6 minute read
PlaneTags
AROUND THE GROUNDS
PLANETAGS: OWN A PIECE OF AVIATION HISTORY
BY SAM OLESON
AIRVENTURE TODAY STAFF
WHEN DAVE HALL, EAA 1475042, began MotoArt 21 years ago, it was simply a hobby that “kind of spun out of control a little bit.” Initially calling the company Propeller Art, Dave and his former business partner rescued old propellers, polished them, and then created sculptures with them. The business soon expanded into usable furniture made of discarded aircraft parts and grew from there. About six years ago, a new part of Dave’s business emerged — PlaneTags.
“I had the idea for PlaneTags numerous years before that. I was working on an old P-51 Mustang and had the damaged air scoop that a client had brought in. And I realized that we couldn’t get rid of the material because it was the authentic skin from this P-51,” Dave explained. “So I ran up and penciled out an idea. And instead of like a dog tag, we’ll come up with a plane tag, and I actually made a prototype and that sucker sat in my pocket for years before I finally acted on it. One year for Christmas, I came up with six different plane tags on a Black Friday, hoping to see that it would take off.”
Take off it has. While MotoArt continues to produce high-end furniture, PlaneTags has grown from an idea to a separate business. Dave estimated the company has documented around 140 different aircraft types with tags produced out of authentic skins. The company works with a variety of museums and organizations to acquire skins to create new tags.
DAVE HALL
PHOTO COURTESY OF PLANETAGS
“We are working with a lot of different museums now who become advocates of our work, including Pima Air & Space,” Dave said. “We just heard the Smithsonian National Museum will be carrying our work starting in September. And what’s great is a lot of new aircraft are really coming out of the woodwork for us, with lots of different museums and people participating with trying to add to the PlaneTags collection. Really our goal is really trying to categorize aviation history as best as we can.”
While MotoArt has exhibited at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh before, 2022 will be the first time PlaneTags will be represented at the World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration. The MotoArt/PlaneTags booth is No. 2021 in the Collins Aerospace Exhibit Hangar B. Additionally, Dave plans to check out the inventory EAA has available for potential future B-17 Aluminum Overcast tags.
With it being the first time PlaneTags will be at AirVenture, Dave is excited to interact in person with folks who’ve already started collecting, as well as introduce more aviation enthusiasts to his unique product.
“To me, it’s almost an educational purpose. A lot of people might have seen us on social media advertising or friends might have a PlaneTag, but what we like to do is educate everyone on what we’re trying to do and show them the work and show them that these are the genuine skins. This is genuine paint that you see on them. … What we’re really looking forward to is just to be able to talk and educate everyone on PlaneTags and hopefully they walk away with one. It’s a little contagious. People start with one PlaneTag, and we always say, everyone remembers their first PlaneTag, because before you know it, you’re collecting your own fleet of aircraft and the tags.”
AROUND THE GROUNDS
AirVenture Prepared for Whatever Weather Brings
BY BARBARA A. SCHMITZ
AIRVENTURE TODAY STAFF
“BE PREPARED” MAY be the Boy Scouts of America’s motto. But it could be EAA’s motto as well, especially when it comes to weather during its annual fly-in convention.
“We’ve had hazardous weather policies in effect for well over a decade,” said Dick Knapinski, EAA’s director of communications. But in recent years EAA has worked with the National Weather Service and is now one of the few major events in Wisconsin that has the NWS’s storm ready designation.
“That means we have worked with the National Weather Service and have a specific plan on how to react to any major weather event that may occur,” Knapinski said. A lot of the plan is done at the front end in creating that sequence of events that should take place, rather than just reacting to situations, he said.
For instance, for Saturday’s storm, EAA, the National Weather Service, the Winnebago County Emergency office, and others started watching the weather days before, knowing it could have an impact on AirVenture activities. Then, on Saturday, when it was clear that the bad weather was coming, they met three or four times to monitor the storm’s progress. By afternoon, EAA was sending out text messages and adding alerts to its social media accounts, as well as putting messages on the PA system, about the storm and precautions that people should take for themselves, their airplanes, and other belongings. In case of tornadoes, EAA also has sirens on the grounds that they can use to warn people.
“We first started telling people that bad weather was coming, then later encouraged them to prepare by doing things like tying down airplanes, and then told them exactly when the bad weather was expected to arrive,” Knapinski said. “We were very specific so people could react and make their own decisions, whether that meant taking shelter in EAA’s museum, getting off the grounds, deciding how to secure their objects, or whatever.”
During a storm in 2021, EAA also worked with the Oshkosh Arena to open its doors for campers and others on the grounds who needed a place to take refuge.
Knapinski praised the pilot community for taking weather seriously. “Thankfully, the pilot community is probably one of the most aware of the country,” he said, so they take the warnings seriously. “They listened. They tied down their airplanes. They prepared.”
He said there was no reported injuries due to Saturday’s storm. Damage was limited mainly to downed branches and trees in the campground, an airplane that flipped on its nose despite being properly tied down near the chapel, and damage to some aircraft on Boeing Plaza, likely caused after they were hit by moving debris.
BY AFTERNOON, EAA WAS SENDING OUT TEXT MESSAGES AND ADDING ALERTS TO ITS SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS, AS WELL AS PUTTING MESSAGES ON THE PA SYSTEM, ABOUT THE STORM AND PRECAUTIONS THAT PEOPLE SHOULD TAKE FOR THEMSELVES, THEIR AIRPLANES, AND OTHER BELONGINGS.
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MTSU to Invest $62 Million in New Aerospace Campus
Middle Tennessee State University is celebrating its 80th anniversary of flight training by making a significant investment in its Aerospace Department. The state of Tennessee recently allocated more than $62 million that will allow MTSU to build a new and expanded aerospace hub in nearby Shelbyville, just minutes away from its main Murfreesboro campus. Meanwhile, as we plan for the future, we recently welcomed 10 additional aircraft, bringing our training fleet to almost 50 to accommodate the growth of our program.
MTSU Aerospace continues to reach new heights!
mtsu.edu/aerospace
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