AOPA Prepares Debonair For Sweepstakes

AOPA has a strong presence this week at EAA AirVenture, and visitors exploring the central show grounds can find the AOPA sweepstakes airplane on display, a 1963 Beech Debonair, a restoration project still in progress. The engine was in good shape when AOPA acquired it, but it has a completely new avionics panel -- after about four months of work -- and the cabin interior also will get a thorough overhaul. AOPA Pilot editor-at-large Tom Horne has been overseeing the process. "We have full ADS-B, in and out," he told AVweb at Oshkosh this week. "We have electronic charts, and a total of about seven screens in the cockpit. If you get lost in this airplane, you have a serious problem."

The airplane overhaul will be complete by the end of this year, Horne said. It will be awarded to a winner in October 2014 at AOPA Summit in Palm Springs. The sweepstakes is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada, age 19 or older. To take the Debonair home, the winner must be at least a student pilot. No purchase is necessary to enter or win the AOPA Debonair sweepstakes. The official rules (PDF) and entry instructions are posted online.