AMA member Joseph Pirozzoli recently nominated his friend, Lanny Hansen, for the AMA Foundation's Copilot Recognition Program. Today, Joseph shares a story about Lanny and his contributions to a club flagpole restoration project:
"Early this past Spring, our flagpole had become disabled when the pulley wheel broke. As such, it became impossible to raise and lower a flag. The obvious dilemma was how to repair the darn thing. Parts were not of particular concern, but getting to the top of the pole (safely and economically) was the hurdle. Namely, that we'd need to rent a man-lift and we'd need to rent it two times: once in order to remove and measure the existing components, and again to reinstall either repaired and/or new components.
"The man-lift we'd need was fairly pricy and since the flagpole was a low priority, we sat on it for a bit in hopes that another idea or less costly alternative might come to mind. Then, a wonderful thing happened. A friend of the club (i.e., the brother of one of our longstanding members) donated the cost of a man-lift (TWICE)! And our longstanding member volunteered to hitch-up the man-lift and haul it to the field (TWICE)! Another member agreed to find and procure the needed flagpole components, which we elected to replace with new. Then, another member donated the cost of all the flagpole components! How about that!?!
"All that was left was the actual man-lifting exercises, which our longstanding member and I took care of. The following people and their contributions are as follows:
Lanny Hansen (member since '81): Hauled the man-lift, and rode the bucket the first time
Larry Hansen (club friend and Lanny's brother): Donated the man-lift rental x2
Dan Underkofler: Wrangled up and assembled all the new flagpole components
Mike Jasiewicz: Donated the cost of the new flagpole parts
Joe Pirozzoli: Accompanied Lanny and rode the bucket on the second trip (but never again!)
"The flagpole was back in service on Tuesday, 10/20/26."
