AOPA’s 2008 Get Your Glass Piper Archer Sweepstakes airplane seemed to have a magnetic force pulling members to it. Those heading from the aircraft display made a beeline to the Archer proudly featured on AOPA’s front lawn.
Pilots instinctively started a thorough preflight of the aircraft’s exterior, looking over every nook and cranny, running their hands over the propeller, and popping their heads inside the cockpit.
“I want it,” said Christopher Weiss of Silver Spring, Md. Weiss, who is a member of a flying club that offers a Piper Arrow, Cessna 172, and Cessna 152, said that winning the Archer would give him more freedom to fly long trips.
“That looks a lot better than Daddy’s [airplane],” Stan Fetter told his son as they looked over the Archer. “That’s probably the first one [sweepstakes airplane] in a long time that would be useful for my family, so we’d probably keep it.”
This year’s sweepstakes airplane features an Aspen Avionics EFD1000 primary flight display. For the latest on the aircraft’s restoration, see our sweepstakes updates.