HANDS ON
also such items as remove-before-flight ban-
ners, maintenance manuals, and one of the
most complete selections of flashlights you’ll
find anywhere.
King Schools—Everyone knows John
and Martha King for their pilot video
courses, but in recent years, they’ve
branched out to include pilot supplies in
their catalog. Of course, their training programs are a prominent segment of what
you’ll find in their catalog, but now books,
charts, E6B computers and plotters, cockpit
gear, and home simulators (through their
affiliation with Redbird Flight Simulations)
are also available. You can even learn how to
start your own aviation business with John
and Martha’s entrepreneurial coaching.
With more than 30 years’ experience,
they’re the masters. And you can bet they’ll
be sure you have some fun along the way.
Sporty’s Pilot Shop—Hal Shevers and
Sporty’s are an institution among pilots and
celebrated a golden anniversary last year. As
a young flight instructor in 1961, Hal was
enthralled with a radio he found that would
pick up aircraft and ATC transmissions. He
invested in several units and sold them to his
students, launching what has become the
world’s largest and most comprehensive
pilot shop. As the company website says,
there’s probably no pilot flying who hasn’t
ordered something from Sporty’s—and told
other pilots, “Sporty’s has that.”
But Hal still considers Sporty’s to be,
first and foremost, an educational institu-
tion. The three-day ground school course he
developed decades ago set the standard for
such programs, and Sporty’s Academy, based
at Ohio’s Clermont County/Sporty’s Airport,
trains hundreds of new pilots a year and
remains one of the parent company’s key-
stone divisions. In addition, Sporty’s
supports EAA’s Young Eagles program with
its follow-on “Next Step” offer. After com-
pleting a Young Eagles flight, youngsters are
eligible for a number of benefits, including a
logbook and full access to Sporty’s Complete
Flight Training Course online program to
pursue their pilot certificate.
Besides the ubiquitous Sporty’s Pilot
Shop catalog, the company now fields a
series of specialty follow-on catalogs,
including Sporty’s Tool Shop (not just for
aviation tools), Sporty’s Men’s Collection
(everything for the “man cave”), Sporty’s
Wright Bros. Collection (for everything from
watches to a Vought Corsair wall shelf ),
and Sporty’s Preferred Living Collection
(a panoply of lifestyle products for living
the good life).
There’s nothing like a
quiet browse through one
of these catalogs to convince
you that you absolutely must
have something that—a half-
hour ago—you didn’t even
know existed.
Trade-A-Plane—Okay, it’s not technically a catalog. But the breadth of classified
and display advertisers represented in the
familiar yellow pages of Trade-A-Plane covers anything and everything you could ever
want or need. Another multi-generation
family-operated institution, Trade-A-Plane
is headquartered in Crossville, Tennessee.
True to its name, Trade-A-Plane specializes
in its classified listings for aircraft. From
ultralights to wide-body business jets, you’ll
find them all in TAP. But you’ll also find
classified listings for parts, tools, components—even real estate. And in the display
sections, you’ll find all the aviation supply
players, from giants such as Aircraft Spruce
and Wag-Aero, to niche companies specializing in whatever you need to keep your
airplane flying, or bring it up to the next
level of performance and capability. One
word of warning: When you pick up your
copy of Trade-A-Plane, be prepared to
devote at least an hour or two of browsing—
and dreaming.
Wag-Aero—Founded in their basement
by the late Dick Wagner and his wife,
Bobbie, in the early 1960s, Wag-Aero printed
its first catalog of aircraft parts and components in 1965. Based in Lyons, Wisconsin,
the Wag-Aero catalog became essential reading for homebuilders. Everything from
engine parts, aircraft tubing and fabric,
windshields, tires, electrical components,
tools, sheet metal, and so much more can be
found within its pages. Along the way, Wag-Aero began offering complete kits for its
Piper Cub-replica Sport Trainer, Wag-A-Bond (a Piper Vagabond look-alike), and
Sportsman 2+ 2. Buyers could order a complete kit with everything they needed to
build their airplane.
In the mid-1970s, the Wagners formed
Aero Fabricators, which has evolved into
three divisions for welding, sheet-metal fabrication, and manufacturing seat belts. In all,
Aero Fabricators produces approximately
850 different components. Bill Read and
Mary Myers bought the Wag-Aero group of
companies in 1995 and continue to follow in
the philosophical footsteps of the founders.
Today, Wag-Aero has more than 95,000 customers on its mailing list and mails more
than 600,000 catalogs per year, each one
listing more than 10,000 items.
There’s nothing like a quiet browse
through one of these catalogs to convince
you that you absolutely must have something that—a half-hour ago—you didn’t
even know existed. That’s all part of the
fun. And yes, all these catalog providers are
well-versed in the modern electronic media
as well. You can search for and order anything you want online by visiting any of
their websites, but I still love the experience of thumbing through the pages of the
paper catalogs.
Maybe I should apply for a grant to study
exactly why that is.
Mark Phelps, EAA 139610, is an aviation writer living
in New Jersey. He is the former editor of EAA’s Vintage
Airplane magazine and the owner-pilot of a 1954
Beechcraft Bonanza.
