Meet the next AOPA sweepstakes airplane

Now that our Reimagined 152 has found a new home, it’s time to focus on AOPA’s next sweepstakes airplane.

The AOPA Sweepstakes 172 is just that—a Cessna 172. By the time we’re finished with it, it won’t be just any Cessna 172.

We found our 1978 Cessna 172N in Westminster, Maryland. Its previous owner is a longtime AOPA member who has owned the airplane for 30 years, using it as a trainer and personal airplane to take trips to Florida and EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. N739HW has the original radios, paint, and interior; it’s been 38 years since the airplane rolled off the production line and it looks it. But not for much longer.

Yingling Aviation of Wichita, Kansas, is going to transform our 172. Yingling’s Ascend 172 program, featured in the February 2016 AOPA Pilot, restores airplanes from the inside out in a sweeping process that involves not only upgrading the engine, paint, and interior, but also repairing and replacing control cables, circuit breakers, wiring, and dozens of other improvements.

While AOPA’s airplane gets the Ascend treatment, we will have another Ascend 172 on display at the Sun 'n Fun International Fly-In in Lakeland, Florida. In the meantime, look for updates and appearance information in AOPA Pilot.

AOPA members are automatically entered to win the AOPA 172 Sweepstakes. Download the official rules for information about additional ways to enter.