By Ted Luebbers
Members of the Experimental Aviation Association do their best to look out for each other in times of distress. An example of this took place on November 7, when a Piper Cherokee aircraft pulled up in front of the EAA Chapter 534 hangar at the Leesburg International Airport in Leesburg, Florida.
Sometimes when you need some help or a favor it all boils down to past and present relationships and who you know.
When a strange plane pulls up in front of a hangar filled with a bunch EAA members who tend to be enthusiastic aviation buffs, this can create quite a stir.
On this particular day, there was a lot of aircraft building activity going on in the hangar when folks suddenly became aware of a loud aircraft engine noise. Then a plane nobody recognized taxied up to the front of the hangar door.
The engine shut down and three people climbed out of the pretty little Cherokee and asked for one of the chapter members, Mark Banus, our chapter Treasurer. It so happened Mark was in the hangar working on building one of the chapter’s planes, a Murphy Rebel.
The pilot, Jon Sokel and his parents Ed and Meredith introduced themselves to Mark and some of the others in the hangar.
As the story goes, Jon had this non-affiliated flying club plane for two weeks while working for the Navy in Key West, FL. All of a sudden Hurricane Eta was threatening to hit southern Florida.
The Cherokee is the only plane owned by this 10-member flying club in Chesapeake, Virginia and Jon and fellow members were getting nervous about having the plane in the hurricane’s path with nothing but tie downs available to them at the Key West Airport. So how do they get this plane to a safe place out of the storm’s path?
It so happens that one of the flying club members up north is a friend of Mark Banus and knew he was now living in Florida and had a hangar at the Leesburg International Airport that was currently empty. Mark told them, “no problem, have Jon fly it up and he could tuck the Cherokee in his hangar until the hurricane blows by”.
Jon, on a two-week Navy deployment at Key West, flew up to Venice, Florida picked up his parents and then flew into Leesburg. His folks will drive him back to his job in Key West. When the storm goes by Jon will make arrangements to come back to Leesburg to get the plane.
This was all worked out between friends who happened to be EAA members. It didn’t matter that some of them didn’t happen to know each other personally. This is just another story of how EAA members look out for each other.
