We are going to have an auction for the late Chuck Shapler’s experimental Fisher Celebrity.
When Chuck found out he was sick, he had a conversation with several members of Chapter 582. It was his expressed desire to see that when he passed his airplane was made available for purchase by all the members in good standing at 582. Chuck has gone west and left us with his airplane. We are all sad with his passing, but are grateful at the same time because of his commitment to our chapter's financial well being. This is a very fitting way for a fellow club member to pass on something to the chapter and I would hope that others might consider following suit.
The board met on August 4, to decide how to make the airplane available for purchase. After much discussion it was decided to make it available exclusively to members in good standing of Chapter 582. So if you decide to bid, you had better check with Ron Sturgill to see if you are paid up and he has your e-mail address It would be a heck of a note to win the auction only to have it determined that you weren’t paid up. Only club members are allowed to bid. They may not “ghost bid” for a friend, unless that friend is a member.
There will be three rounds of bidding. All bids will be sealed and confidential. Only the amount of the winning bid will be announced in the first two rounds. These bids may be made by e-mail anytime, but will close at the specified times and dates shown below. A sealed walk up bid may be made on the last day of bidding, prior to bidding closing, for each of the three rounds. All bidders will be kept anonymous. Rick Martin and Tony Kirk will preside over the bidding process.
Upon completion of the final round of bidding, the board will make a final decision on whether to accept the high bid. If the bid is accepted, payment will be made in full to Chuck’s estate within 7 calendar days. There will be no warranties, express or implied. The sale will be, “where is, as is.” EAA Chapter 582 accepts no responsibility as to the condition or air worthiness of the airplane. If the auction is unsuccessful, the airplane will be placed on EBay.
So what you have here in a nut shell is the opportunity to get in with a rather limited number of bidders, a chance to own a well built, low time, good looking, open cockpit, experimental airplane, that meets the requirements of the Light Sport Aircraft category. If you ever thought of building or owning a ship like this, here is your chance, pilgrim. You don’t want to miss out on this. If you don’t have the resources to buy it by yourself, start lining up some pals to go in on it with you. It’s OK if groups bid, as long as everybody is a member of 582. Now would be the time to tell your buddy(s) to join so they can get in on it. You have plenty of time to geterdone!
Bidding Schedule:
Round One:
Bids close Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 7 pm. Eastern time at the Members Meeting at the 582 hangar. The current high bid (but not the bidder's name) will be announced a short time later at the Members Meeting. Round Two bidding begins immediately after that announcement.
Round Two:
Bids close Friday, September 4, 2009 at 7 pm. Eastern time at the “Hangin' at the Hangar” event at the 582 hangar. The current high bid (but not the bidder's name) will be announced a short time later that evening. Final Round bidding begins immediately thereafter.
Final Round:
Final bids are due no later than Friday, September 11, 2009 at 7 pm. Eastern time at the “Hangin' at the Hangar” event at the 582 hangar. The Board will review the high bid and, if accepted, announce the winner that evening.
Good Luck!
Each bid must contain bidder’s name, phone number, and amount of bid. No conditional bids will be accepted
Send bids to: Rick Martin at martin@fraser-ip.com and/or Tony Kirk at tbirdrv@gmail.com
Details and Pictures are in this PDF document.
Fisher Flying Products (FFP) Website
FFP Celebrity Specifications
MYBIPLANE.COM is a collection of photographs of someone else's FFP Celebrity Biplane project that's now flying, so you can get an idea of how much work went into Chuck's beautiful Celebrity.
