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My Champ's twin?
Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2010 17:38
by Champ Dreamer
Anybody familiar with a John Abitz, Roanoke, Tx ? He is listed as the owner of Champ N1196E, I own N1197E, sequential serial numbers. I've found some info on him, but it would be nice if he is a part of this group?
Brian Walker
Re: My Champ's twin?
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:17
by joea
No idea if he is on the board. If you get ahold of him, please invite him to join!
~~~~~
John W Abitz
Aero Valley Airport, Roanoke, TX 76262
817-491-9378
Re: My Champ's twin?
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 16:11
by Omymyohellyes
Aero Valley .... That's an old one.
It's now going by "Northwest Regional" - 52F. You can find it on Google Earth (find Alliance Fort Worth, go 6 nm on a heading of 045 to find NW Regional - 33 03 07.74N 97 13 59.63W, 622 MSL).
On the west side of the runway about halfway up, just south of the tetrahedron, you find a row of T-hangars with a faded "AERO VALLEY" painted on the roof (behind a Piper twin on the ramp). Now under the "RO V" portion of that roof, there sits a nice little '46 11AC. That's my hangar.
I know of at least two Champs based on the field - maybe three. One is red with white stripes housed in a big hangar just across the runway from mine. Then there was a Champ - nice restoration (maybe 10 years old - Cream with orange/brown stripes) but the owner recently restored another one - an almost twin to the first one - I think he was selling the older one earlier in the summer. Anyway, I "helped" (showed) the owner's teen-aged Grandson how to prop it at the gas pumps. Really really nice restoration job on that new AC. Don't recall the owner's name (I'm really bad with names) or registration number on either one. Sorry.
Chief Pilot Ray
aka OMM
Re: My Champ's twin?
Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 16:56
by Champ Dreamer
I found an add in Barnstormers for some Aeronca parts from John Abitz ! I sent an e-mail to him and git a prompt call back. He still owns N1196E and has for 26 years, He recently restored it and converted it to an L-16 clone. We had a long and pleasant talk, and I plan to visit him (hopefully this summer) on a trip I am planning in my (hopefully) soon-to-fly Champ. He was amazed that we have consectutive serial number airplanes, said he's never seen that in 65 years of working on airplanes. We agreed that they needed to be photographed next to each other.
Brian Walker
N1197E