South Carolina Aviation Medallion - Your Help Requested

Everyone: The South Carolina Aviation Medallion was an original, aviation art medallion commissioned to help promote and celebrate aviation in the State of South Carolina and across the southeastern region of the United States. It was a unique art piece intended to be flown by aircraft owners and pilots in the course of their normal flying routines and to be handed off to other pilots to continue its journey of promoting aviation and sport flying. Its accompanying logbook and associated website allowed pilots to document the flights they shared with the medallion.

Unfortunately, the Medallion is missing, having disappeared during its travels now for about a year. I would like to encourage the RV community to help us to find it. The ?medallion package? included the 6? medallion itself, a custom leather carrying case (made for us by the talented Becky Orndorff), a custom Log Book for logging medallion flights, and a small, battery powered GPS for tracking. The tracking page on the Medallion website (www.scavmedallion.com) has not shown it?s whereabouts now for many months, suggesting that it has failed or is not being actively maintained in a charged state.

My flying friends and I had a lot of fun putting this program together here in South Carolina and would GREATLY appreciate the best efforts of the Vans Air Force community in finding it. I am earnestly appealing to the RV community to help us track it down. There is no suggestion here that its disappearance is the result of some nefarious activity---it?s just off the map and we?d like to have it back. To be honest, it is a valuable aviation artifact, not only in terms of its commissioning costs and establishment as a program, but also for its value as a symbol of the community and fellowship of grass roots American aviation---especially, South Carolina aviation.

If anyone has any idea of the whereabouts of the Medallion, please contact me, either though the VAF or via private email. We?ll send someone to pick it up if necessary.

My sincere thanks in advance to the RV community.

Regards,


Lee?

Looking to bump this discussion forward...finding the Medallion is really important to us pilots here in South Carolina. I'm hoping Paul Dye (who knows everyone) or Vlad (who's been everywhere) or others whose aviation community reach is equally extensive, will have heard of or have met someone who's seen it. It was entrusted to the South Carolina Aviation Association since I left the country on an extended retirement trip. The Medallion disappeared not very long after.

The last time I was aware of its whereabout was last year about this time. It was (I believe) located at Henson Field, Hagerstown, Maryland. It had been there for several weeks apparently, but someone took it just the day before I got there (happened to be visiting friends in the area).

We're asking everyone to pass the news of this search on to their flying buddies. The Medallion is a splendidly symbolic ambassador for general aviation. We'd love to ensure it gets a fresh start and a long run. If you know where it is or can find it, let me know and my flying friends and I will take responsibility for it going forward. We'll sort out the GPS and the tracking page so that everyone can know when it has come to an airport near them.

Thanks for the help...


Lee...

I'm a member of the Hagerstown QB hangar and at the next meet I'll inquire if anyone has any information on it.

I'm with the Charlotte, NC EAA chapter and I will make our group aware of this as well.

Hopefully it shows up...and soon!

Can't thank you guys enough...


Lee...

Everyone: Hate to keep having to do this, but still no responses or anything like widespread help on this useful grass-roots aviation project. Just bumping it to the top of the board again.

Surely someone has seen the Medallion in the last few months and can give us a starting point that will allow a bit of "tracking it down" to be accomplished. It's a beautiful aviation medallion and ought to be flying regularly as an ambassador for the sport instead of sitting in someone's baggage compartment somewhere!

Though there is absolutely no suggestion here that anyone in the VAF community is "sitting on" the medallion, here's hoping the enthusiastic VAF community will nevertheless get involved in helping us find it.

Would love to hear from anyone who's seen it, even if it's been awhile.

Regards,


Lee...

I will be in WV over the weekends and talk to a non RV heavyweight. We have to find it. I would love to have it onboard on June 15th for four weeks.

Just the right attitude, Vlad. Good luck and thanks for the help with the search!


Lee...

logansc said:

Surely someone has seen the Medallion in the last few months and can give us a starting point that will allow a bit of "tracking it down" to be accomplished.

Click to expand...

Surely seen it? I never even heard of it until now. But I'm willing to help. Come up with a single page "WANTED: Dead or Alive" poster PDF and I'll gladly post one with permission everywhere I make a pit stop.

Mike: Good idea; I'll see what I can come up with.

The Medallion has been mentioned a few times on VAF; here is the first:

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=122269&highlight=medallion


Lee...

I really hope the medal is found but I would not be surprised if someone decided to keep it for a souvenir. There are more folks around like that than I like to think about. Some years ago there was a stuffed animal that belonged to a school geography class. It was traveling with a log book that you got signed and the class tracked it's travels. I carried it on several trips. I thought that was a cool way for them to learn.

medallion

Logan,
Being a SC boy myself I will gladly do what I can...post flyers etc...
I currently work at a Naval Air Station and will also post a flyer in base ops. You never know who may have seen it.
WISC

I know the effort that was put into making this medallion a reality. Certainly, someone knows where it is, or was when they last saw it. Its a shame that it is someplace, and no one knows where. Gee---
Tom

When it's last known location was KHGR, do you know if it was with a resident of the field or accompanying a transient? Still no success on my end of locating anyone familiar with it.

South Carolina Aviation Medallion---Great News!

Special thanks to all who checked in offering their assistance and as well to those who have been quietly on the lookout for the medallion. It has been located. I will be going up to get it next week (my Rocket is down for the moment with upgrades). Don't know its condition or where it's been, but it's certainly exciting to know its whereabouts.

I'll get full report out next week when I get a look at its accompanying logbook, etc.

Seriously, thanks to all who have made finding the medallion something of a priority. I'll take lots of pictures.

Hope you all get a chance to fly it one of these days!


Lee...

Great news. Looking forward to follow-up story...

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
Tom

That is great news. Maybe next time I am in SC I can take it flying somewhere.

Thanks to all who've been following the story. I don't know the whole deal yet myself but hopefully all will be revealed next week. The Medallion will be put right back into "operational status", so anyone who wants to fly it, most certainly can. I can't wait to get a look at the companion Medallion logbook.

I'll get the word out next week.


Lee...

It's been a while without updates any news? Is the Medallion back in travel mode? Where had it been during these three months since located? Time to update the website as well.

Vlad: Thanks for checking in. We have been flying the Medallion mostly locally (in fact it flew in a beautiful modern Waco yesterday!), but have been keeping it close to home until we can get the tracker and the tracking page going properly. My apologies for not keeping the website up to date, I've been busy trying to get my F1 back in the air after an extensive avionics/ignition/"other stuff" upgrade. We got it back together today and got it started but not without a list of things that we'll have to go back and address. Hope to fly tomorrow. Everyone here is going wide open---I've had days worth of help from Raymo who's RV-7 was just finished (he's still flying off his program hours) and from Tom of TS Flightines who's building an RV-7 of his own.

Thanks to everyone who volunteered their services in finding it. We're still in the dark as to where it was but the bottom line was that the South Carolina Aviation Association hooked up with it. I brought it home from Columbia, SC and it's back safe and sound. I'll let everyone know as soon as we get the tracking issue worked out. In the meantime, seriously, thanks for the interest...I'll vector it up your way once we can track it.

Regards,


Lee...

Excellent news! I guess it will miss ice runway this year. We are planning tomorrow one last time on a frozen lake in Maine. There will be always another year.