From the President’s Desk Summer 2024

Summer is going by fast here at your museum, and we have been extremely busy, working on new projects and hosting the scores of visitors. Sentimental Journey to Cub Haven was a success again this year, despite the sweltering heat. The museum did benefit from the heat, as many of the fly-in visitors took advantage of the comfortable air conditioning as they toured the museum.

We were able to finish our outdoor Twin Comanche display in record time. It required the help of a tremendous number of volunteers. Their enthusiasm and teamwork for the project was nothing short of amazing. I can’t tell you how pleased I am with the way it turned out. If you have not yet seen it in person, you owe it to yourself to pay a visit to the museum to check it out. And, by the way, it really looks cool at night when the position lights are lit up.

And, we have another plane to put up on display outside on the lawn in front of the museum. We just received the donation of a cosmetically nice PA-38 Tomahawk, complete with the legs to mount it about eight feet above the ground. It is currently in our hangar and is being prepared for the outdoor exhibit. By the time you read this, it should be finished and on display.

The next time you visit the museum be sure to check out the Skycycle exhibit. Volunteer Roger Bohner has done an amazing job expanding the exhibits in that area. Thanks to Roger the area now houses an actual Corsair drop tank that would have been used as the fuselage for the Skycycle. Roger is “in the house” with the Penn College aviation students most Saturdays when school is in session. They are slowly but surely completing the Skycycle replica. And it is fun to watch the work in process.

We are moving forward with our plans for the needed hangar expansion. A local, highly rated construction company has completed a design and come up with a price. The finished project will cost just shy of $750,000. That’s a big number, but honestly, a lot less than I thought it would have been. Our board of directors is exploring the possible ways to fund the project. It may take a while to raise that kind of money, but it is something we need to do to continue to receive the airplane donations that we anticipate in the near future. My personal goal is to be able to display one of every model that Piper Aircraft ever manufactured.

So be sure to come back to visit us soon. There is always something new to see and learn. Let museum manager Ed Watson proudly show you everything that he has done to keep improving the museum. Because, if you haven’t been to the museum lately, you haven’t been to the museum.