60 • Piper Flyer July 2021 Piper PA-32 owners converged on Memphis this past April, for what may be the largest gathering of the PA-32 series ever. By Spencer Hamons

July 2021 | Piper Flyer • 61 nyone who has dared spread across the group and became a General Aviation. A Maryland-based air- to venture into the grassroots effort by various members plane tinting company was on-site and world of social media to facilitate what is believed to be the tinted 19 aircraft over the weekend. in the last couple of largest gathering of PA-32s at any one Aircraft owners and their families years might find this location in history. enjoyed amazing food, fun camarade- communications As the event dates approached, all rie, and a vibe equivalent to any of the medium trite, frus- the rookie event planners felt they were best classic car runs, as people fawned trating, and distrust- getting a little “behind the airplane,” as over each others airplanes and unique ful, with a handful of the signup roster exceeded 80, then 90, accessorizing. other adjectives that and eventually 120 registered aircraft and Just like every car show where some- shouldn’t grace the over 300 attendees. one shows up with a Ferrari, Bugatti, or pages of Piper Flyer. Five core members with knowledge something else exotic, Piper got in on However, April 23-25 of this year saw of the local area divided responsibilities the action by bringing in a brand-new Athe positive potential of social media amongst themselves as Master Planner, M600 equipped with the latest Autoland when it brought together a group of Virtual Operations, Event Ground Opera- technology. like-minded aviators at the first PA-32 tions, Event Static Operations, and Raffle The staff from Piper didn’t just show (Cherokee Six, Lance, Saratoga, 6XT) Coordinator. Others assumed secondary up to show off, but participated in every fly-in hosted at Olive Branch and tertiary duties as needed to fill in aspect of the fly-in, staying throughout (KOLV) in Olive Branch, , just logistical needs. the event and even volunteering for a southeast of Memphis. Various members began simply men- larger role next year. The fly-in started as an idea from tioning the fly-in to their vendor part- Lodging for attendees was coordi- PA-32 owner Troy Kornacki, a prominent ners, and these generous vendors began nated in downtown Memphis at the member of the Facebook and MeWe offering raffle giveaways, creating a buzz historic with group din- group “Piper PA-32 (Six, Saratoga, & amongst the attendees. Eventually, these ners scheduled at Texas de Brazil and Lance) Owners & Pilots,” which has raffle items exceeded $50,000 and were the ever-popular local barbecue joint, over 6,000 members. Troy’s idea quickly provided by nearly every major name in Charlie Vergo’s Rendezvous.

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CONCORDEBATTERY.COM 626.813.1234 | ISO 9001 + AS9100 66 • Piper Flyer July 2021 Special thanks must be given year long. Send questions or com- to those PA-32 owners that put so ments to [email protected]. much of their time and effort into this event: Troy Kornacki, James RESOURCESRESOURCES Sandlin, Cannon Loughry, Todd Woods, and Butch “The Man” Maul- Olive Branch Airport din. Thank you all for everything obms.us/airport/ Engine Monitoring you did to make this a safe, fun, and & Flight Instruments memorable event! Peabody Hotel ANR Headsets peabodymemphis.com Spencer Hamons owns a 1981 Piper PA-32R-301T Turbo Sarato- Piper PA-32 (Six, Saratoga, & Lance) ga with his wife Coryee. They are Owners & Pilots based out of the fourth-highest facebook.com/ airport in the country; Angel Fire, groups/1420056191657563/ Lowest Prices New Mexico (KAXX), at 8,380 feet on Radios msl. Spencer serves in the Taos “Piper PA32 Series” Go LED & Be Brighter - In Stock Squadron of Civil Air Patrol and MeWe Group: mewe.com loves living in the mountains where he and his family can enjoy skiing Texas de Brazil in the winter, golfing in the summer, texasdebrazil.com/locations/ Jeeping, and of course, flying all memphis/

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