Thursday April 7th dawned cool and somewhat cloudy. Upon rising from my evening slumber and looking out my window at home I noted a semi tractor trailer parked adjacent to the APM. It was the day the steel for the APM Restoration Center arrived!
Preparing to unload some long heavy pieces of steel.
By 8am, a crew of APM volunteers began to arrive to help Jim Miller & Barry Vun Cannon (semi owner/operator) with the unloading of what will be the main beam and roof supports for the APM Restoration Center.
That crew included Erik Edgren, Rex Yoakam, Ben Taylor, Cliff Hatz and from the APM Board of Directors, Steve Black and Mike Gretz. Oh, RLT and yours truly were on hand as well.
The 43' main I-beam begins to appear from the back of the semi trailer. Jim Miller and Barry Vun Cannon watch from the trailer while Ben Taylor and Erik Edgren direct the fork lift. Cliff Hatz supervising.
Jim Miller directed the delicate and rather nerve wracking job of unloading the trailer (making certain it was done safely and correctly so as not to damage the cargo nor any of the help) while the heavy fork lift was operated by Rex Yoakam with assistance from a smaller skid loader operated by Ben Taylor. That skid loader was supplied courtesy of local AAA member and volunteer Luke Pieper.
With all the steel unloaded and placed so it will be accessible when ready/needed, a well deserved lunch break was taken at a local public house.
Our fork lift operator and well known aviation personality Rex Yoakam, did an excellent job in unloading the long, heavy and flexible pieces of steel from the semi trailer.
We'd like to offer our "Thanks" once again to those who helped with this small step forward in the APM Restoration Center project.
While progress on the APM Restoration Center has certainly been not as fast as we would like to see, it looks as if that pace is about to pick up and very soon. As to when we will actually start construction ? Well to quote a line from Ace Eli & Roger of the Skies ; "Soon....real soon".
Brent Taylor
