EAA Sport Aviation - February 2011

E-mail: Membership@eaa.org Phone: 800-564-6322 (800-JOIN EAA) Online: www.EAA.org

FROM THE DESK OF...

CHARLIE BECKER, DIRECTOR OF MEMBER PROGRAMS

Name: Ted Mosman, EAA 849136 Position: Aircraft Maintenance Tech

WHO’S WHO AT HQ

DID YOU KNOW THAT our founder, Paul Poberezny, is still building aircraft in his 90th year? I guess it shouldn’t really surprise anyone since Paul was bitten early and hard by the homebuilding bug.

His latest project is a replica of the Mechanix Illustrated

Baby Ace that is in the EAA AirVenture Museum. He and a group of volunteers have already started on it. If you’re unfamiliar with this aircraft, it holds a special significance for our organization. Paul wrote a series of articles on how to build a Baby Ace for Mechanix Illustrated magazine. Those articles attracted worldwide interest in joining EAA that turned a homebuilders club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, into an international organization. Paul had to buy a bigger mailbox to handle all the correspondence that resulted from the articles.

Paul, who is an avid history buff, hopes to build the aircraft and fly it at AirVenture to educate our members about how this organization was built. Keep on building, Paul!

What do you do? I help maintain and restore EAA’s flying aircraft.

Years at EAA: 30

Before EAA: I was a mechanic for a couple of commuter airlines flying DC-3s and had my own dope and fabric business.

I would love to own: The practical Ted would own a Cherokee 235. The not-so-practical Ted would own a Bellanca Airbus because no one I know of has one and I like the look.

Unique experience: Helping get the Spirit of St. Louis replica (now in the EAA AirVenture Museum) ready to ship to Paris, then my trip to Paris to ship it back to the United States. The same young man that greeted Lindbergh in Paris after his historic flight met our replica in Paris.

Unique airplane you’ve flown: I’ve flown with Paul Poberezny in EAA’s P- 51, and I’ve flown a Great Lakes Trainer—a two-place biplane.

Don’t Know Much About...

INTERNATIONAL LEARN TO FLY DAY

Hobbies: I’m part owner in a hovercraft. The hover people call it flying!

THE SECOND ANNUAL International Learn to Fly Day takes place May 21, 2011. This event is a cooperative effort organized by EAA to raise interest in flying and encourage current pilots to get others involved in aviation. How can you get involved? Invite a friend to go flying that day, sign your spouse up for a lesson, put up a sign up at work inviting colleagues to your hangar, organize a chapter Learn to Fly event, or, if you’re not yet at pilot, take your first lesson. The goal is simple: Introduce someone new to aviation and help grow the pilot population.

Help us spread the word! Put the official International Learn to Fly Day logo on your website with a link back to www.LearnToFlyDay.org.

Aviation story you won’t forget: I was helping actor Gene Hackman with his chute and harness for a P- 51 ride with Paul. I cut my finger in the process, and he left with a few red dots on his white shirt.