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We all
probably know someone, or at least know of someone who passed
away, and his (or her) family was left with the job of disposing
his aviation related equipment and materials. Using myself as an
example, I probably have close to $30k worth of airplane parts,
tools, equipment, instrumentation, literature, etc. Should
something happen to me, my wife would be left with the chore of
getting rid of this stuff, and hopefully she can recoup most if not
all of my family’s money I spent over the years with my hobby.
But we all know this is not a
realistic expectation. We know that at best, my wife might be able
to get pennies on the dollar as she tries to sell the stuff.
Additionally, how would she even know where to begin?
And then there are the ghouls…
those who would be willing to take advantage of her situation for
their own personal gain. How would my wife know that my yellow
tagged King KX-155 with the 208 indicator is worth $2500, when it
looks like a $150 car stereo? So when she’s offered $500 for the
unit, she might think it’s a good deal. I’ve see this happen too
many times, So I’ve started a charity to help the families of
deceased aviators.
MISSION STATEMENT
We vow to assist the families of
deceased aviators in their time of need, by performing the
following services.
Upon receiving a request for
assistance from the family of a deceased aviator:
1) We will inventory, catalog and
appraise all aviation related materials, including (but not limited
to) aircraft, hangar, parts, kits, plans, hardware,
instruments, books and magazines, tools, equipment, and any
other aviation related property.
2) We will offer a cash settlement
at a fair market value, based on an honest appraisal of the
property and it’s current condition, while keeping in mind the
families best interest.
3) Upon acceptance of the offer,
either in whole or in part, payment will be rendered, and we will
(in a timely manner) remove all property that will now belong to
the charity.
4) At our expense, we will then
market the property and recoup our expenditures.
HOW
WILL WE MAKE THIS WORK?
You have probably figured by now
that there’s no way a company can stay in business under this plan.
We couldn’t possibly pay “a fair market value” for a product, and
then expect to sell it at a profit. But that’s the key… we are a
NOT FOR PROFIT business! At all times, the family’s best interest
will be kept in mind, not the bottom line of the charity.
We rely on the generosity of the
aviation community to keep us afloat. The property purchased from
the families will be sold to recoup the capital outlay, but
operating costs will need to come by way of donations. These
donations can be in the form of cash contributions, or even
aviation related property We can even utilize volunteer help to
keep labor expenses low.
DONATE YOUR PLANE
We’ve all seen the ads in various
aviation magazines, asking us to donate our planes. Years ago,
while interested in buying my first plane, I checked the website of
one of these companies. Sure enough, they had projects and planes
for sale, at reasonable prices. I decided to check into the
background of this particular company, by reading their mission
statement. It seems that they were interested in feeding starving
children in a foreign country; a good work, no doubt, but how can I
as an aviator get behind this cause? How is this aviation related?
Why would we as aviators be interested in donating to this cause?
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We now have a tax deductible
charity that we as aviators can support, one which will do a good
work within our own community. What better charity for us aviators
to support, than one that assists the families of our fellow
aviators? Some day, each of us might be in need of this type of
help ourselves.
WHAT WILL BE DONE WITH THE INVENTORY?
As we begin to receive property,
either donated by supporters, or purchased from families, each
piece will be evaluated. If it’s an instrument or radio, it will
be yellow tagged. If it’s new in the box, it will be sold “as
is”. If it’s in need of some repair to get full market value, it’ll
be refurbished.
All products that are ready to be
marketed will be listed on our website. Advertising will be placed
with all the popular magazines and websites. Hopefully we can get
support from the EAA, AOPA, SAA and other related aviation
organizations.
Some property such as incomplete
kits or dissembled certified aircraft or engines, will have far
more value as a completed, flying aircraft or operational engine,
than it would as a pile of parts. There are future plans to handle
this in house, either by volunteers or persons on payroll.
CONTACT! Magazine is owned
by a 501(c)3 charity and will be the vehicle for this new work. By
subscribing to the magazine, you’ll be helping me with the seed
money to get the whole thing off the ground, while at the same
time, receiving value for your contribution.
With the money generated from
CONTACT!, we will be able to have booths at both Sun N Fun and
Oshkosh. CONTACT! has had booths at both of these fly-ins (as well
as a few others) for probably a decade, and usually hosts the
engine forum at SNF. We will continue with this tradition, and
already have space paid for at SNF and OSH for 2003.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU
We need your help to get the word
out. We need your help to get the magazine subscription numbers up.
It’s only through increased subscriptions that we can get the ball
rolling properly.
Please take your current issue of
CONTACT!
To your next EAA meeting. Show it around and see if you can’t get
some of your fellow members to start a subscription with us. If
you’d like a few free sample copies to distribute, contact me and
I’ll get them right out to you. If you belong to an internet group,
let them know about
CONTACT!,
and our website: www.ContactMagazine.com
I plan to start visiting local
chapters and presenting
CONTACT!
as well as the charity. I’ll need to start in my local area (central
California), but plan to expand from there. If your EAA chapter
would like to hear more, from me personally, please let me know.
If this is something you feel is
worth your support, I ask that you help spread the word. Encourage
all your friends (and fellow EAA members) to subscribe to CONTACT!
If you have something to donate (plane, parts, time, etc.), please
by all means let me know as soon as possible.
Should you know of a family that is
in need of our help, have them contact us. One thing we will not
do is contact families, as we don’t want a reputation of being
“ambulance chasers”. The family will have to contact us. However,
since the charity is in it’s infancy, we probably won’t be able to
do all that our mission statement claims, but with the network we
have in place, we might be able to help see that the family is not
taken advantage of. As donations start to materialize, as our
reputation grows, hopefully then we’ll be able to realize our goal
as described in the mission statement.
Thank you!
Patrick Panzera, Editor
editor@contactmagazine.com
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