At a volunteers' Hangar Day on Saturday, January 25th, 2025, the Tunison Foundation's crew– pilots, mechanics, crew chiefs, docents, restoration volunteers, and more –gathered at our home base at Hudson Valley Regional Airport (POU) in Wappingers Falls, New York to celebrate a successful and highly active year in 2024.
Benjamin A. Smith, who serves as Secretary of the Board of Directors, prepared a presentation outlining the incredible year, punctuated by the D-Day Squadron's 2024 Legacy Tour to Europe. In 2024, the Tunison Foundation accomplished 171 sorties with our 1943 Douglas C-47 Skytrain Placid Lassie, during which time we carried 749 passengers (mostly volunteers, World War II veterans, and VIPs) and dropped 1,153 paratroopers. There was somebody with the airplane or in the hangar 254 days out of the year, or almost 70% of the time, a remarkable increase from last year's 37%. Overall, about 180 volunteers gave a total of 2,023 volunteer-days, up from 854 in 2023 and 278 in 2022.
Gary Houghton was once again our top volunteer by far for 2024, with an incredible 179 volunteer-days, followed by Bob Sabbatino with 96 volunteer-days, Barry Enis (86), Justin Zgoda (71) and Bob Krajicek (68). We all extend a huge thanks to our dedicated volunteers keeping these historic aircraft in the skies. In March, Foundation pilots completed two DC-3 PIC (captain) checkrides, adding to our ability to share the aircraft with the world; Iain Wayman and Justin Zgoda are our new captains. In May, Luc Zipkin was trained as a DC-3 SIC (second-in-command).
Notably, at the end of the year, we completed the sale of our Consolidated Vultee PBY-5A Catalina project, N423RS, to a Florida-based private collector. While we are very sad to see her go, and disappointed not to have been able to return her to the skies, the Tunison team is encouraged and excited by the new owner's plans to restore the Catalina to airworthiness.
2025 will be another big year for us as we build out our airshow schedule and conduct valuable pilot, maintenance, crew chief, and docent training, while continuing to develop educational programming that fulfills our mission: wings to remember, honor, inspire.
As always, donations keep them flying, and we are grateful for your support in 2024 and beyond.