Sat, Aug 26, 2023
Sporty's started out as "Sportsman's Market Incorporated" ... but according to founder Hal Shevers, "that was a mouthful" and people were simply referring to the company as "Sporty's". And that's what the company has been called ever since.
Hal founded Sporty’s over 50 years ago as a young flight instructor, and he’s been flying and teaching aviation ever since. In the mid-1960s, he pioneered the three day ground school, and spent many years traveling the country teaching pilots to earn their instrument rating. Along the way, he logged thousands of hours in Sporty’s famous red Piper Aztec. Today, with over 12,000 hours in the logbook, Hal still enjoys flying over 200 hours per year. “Some of my most enjoyable hours have been spent in airplanes, and it is this passion that drives the whole Sporty’s team.”
During a recent visit to the company, Aero-News Editor in Chief Jim Campbell sat down with Hal for a one-on-one interview, in which he discusses the progression of the company, and his personal involvement in aviation.
Aero-TV is a production of the Internationally syndicated Aero-News Network. Seen worldwide by hundreds of thousands of aviators and aviation adherents, ANN's Aero-TV has produced over 5000 aviation and feature programs, including well over 1700 episodes of our daily aviation news program, AIRBORNE UNLIMITED, currently hosted by Sophie Hurlock. Now in its third decade of operation, parent company Aero-News Network, has the most aggressive and intensive editorial profile of any aviation news organization and has published over 450,000 news and feature stories since its inception -- having pioneered the online 24/7 aviation new-media model that so many have emulated.
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