Tony Anger was guest speaker at the Sun Lakes Aero Club’s Feb. 20 gathering at Sun Lakes Country Club.
Gary Vacin
“Once these veterans, especially the older ones, get up in that airplane, they’re slow getting in. But when they jump out, they’ve gone back in time to being an 18-year-old.” That’s how Tony Anger, owner and founder of Grounded No More, described taking veterans for an airplane ride free of charge. He spoke to an audience of about 50 members and guests during a presentation to the Sun Lakes Aero Club gathering on Feb. 20.
Based at Falcon Field in Mesa, the organization takes veterans for flights in Amazing Grace, a bright-yellow 1943 Fairchild PT-26 World War II trainer. The flights are free of charge, with support from donations.
Anger described how his organization came to be. “While working for the Commemorative Air Force at Falcon Field, which offers public rides in vintage warplanes, I met a young man who wanted to fly in a B-17 to honor his grandfather who flew a Flying Fortress in World War II,” he said.
“It was a great story, right until he went to pay. When the young man heard the cost would be $425, that ended the conversation, along with his dream of taking a ride in a B-17.” Instead, Anger said he offered to fly the young man in his Fairchild—for free.
After a conversation with his wife, Anger said he started Grounded No More and began taking veterans on Honor Flights in 2006. Now the organization has taken more than 530 veterans for Honor Flights.
The Sun Lakes Aero Club is an official Sun Lakes organization made up of pilots, former pilots, and others interested in any aspect of aviation. The club has monthly gatherings November through April featuring speakers on a wide variety of aviation-related topics. The final gathering of the year will feature a presentation by a helicopter pilot with the Mesa Police Department based at Falcon Field in Mesa.
For additional information, contact Cannon Hill at 509-539-7857 or Gary Vacin at 480-298-7017.