AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2015 - 40

PILOT BRIEFING

FLYING CLUBS

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'Doing what I love'
Clubs made Sporty's possible
BY JIM MOORE

ONE OF THE MOST iconic names in aviation
might never have become known if not for
flying clubs.
Sporty's Pilot Shop founder Hal
Shevers joined the Purdue Flying Club
while studying at Purdue University and
earned his private pilot certificate in the
fall of 1957. He bought into the club for
$200, a share he was later able to sell, and
rented a Piper Cub for $4 an hour (the
FBO Cub cost $5 an hour at the time).
Shevers said he learned to fly for $225,
making possible a career in aviation that
otherwise would have been too expensive.
"If it wasn't for flying clubs there'd be
no Sporty's," Shevers says.
The days of renting anything airworthy
for $4 an hour may be long gone, but flying clubs are no less crucial to the future
of general aviation, Shevers says. (The flying club at Purdue, now known as Purdue
Pilots, Inc., continues to offer a lowercost option for flight training and aircraft
rental.)
"I think it's just a matter of getting
more people involved, letting them know
this is a good deal," said Shevers, who celebrated 50 years of AOPA membership in
2009, and 50 years of building one of aviation's most recognizable names two years
later.
Shevers moved to the Cincinnati area
after college and soon bought a share in a
Piper Comanche, although he said getting
Sporty's off the ground required some belttightening and he sold that share. He then
joined one of the three clubs then operating in the area: the T-Birds. Shevers
collaborated with Joseph Vorbeck, then
chairman of general aviation technology
at Purdue, to create a three-day ground

40 | AOPA PILOT January 2015

HAL SHEVERS, Sporty's Pilot Shop founder,
speaking at a recent aviation event.

school to prepare students for the private
pilot written exam-which became the
nucleus for courses and clinics offered by
AOPA through what has become the Air
Safety Institute. A lifelong aviation educator, Shevers would rely on flying club
aircraft for several years.
"I used the T-Birds' Comanche and
[Cessna] 182 to get around to these weekend flight training clinics," Shevers recalls.
Shevers would move on to aircraft
ownership, but financial challenges in the
1970s-when Sporty's moved to its current location at Clermont County Airport
in Batavia, Ohio-prompted Shevers to
return to flying clubs to stay airborne.

"We formed our own flying club with
a [Cessna] 172 here at Sporty's," Shevers
says. "Years later, I moved back into an
Aztec again."
Shevers said saving money is only one
of the good reasons to join, support, or
even launch a flying club-efforts AOPA
has worked to foster in recent years
through the flying club initiative that
offers a multitude of resources for current
and future club operators and members.
(Webinars, videos, a national flying club
finder, and many other resources are collected on AOPA's website.)
Shevers said clubs offer many benefits in addition to more affordable aircraft:
Opportunities to socialize, learn, and
share experiences are valuable in ways
difficult to measure. He said club meetings offer an opportunity to expand
aviation knowledge with guest speakers-
invite local controllers, aircraft mechanics,
pilots with stories to tell. "There's no problem finding somebody to speak once a
month at a flying club," Shevers said.
His own life story would have been
very different without having access to
flying clubs and the opportunities they
create, Shevers said. "It sure wouldn't be
to have made a living for the last 53 years
in something I really love."
EMAIL james.moore@aopa.org

WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Resources for starting a flying club
or finding one in your area can be
found on AOPA Online (www.aopa.
org/Pilot-Resorces/Flying-Clubs.
aspx). Included is "AOPA's Guide to
Starting a Flying Club."
http://www.aopa.org/Pilot-Resources/Flying-Clubs.aspx http://www.aopa.org/Pilot-Resources/Flying-Clubs.aspx http://www.aopa.org/Pilot-Resources/Flying-Clubs.aspx
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2015
