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"Now you know the rest of the story"
The summer of 2007, Otto started taking flying lessons at the Ann Arbor, (KARB) Michigan airport. Working close to the airport, Otto would take lessons over his lunch hour and/or have his lunch at the airport, watching the planes coming and going. As his lessons progressed, he needed to prefect his communications skills with the control tower. Otto decided to order a $99 aviation radio from Sporty's Pilot Shop. While sitting at the airport, having his lunch, he would listen to the pilots communicating with tower and pick up on their ”Lingo”. This helped him to prefect his communication skills with the tower. By ordering this item from Sporty’s, it automatically entered his order into the sweepstakes entry.
September 12th 2007, Sporty’s had their annual drawing and his order number was drawn for the grand prize. Michael Wolfe, Vice President of Sporty’s called Otto the day of the drawing to inform him of his winning. Otto was very hesitant at first, thinking this was a scam or someone in the office was playing a trick on him. The details of the drawing and call to Otto can be viewed by going to the link listed below. After hanging up with Michael, Otto still had not realized the value of his winning, until he went home and looked at one of the Sporty’s catalog detailing the prize. That’s when it hit him….Wow…...
September 24th Otto, his wife Lyn, Theresa Whiting his flight instructor and Dave Schrader flew to Cincinnati to pick up the plane. The day at Sporty’s was hosted by Michael Wolfe President of Sporty’s and Hal Shevers Founder/Chairman of Sporty International. It was a very interesting and informative day, with Hal providing a detail tour of the facilities, giving the history of Sporty’s growth and some of the planned expansions being considered. Hal and his company provide a great number of contributions to the local aviation community, along with supporting many local community functions. Hal gave a tour of the old office building, which was the start of Sporty’s and housed the operation for many years. The facility was turned into a community function hall, used by many local organizations. Hal has indeed given back to his community in many ways. We were all very impressed by the friendly, yet professional atmosphere at Sporty’s. Hal is very proud of his oorganization, and his pride showed, as he gave us the tour.
This was the 25th airplane, Sporty has given away, as part of the annul drawing. Otto was granted permission to name it "Sporty25", and to this day you will see the Sporty25 on the tail. Setting this wonderful machine out as something unique.
Link to YouTubes drawing video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju3yYTRlz38
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