Today I got a very emotional call from Marty Mason's wife to let me know that he
passed away.
The reason I am posting this here is because some of you may know Marty's Europa
story (he used to post in this forum) and it is a very important one for us
having another Europa in the air today (my monowheel N11EU). But mainly I am
posting
because Marty dedication to this airplane became my inspiration to finish
this Europa.
Marty originally purchased kit A291 that, after 17 years of dreaming that it
would
one day fly, took to the air last year as N11EU.
Marty bought the kit new back in 2004 but Europa USA went belly up before he got
the complete kit. He had to slowly buy again all the parts he didn't get
(including
buying the wings from the UK). When I met him he told me he actually paid
for his kit twice, talk about dedication! Life got in the way of building
this airplane, as it happens, and years went by. But he never lost hope of being
able to build his beloved Europa one day.
At one point both age and health reasons prompted him to donate his kit to an
EAA
chapter hoping that they would use it as a youth build program and get it built.
This didn't happen and the EAA chapter decided not to build the kit and
instead sell it to finance an RV-12 build.
I bought Kit A291 from the chapter. Before going to Atlanta to pick it up I
researched
the original owner of the kit and that is how I met Marty. I never met
anyone so enthusiastic about an airplane design. He loved the Europa. He
actually
helped me by combing through his house and finding parts that were misplaced.
The end result is that the airframe kit was 100% complete after 13 years
of storage and several moves!
During the build Marty and I communicated a lot. I would post updates on my EAA
builders log and would send him an email every time I updated to let him know.
His wife told me today that he would call her to go watch the new build updates
every time they came up. We also talked over the phone often (most times he
would call me).
He once confided that he was very happy I bought the kit and that his baby
finally
flew. He told me he basically realized this dream through me.
The partially unfulfilled promise is that I promised Marty I would take him up
in the airplane. Because of the issues I had with he previous engine (and life,
again) I never made the flight to Atlanta to take him up but I was hoping to
do that this year. It is now too late. I will never forgive myself for not
making
this a priority. However, I do know that by finishing and flying A291 I probably
brought Marty's some happiness and closure. I am glad for his drive to
maintain this kit in good shape for so many years and for holding on to see it
take to the air.
His wife told me today: "He is now up there looking after you every time you fly
his Europa". And yes Marty, this is your Europa.
Chris
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=506735#506735
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