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CarsLift, truck and install a donated aircraft at the S.C. Fire Academy, all on a Saturday morning
- Original The Columbia Star/STPNS article: Lift, truck and install a donated aircraft at the S.C. Fire Academy, all on a Saturday morning
COLUMBIA, South Carolina (STPNS) -- On Saturday morning, July 12, forces gathered at Aiken Airport's outlying tarmac. Around 9 am, members of the S.C. National Guard and two of their "lowboys" (flatbeds) pulled up alongside a cannibalized Mitsubishi MU2 aircraft for its move to the S.C. Fire Academy off Monticello Road.
Lexington- based Southway's Vance Alexander commandeered a lift crane, which he drove into the mix of vehicles on the tarmac.
Once the rear horizontal stabilizer and the wing were removed, the MU2 was ready for lifting off the tarmac and loading onto its lowboy. Already every salvageable part was stripped for reuse, leaving a shell of an aircraft, perfect for rescue and recovery training at the S.C. Fire Academy.
The MU2 was donated by Tom Sapp and his Air 1st Companies of Aiken.
Once Sapp volunteered the MU2, Columbia's Jim Hamilton put together the program to move the aircraft from Aiken Airport to the S.C. Fire Academy off Monticello Road, just south of Jenkinsville. Hamilton first thought a helicopter lift made sense for a quick flight to the academy, disregarding roads and bridge overpasses entirely.
Members of the S.C. National Guard stand with Jim Hamilton (R) and S.C. Fire Academy's new training prop, the MU2.
Abundant caution grounded the helicopter lift, so a road trip convoy became necessary. Hamilton talked the S.C. Nation- al Guard into a convoy dominated by two lowboys, one with the aircraft and another with the wing and the rear horizontal stabilizer.
The Southway crane and its operator Vance Alexander were also subsidized, so there were few expenses.
The operation went without a hitch, taking no more time than the few hours between breakfast and lunch on a Saturday morning.
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