{"id":2094,"date":"2009-05-14T13:31:19","date_gmt":"2009-05-14T13:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=443"},"modified":"2009-05-14T13:31:19","modified_gmt":"2009-05-14T13:31:19","slug":"the-end-of-an-era-1993-to-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/fantasy-of-flight\/the-end-of-an-era-1993-to-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"The End of an Era! \/ 1993 to 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TODAY IS THE END OF AN ERA! \u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-445 colorbox-2094\" title=\"blog-shot-pauls-cake\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/blog-shot-pauls-cake-1024x818.jpg\" alt=\"blog-shot-pauls-cake\" width=\"576\" height=\"460\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The last truckload of all my aircraft parts arrived from Miami, ending over a decade and a half of trucking to Fantasy of Flight. Fantasy of Flight restorer and mechanic Paul Stecewycz was in charge of the effort and hauled most of the almost 200 truckloads. \u00a0In January, I flew the Grumman TBM Avenger up, which was that last flyable aircraft we had left in Miami at what was the old Weeks Air Museum facility at the Tamiami Airport. \u00a0One or two other loads were brought up recently leaving only the wing of my Kawasaki Ki-46 Hein Japanese fighter. \u00a0<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_476\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 583px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-476    colorbox-2094\" title=\"hurricane-andrew_30-downsized1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/hurricane-andrew_30-downsized1.jpg\" alt=\"Hurricane Andrew clean-up of Weeks Air Museum two weeks after August 24, 1992\" width=\"583\" height=\"385\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hurricane Andrew clean-up of Weeks Air Museum two weeks after August 24, 1992<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I originally purchased the Fantasy of Flight property in 1987 and after\u00a0four years of permitting and dealing with 17 regulatory agencies\u00a0I finally got the permits to build Fantasy of Flight four months after\u00a0Hurricane Andrew devastated my Miami facility on August 24th, 1992. \u00a0Within a year I moved to Central Florida to focus on the project. \u00a0The first building completed was the storage building on site where we now offer\u00a0daily\u00a0tours. \u00a0I eventually sold my house and warehouses and now the only thing I have left in Miami is my mother!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-462 colorbox-2094\" title=\"blog-shot-paul\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/blog-shot-paul-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"blog-shot-paul\" width=\"574\" height=\"430\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Paul insisted on making the last load, and rightly so, for he said it would be somewhat of a &#8220;spiritual experience&#8221; for him as it closed the door on a very long project. \u00a0Paul was responsible for inventorying many boxes of parts brought up that now reside either as airplanes on display or pallet racks of parts stored to the ceilings in two buildings totaling 44,000 square feet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-458 colorbox-2094\" title=\"blog-shot-trucker-trophy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/blog-shot-trucker-trophy-1024x459.jpg\" alt=\"blog-shot-trucker-trophy\" width=\"590\" height=\"265\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It was somewhat of a surprise when he rounded the corner of the building for &#8220;a photo shot for my blog.&#8221; \u00a0What he didn&#8217;t realize was that he was met with a banner, many of the Fantasy of Flight staff, champagne, and cake. \u00a0After a quick speech and a toast, I presented Paul with a trophy thanking him for all his hard work and effort. \u00a0We will display the banner in the restoration facility as a reminder of a past gone by!<\/p>\n<p>Kermit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TODAY IS THE END OF AN ERA! \u00a0 The last truckload of all my aircraft parts arrived from Miami, ending over a decade and a half of trucking to Fantasy of Flight. Fantasy of Flight\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,42,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy-of-flight","category-kawasaki-hein-ki-46","category-kermit-weeks","the-end-of-an-era-1993-to-2009"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}