AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - August 2013 - 22

FOUNDATION FOCUS

Donating your aircraft

BY BRUCE LANDSBERG
AOPA Foundation President

Saying goodbye can be a good thing

BRUCE LANDSBERG

leads the AOPA
Foundation, which
helps fund the work
to protect, defend,
and support
general aviation. He
will be a speaker
at AOPA Aviation
Summit 2013.

22 | AOPA PILOT August 2013

THERE MAY COME A DAY when your trusty airplane, the
one that took you on so many memory-making journeys, just isn’t such a big part of your life anymore.
Once upon a time, you both spent hours together—visiting new places, making new friends, visiting old ones,
and seeing the world from new heights. But now, for one
reason or another, you simply aren’t putting her to good
use, and so there she sits gathering dust in the hangar.
Not only is this a nonproductive asset, it’s deteriorating!
Aircraft, like people, like to be engaged. So, what to do?
Jim Miles knew what to do. Miles, a retired U.S. Air
Force officer, donated his 2008 Tecnam Light Sport
aircraft to the AOPA Foundation. Now 84 years old,
he didn’t even get his private pilot certificate until he
was 60. He rented, flew, stopped, and finally decided to
buy. After flying the Tecnam for two years, health, combined with sometimes uncooperative weather, made
it hard for him to fly enough to maintain proficiency.
Recognizing that fact meant the airplane needed to go.
He attempted to sell the aircraft but the tedious
process took more time and effort than he wanted to
invest, so he contacted the AOPA Foundation. Within
one week, the title to the airplane was transferred to the
foundation and the fixed expenses stopped immediately.
Jack Williams donated his meticulously maintained
Mooney to the AOPA Foundation. After 23 years and
almost 3,700 flying hours crisscrossing the country for
both business and pleasure, he and his wife decided to
sell the aircraft that had served them so well. But with
the market for airplanes being sluggish, he contacted us
and we gladly made arrangements to take it. Williams’
airplane recently resulted in a generous $95,000 donation to the foundation.
A donation to the AOPA Foundation (www.aopa
foundation.org) preserves the freedom to fly. The United
States is one of the few places where GA has not quite
been regulated out of the skies, which is why AOPA was
created in the first place in 1939. And we intend to keep
reminding the government that the skies belong to the
people, not the airlines or the government!
Such generous gifts go a long way in helping the
foundation take on the biggest challenges facing GA;
activities like those of the Air Safety Institute and the
Center to Advance the Pilot Community. AOPA membership dues alone just cannot support these important
and ambitious activities. Donations play an extremely
critical role in helping us take on the hardest work.

Of course, there’s the tax benefit to you. When we
resell the aircraft, the gross proceeds we receive from
the sale can translate into a healthy tax deduction for
you. Your accountant can help you with the details.
Buying and selling aircraft is not an easy proposition.
Consider the aggravation of trying to market it yourself,
and deal with all the people (if any) who respond to your
ad. If it were that easy the broker community would not
exist. Which leads us to a second alternative: Paying a
broker to sell it for you and handing over a significant
brokerage fee, if he’s able to sell it at all; and third, paying hangar fees, insurance, and marketing expenses on
the airplane until it sells, which could be months.
A former AOPA Foundation Board of Visitors member, Lloyd Huck, donated not one, but two aircraft to
help the cause. Huck was an active pilot well into his
80s and flew a Cirrus SR22. You will remember that in
2009 Huck’s Cirrus was the AOPA sweepstakes aircraft.
He then downsized to an LSA, a new red American
Champion, which he flew until health and age crept up
on him in his early 90s. Huck was one of the Greatest
Generation, flying B–29s in World War II, and he was
one of general aviation’s greatest supporters—generously helping us to preserve the freedom of the skies
that he fought for so long ago.
Occasionally, a donated aircraft stays with the
foundation. N8121K, a well-loved 1978 Piper Archer,
belonged to Lou Torres and for all the reasons cited
above, he decided to give her to us. For more than a
decade 21K flew 300 hours a year serving as an avionics
testbed and photo platform. We installed angle-of-attack
equipment, GPS gear, and photographed multifunction
displays from all perspectives. Images of her engine
compartment, instrument panel, landing gear, and more
will live on for years in AOPA Pilot and Flight Training
magazine articles and Air Safety Institute online courses.
She introduced many people to the world of flight and
served as trainer and transportation vehicle. Piper 21K
has now gone on to a new home and continues to fly,
bringing pleasure to yet another pilot.
A pilot’s relationship with an aircraft goes beyond
the obvious. In most cases it is cherished memories and
adventures. Sometimes it turns into a money and aggravation pit. We can help. Let the AOPA Foundation turn
your donated aircraft into a contribution that will have
a lasting impact on our freedom to fly. It could be one of
the best legacies you could ever leave.
AOPA

http://www.aopafoundation.org http://www.aopafoundation.org

AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - August 2013

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