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Past Events Articles Confederate Air Force Museum 16-19-July-01 Crissy Field 06-May-01 Brooklands Museum Vimy Night 03-Mar-01 Still Working 20-Oct-00 Where is the Vimy Now? 06-Aug-00 USAIG Returns as a Major Sponsor 05-Mar-00 Summer Flying Plans are Starting to Come Together 11-Feb-00 The Vimy is Being Reassembled 17-Jan-00 Vimy At Farnborough Air Show Sep-98

Where is the Vimy Now? by Mark Rebholz 6-August-00 A lot of people are wondering about where the Vimy is now and what our future plans are. I realize there has been a lack of communication from us for the past several weeks, and for this I sincerely apologize. One reason I have not been able to communicate has been a combination of a very busy work schedule and no real news to pass on. Hopefully now I will be able to pass on some accurate information. As of the past several weeks the Vimy is in its home hangar at Gnoss Field, Novato, California, about 35 miles north of San Francisco. We have a mechanical problem that has kept the plane grounded all of this time, and this is the reason we were unable to make it to Oshkosh. Needless to say, we were all very disappointed. I was able to travel to AirVenture 2000 with my wife Patty, and Vimy Project volunteer Tina Ziolkowski. While there we met up with Vimy owner Peter McMillan and the Vimy webmaster Maria Langer and Mike Chilingerian. At least we weren't the only no-show...the Concorde was also unable to make its annual appearance. On Friday the 28th Peter and I conducted a forum about the Vimy project and the African flight. Attendance was not as expected, but the 50 or so people that showed up made it a very enjoyable event for me. The highlight for us was a visit to the Bose exhibition. Bose is the sponsor that supplied our headsets and leather helmets, and they have done a wonderful job at featuring us as their new ad campaign. According to Bose officials it is working and they are selling headsets. Look for the Bose ads in Trade-A-Plane and Flying Magazine. John LaNoue has been very busy working on the Vimy, assisted by Shawn Mulligan. I hate to give a time frame because there are so many variables, but it looks like it will be possibly a month before we will be able to begin test flying. If all goes well a relativly short test period will be followed by many appearances on the west coast. Some possible appearances are the AOPA Convention in Long Beach, California in October, and possible Fleet Week in San Francisco, also in October. Many other fly-ins, airshows and museum appearances are possible but we must wait and see when the Vimy will fly again before making commitments. Of course, we hope to make the Sun and Fun fly in in April, and Airventure 2001, but these events are so far in the future it would be irresponsible to speculate where we will be and what our sponsor commitments will be. To all of you enthusiasts who have patiently hung in there with us...thank you for your support and understanding. Hopefully we will soon have a flying Vimy with a busy appearance schedule that will allow everyone to see and enjoy the airplane.

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