answered dozens of questions, and led those so impressed right to the booth, where they parted with mass amounts of Doh-ray-me to the delight of the vendors.

Jon had ZERO prior experience doing this whole factory pilot/rep thing and we all were impressed at how he pulled it off like he had been doing it for years.

Jon has done WAY more with his part time jobs, borrowed, swapped, repaired hand-me-downs than another local hot-snot kid with Daddy's deep-deep pockets by far.

OH, and his Mom and Pop never sprung for a plane or engine ever, that I heard of.

Proud of Jon?
Uhhh, ya think?

Congrats Jon, you busted your arse and earned every point.
Kudos to mah brother from another mother, Kevin, too.....Yo Kev, Skagit misses you ole friend...

Best to you all,
Mike

[Rolling Thunder]

John had a great contest. He was solid in the unknowns and knowns. He adapted to Kevin's plane real fast. He had a great attitude all week long.

[Boghatize]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Rolling Thunder
	John had a great contest. He was solid in the unknowns and knowns. He adapted to Kevin's plane real fast. He had a great attitude all week long.

Adapting to one of Kevins planes would be like trying to adapt to a Ribeye from Top Sirloin....

Kevin's a down right freak about his planes being dialed in...
Not that that's a bad thing...

[Bruce]

John - didn't know the story. You worked through a ton of problems and did great.
Congratulations.
Bruce

[TonyThomasian]

yea John! Best IMAC caller i have seen! He gets so beat up after imac meets its not even funny! He calls for a bunch of pilots that are in basic-advanced maybe unlimited (not sure). But anyways, he knows sooooo much about imac, and the way he calls for any pilot, it makes the pilot look so good! Thanks for all your help john!

[Flyfalcons]

Nice work, John! This also goes to show how great of a group the NW IMAC crew is. I'm working on getting back there, hopefully soon!

[TheRooster]

Wow im really shocked at this thread, all I can do is say thanks to all the people and friends that have got me where I am there are so many people that if it wernt for them id probably not be flying today, A few are Brian Webb(composite repairextrodinaire), and his wife (moral suport), Kevin Miller steped up big time with an airplane, Thanks to him I was able to be competitive, Jason shulman helped on the sticks and setup of my original comp arf, All my friends in Texas that taught me to fly and put up with that snot nose kid taging along and flying everyones planes because I couldnt afford my own. Thanks to Dick Broulett who loaned me some money to buy a DA before I left for the shootout, thanks to all for complements and getting me where I am today.

O yeah and Levi Jordan.... I cant list everything he has done for me it would take a matter of hours....thanks again

John

[SUPERFLYJAY]

DONT KNOW JOHN BUT FROM WHAT IM READING SOUNDS LIKE A CLASS ACT, AND A GOOD YOUNG REP FOR R/C WAY TO GO !!!