Faulty airplane was just what Columbus State needed

Dan Krumlauf just wanted to get rid of the aging single-engine plane that he had bought years ago and learned to fly.

The Piper Tomahawk airplane had started to fail. There were engine problems. So he donated it to Columbus State Community College, where he had studied finance and graduated in 1988.

Students at Columbus State were thrilled. The plane will go to the school’s Aviation Maintenance department. By chance, the department needed just that model of airplane.

“We have the same model engine for the Piper that was donated several years ago and overhauled by the students in class, but we had no way to test run the engine,” associate professor Jeff Gruber said in a statement.

As part of a capstone course this year, students will remove the faulty engine from Krumlauf’s plane. Over the summer semester, students will start to overhaul the old engine that the school already had. When they’re finished, the department will have a working airplane.

Story and photo:   http://www.dispatch.com