L-4 Sweepstakes Winner Flies Home

February 22, 2017 - An excited Jeff Troxel, EAA Lifetime 9024246, the winner of EAA’s 2016 Aircraft Sweepstakes, visited Oshkosh February 17 to take delivery of his new 1945 Piper L-4 and fly it home.

“This is humbling to get a prize of this magnitude, and it’s a very special airplane as well,” said Jeff, who was joined by his wife, Dawn, and son, Trenton.

The World War II warbird will be the family’s first airplane. Tentative plans have already been made to bring the L-4 to local fly-ins and share its historical significance with others.

“In the days since we got the news I’ve downloaded some history books, including Ken Wakefield’s book about the role that L-4s played in the war,” Jeff said. “The more you read the more humbling it is. … We want to learn the story so that we can tell the story.”

Jeff said with the help of his son, who has commercial and CFI ratings and is an A&P, he plans to keep the airplane true to its restoration and maintain it as meticulously as possible.

What’s even more special for this family is that Trenton will be giving his dad tailwheel instruction.

“I’ve been coming here since second or third grade, and it’s cool to finally be flying a plane away from here,” Trenton said. “I went to college for four years and I got a lot of tailwheel time there and became an instructor, so now I get to share that back.”

Together, Jeff and Trenton flew the L-4 from Oshkosh to its new home at Timmerman Field in Milwaukee.

Entries are now being accepted for the 2017 EAA Aircraft Sweepstakes: a striking Van’s RV-12 fitted with a Rotax 912ULS engine and a dual display Dynon SkyView HDX avionics system.