Another airplane that everyone seemed
to gather around was the 1939 “stick” Chief.
Aeronca made less than 20 of these airplanes, with its
being the same as a usual Chief but with sticks instead
of control wheels. Very few survive and even fewer are
flying these days. This one even had the very rare “up
exhaust” engine and cowling on the airplane. It was
an award winning restoration and well deserved it! It took
home the Grand Champion Antique award this year.
Many of the people went to the Wright-Pat US Air Force
restoration facility in Dayton Ohio. Very nice trip and
every time I go there is something new to see. They have
really expanded and is well worth the trip. Luckily the
NAA crowd gets to go inside the restoration areas, something
that is not offered to everyone.
Part of Friday and Saturday both Jody Wittmeyer (another
board member) and Brian Matz were pressed into service
giving rides to everyone. It seems that former Aeronca
employees come out of the woodwork on this weekend and
many have never flown in an airplane that they helped build,
so these two were busy. In fact they were so busy doing
this that they missed the group picture and late in the
day Nathan Hammond was pressed into service helping with
rides.
Seminars were given by Aeronca guru Bill Pancake as well
as Jim and Dondi Miller, who gave their excellent course
on fabric. They are all experts in their field and we are
very lucky to have them attend.
At the dinner on Saturday night we were lucky to have
several of the original Aeronca employees attend. Jim Holman,
one of the original Aeronca test pilots was there, and
talked to everyone about life as a test pilot in the early
days. Some of the stories he told us gave us a view into
the company that many people did not know about. John Houser,
Bob Hollenbaugh and Henry Pratt, all former Aeronca employees
were at the convention, so attendees were treated to a
lot of history about our old airplanes.
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