Arizona is for Aeronca Champions!
This weekend at Cal-Aero was extra special!
We are so fortunate to be blessed with such awesome friends of our organization. Thank you to Neil and Les Whittlesey for making the donation of our new Aeronca Champ 7FC. Les asked that we thank his late father Neil for the donation, he was a true pilot soloing a plane at 18 launching a flying career that would take him through the Airforce and the Airlines. We are sure he would be honored to see his Champ teaching the next generation of aviators the art of tailwheel flying!
The weekend started with a road trip to Arizona Friday night, Jeff brought a truck and trailer to Casa Grande loaded with tools and straps for the weekend. The day started on Saturday with the dissasembly crew (Tiphani, Zack, Keegan, Tucker, and Christy) flying down in the Piaggio. Josh met the crew at the airport where he picked up a rental box truck. The rental box truck was used to bring home a Fleet Model 1 biplane for the crew at Flabob to restore!
Dissasembly began in ernest with Taylor Swift blasting on the radios in the heat of Arizona. Keegan and Josh made quick work of loading the fleet, and made sure the plane was safely tied down for its trip to California. Meanwhile, Zack showed his talent at removing gasoline from airplanes, while Tucker kept all the parts removed labeled and organized. Everyone took turns removing bolts from the struts while Jeff Tucker Keegan and Zack struggled against some stubborn wing bolts. Tiphani saved the day by buying some penatrating oil and more importantly food. We grew closer together as friends in our mutual excitment to have a classic taildragger to fly. Everyone had a great time and by 4pm everyone was absolutely exhausted.
Keegan Jeff and Tiphani began the voyage home after dropping everyone else off at the airport. The flight back may have only been an hour, but the drive proved to be much longer. It wouldn't be a Cal Aero field trip without at least one vehicle breaking down. The rental truck had no oil cap and puked the contents of its oil sump everywhere. Fortunately we are experts at Macguyvering cars and made it home by 3am Sunday. The fleet was unloaded to an excited group at Flabob, congrats on the project! Jeff Tiphani and Matt unloaded the champ on Monday in the shop where we will give it a thourough cleaning before returning it to flight.
None of this would be possible without the continued support of our volunteers, sponsors, and friends. Thanks again to Les and Neil for the donation, and the continued support of our sponsors Les Whittlesey(Cal Aero Events), Ladd Garnder Insurance, Tim Mullahey for the Piaggio, and Cal-Aerosport.
