Waco UPF-7 biplane Awarded During "Interview" On Learning To
Fly
Texas pilot Mark Zeller woke up Sunday morning thinking it would
be a normal Sunday. Little did he know that he was in for the
surprise of his life — or that, as the winner of the grand
prize in AOPA's Centennial of Flight Sweepstakes, he would become
the envy of some 400,000 other AOPA members.
Zeller, 42, arrived at West Houston Airport just west of Houston
thinking he was being interviewed for a video about new pilots. As
the interview wrapped up AOPA President Phil Boyer stepped around
the corner to introduce himself. To thank Zeller for his help,
Boyer offered him a Waco Sweepstakes leather flight jacket. "Now
that you have the Waco jacket don't you think you should have the
airplane to go with it?" Boyer asked as the hangar doors opened to
reveal the pristinely restored 1940 Waco UPF-7 biplane. The grand
prize is valued at $250,000.
A stunned Zeller replied, "Fantastic! This is unbelievable." As
he got his wits about him, Zeller shouted, "I won an airplane
today. That doesn't happen every day!" A crowd of friends and
well-wishers cheered as the airplane was rolled out of the hangar
for Zeller's inspection. Zeller, a third-generation pilot, was
joined at the event by his 19-year-old son Clint, his friend Joyce
Keyser, and his father Peter Zeller, himself a pilot. Peter's
father was also a pilot.
Passionate About Flying
Zeller started flight training four years ago, partly inspired
by his father and grandfather. He joined AOPA two years ago.
Shortly after earning his pilot certificate he purchased a 1968
Cessna 172 for traveling around Texas and to visit his younger son,
Bobby, who lives nine hours away by car. The 172 makes quick work
of such trips, Zeller said. The Wisconsin native is a Houston-area
general manager for Palm Harbor Homes, one of the largest
manufactured home builders in the country.
"You have disappointed a whole lot of other AOPA members," Boyer
told Zeller. "I've had an opportunity to fly this aircraft, and I'm
almost envious of the fun you're going to have with it."
While high winds Sunday prevented Zeller from getting his first
flight in his new airplane, he did start the big radial engine, the
throaty roar thrilling the crowd. Woody Lesikar, owner of West
Houston Airport, a thriving privately owned, public-use airport,
played host to the event.
A Plane With A Past
Zeller's bright red Waco UPF-7, fully restored by Rare Aircraft
in Owatonna, Minnesota, was the sixty-third out of nearly 600
built. It began life as a trainer in the Civilian Pilot Training
Program, a program sponsored by the government to build a pool of
trained pilots when World War II loomed. It spent the war years and
most of its civilian afterlife operating from Long Island, New
York, including stints at storied Floyd Bennett and Roosevelt
fields. Roosevelt launched such famous flights as Charles
Lindbergh's solo journey across the Atlantic, Jimmy Doolittle's
first-ever "blind-flying" flight by instruments alone, and Douglas
"Wrong Way" Corrigan's infamous "accidental" Atlantic crossing.
Although the airplane's logbooks only date back to the 1950s, they
show a succession of owners who clearly loved the airplane for its
fun factor. Flights are listed as aerobatic or flights with friends
— flights with little practical value beyond the sheer
enjoyment of flying.
The Waco UPF-7 was always intended to be a training aircraft, so
it was built tough — tough enough to train pilots in the
aerobatic maneuvers they might need in the event of a war.
Zeller's Waco spent nearly half a century in private hands after
World War II. It eventually ended up at Rare Aircraft in Minnesota,
just waiting for someone to come along and fix it up.
A Plane With A Future
When AOPA decided to commemorate the centennial of powered
flight with a nod to the Golden Era, Boyer contacted Rare Aircraft
owner Roy Redman to see if he had any restoration projects that
would fit the bill. Redman said he did and told Boyer about
N29352.
Over the next several months the aircraft was stripped to its
metal-tube frame and completely restored. The wings were
painstakingly rebuilt. Many of the original instruments were
refurbished and installed in a new panel. To bring the panel into
the twenty-first century, Rare Aircraft added a Garmin 250XL VFR
GPS unit and a PM1200 intercom, designed specifically for
high-noise environments like an open cockpit, from PS
Engineering.
The original 220-hp Continental radial engine was replaced with
a 275-hp Jacobs engine from Radial Engines, Ltd., of Guthrie (OK)
Airovation, Inc., of Eden Prairie (MN), redid the interior. AOPA
members voted online for the Waco's paint scheme and chose a vivid
red with black and gold trim accents.
In all, the restoration work makes the Centennial of Flight
Sweepstakes Waco worth approximately $250,000.
A complete list of the nearly two dozen companies that
contributed to the Centennial of Flight Sweepstakes project,
including contact information, is available online.
Next: Win A Twin Sweepstakes
For its 2004 sweepstakes, AOPA is tackling more than one engine
for the first time. The grand prize in the Win A Twin Sweepstakes
will be a better-than-new 1965 Piper Twin Comanche. Work on the
engines and airframe is nearing completion and includes tip tanks
and every speed modification LoPresti makes for the Twin Comanche.
Plans for the panel are still being finalized but currently include
a full Garmin avionics stack, S-Tec autopilot, Sandel EHSI, and
J.P. Instruments engine analyzer/fuel totalizer.
Would-be winners can see it at the AOPA Fly-In and Open House at
AOPA headquarters in Frederick (MD) on June 5 and at AOPA Expo in
Long Beach (CA), October 21-23.
Anyone who joins or renews membership in AOPA during 2004 is
automatically entered in the Win A Twin Sweepstakes. Alternate
methods of entry, complete rules, and eligibility requirements are
available online.