Aero-Linx!

Scouring the information super airways can sometimes be a tough, if educational, task for the Aero-News staff... but it also allows us to check out some truly neat and exciting sites, so it's not that bad a gig. On any given day, we may check dozens (and often hundreds) of different sources for story ideas, and facts confirmation. And, as is the nature of our business, much of this is done on the Internet.

The ANN gang decided we probably shouldn't keep some of the neat sites, info resources, and organizations we've discovered to ourselves... so we decided to bring you Aero-Linx. These are the sites that WE check out -- when we need added perspective, a new spin on a day's topic... or just want to escape into cyber-aero-space for awhile.

Look for some of our favorite sites, coming each day to ANN via Aero-Linx. Suggestions for future Aero-Linx segments are always welcome, as well.

Aero-Linx: Funk Aircraft Owners Association

In 1975, G. Dale Beach was helping a young pilot experiencing trouble landing a taildragger; it was Dale's first-ever encounter with a Funk aircraft. The experience so awestruck him that Dale ended up buying the plane! He subsequently bought the remains of another Funk and completely restored it. Out of this experience came the Funk Aircraft Owners Association, not an ordinary confederation of owners of a particular brand and type of aircraft, but a large, extended family of 100+ members whose mutual interest in their beloved Funks ties them across thousands of miles and all age, gender, and nationality differences.

FMI: www.funkflyers.org/FAOA/assoc.htm