They have owned their 1953 Piper Tri-Pacer since 1994. It can carry four passengers and cruises about 115 miles per hour. Besides numerous trips around the Midwest they have flown it to Short Wing Piper Club conventions in Lake Texhoma, Oklahoma; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Middletown Ohio and Denver, Colorado. Due to bad weather they had to drive to last year's convention in Lakeland, Florida. They have four grandchildren, Brandyn (11), Zachary (10), Jacob (3) and Annaliese (3). Tony gave all four grandchildren their first airplane rides! Annaliese was the only one to take her first ride in N8976C. She was only 22 days old when she took her first ride in a Short Wing Piper! Jacob took his first ride in a Tri-Pacer (N3271B) belonging to our friends Wil and Carl Schaffner.

We have been planning this trip to Alaska ever since it was proposed to have the 2001 SWPC convention in Anchorage. Anchorage is roughly 3000 miles from our home base of Creve Coeur Airport in St. Louis, MO. That would be flying direct. We will be taking a route selected to avoid high terrain which will add to the distance we will have to travel. The convention airport in Anchorage is Merrill Field (PAMR). The Alaska Chapter has some great events planned. The one I am looking forward to is the flight North of the Arctic Circle. We have flown our Tri-Pacer around the Statue of Liberty. It would also be great to be able to brag about flying over the Arctic Circle!

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Tony & Rosemary Petruso

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