LSA Owner Launches Contest To Give Away Airplane

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Moses Frenck, owner of a Storm Century light sport airplane, has decided to give away his LSA as a prize to a winning essay writer rather than letting it languish in the classifieds. Frenck, a 20-year pilot who has owned the Century since 2010, had listed his New Jersey-based aircraft on Trade-A-Plane for $75,000. While he had interested buyers, their biggest hindrance was getting financing for an LSA that is not common in the U.S., Frenck told AVweb. The Century, which comes from an Italian company, is more common in Australia and Europe. “Banks are reluctant to finance piston aircraft in general, and aviation finance companies tend to stay away from pre-owned LSAs and manufacturers that are not well known,” Frenck said.

His solution was to launch his pay-per-entry essay contest, a model often used to give away big-ticket items like cars and houses. If he receives at least 500 entries with a $100 entry fee for each, with a maximum of 1,000 essays, Frenck will get a minimum of $50,000 for the airplane. A panel of three unnamed professional writers and editors will serve as the judges, but a sincere love of flying will outweigh technical writing ability, Frenck said. The winner will likely be “someone who would use the airplane to share the love of flying, such as giving rides to young people or anyone who’s curious. Someone who would put the airplane to good use, not just have one for the sake of saying they own an airplane,” he said.

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