Florida Viper owners turn Piper Aviation’s Vero Beach Flight Line into a Snake Pit!
Viper ACR with Piper Turboprop Meridian PA-46-500TP
It was an offer that the South Florida (Miami) and Central/North Florida (Lake Mary) regional chapters of the Viper Club Of America (VCA) couldn’t refuse: Melissa Holobach, Director of Operations, Piper Aircraft, invited the clubs to visit its Vero Beach facilities for a tour of the manufacturing plant, lunch and presentation on the 70-plus-year history of Piper: from original Cub to the brand new PiperJet.
Vipers and a Lambo interloper on Piper's Vero Beach Flight Line.
Ms. Holobach is relatively new to Piper, but not to Viper owners. Her previous job was at Chrysler as Plant Manager, Connor Avenue Assembly Plant, where they built Vipers. With Bachelor and Masters degrees in engineering, she was also involved in the launch of the 2008 Viper in addition to running the plant.
One other attraction of the event was that Maurice Liang, founder of the Viper Club Of America and in the process of writing a book on the return of the Viper in 2012, was a guest speaker. Organizers of the event were Ivan Ho (South Florida) and John Canal (Central/North Florida) with their significant others, (below with Ms. Holobach and her husband, right), who head the VCA regions and they did a spectacular job.
Plant tours are always great and this one was really special. At each phase of aircraft construction, from fabrication to avionics wiring and final assembly, Melissa Holobach explained all the step-by-step details. Even if you were not an airplane enthusiast, the tour was fascinating and allowed incredible access to the workings of small aircraft.
Vipers at Piper was one of the largest and most successful events produced by VCA’s Florida chapters. One of the best parts of attending the program was making the three-plus hour trip from Sarasota to Vero Beach with Sarasota Cafe Racer Pete Van Peenen, below, in his 2000 Viper GTS that he “tracks” at Sebring. He also shot the group on the Flight Line photo.
For more information about the Viper Club of America and its regional chapters, check out:
http://www.viperclub.org/members/regions.php
For more information about Piper aircraft, from the two-place PiperSport to the six-place PiperJet, please visit, http://www.piper.com/index.cfm