Got this email from Burl yesterday:

Closing date

If any of you folks get this letter more than once I apologize. There are a lot of people to notify.

Burl



December 5, 2022

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today is my 80th birthday and the time has come to make the decision that I have been putting off for so long.



December 31, 2023 will be our last day in business. I will be closing down Burl’s Aircraft, LLC whether the business sells or not.

There will be no more Sedan or Sedan parts, tail skis, AOSS landing gear system, no more fuel screens, fuel valves, etc.



By that date I will be 81 and now I will be taking time for my wife, Martha and myself.

No phone calls will be taken, no orders will be processed. In essence;

I’m done.



This is a hard date and there is no turning back so if you know someone or some company that wants to buy they had better hurry.

Those of you who I have spoken to about buying? Now is the time to decide. Like my mother always said; “Pee or get off the pot!”.



Regards,

Burl




Burl is a very honest, stand up guy. I bought the first “new” Sedan fuselage from him in 2009. He asked that I pay him fully in advance so he could make the jig and build the fuselage for delivery in about 6 months. I was a bit skeptical especially since it’s not a hop, skip and jump for me to go to Chugiak, Alaska from Connecticut to check on progress. Burl came through with flying colors. The fuselage came out better than original with CNC cut tubes from the original drawings that he had digitized as well as tig welded. He Helped me arrange for shipping and spent hours that he didn’t charge me for packing it carefully into a container to be shipped to the east coast. The fuselage and the hundred or so other parts that I bought from him to rebuild my Sedan are all of top quality. He has built numerous jigs and tooling over the years to ensure rapid and high quality replication of all his parts. He has worked closely with DER and DAR representatives from the FAA to ensure FAA approval of most everything he sells. He has PMA for the entire Aeronca Sedan, offers numerous approved mods as complete kits for it, and stocks or can make any part for it. He also makes numerous other things like the AOSS suspension system, tail skis, 1 piece Cessna fuel screens, fuel valves for any Aeronca ever made, etc. If anyone has been thinking of purchasing an aviation business in Alaska, it would be a good idea to visit with Burl.

Can't blame a guy for wanting to cash out at 80. I hope someone who loves Sedans buys the business.

I sincerely hope that Burl is able to enjoy retirement! Good for him.

That said, I also hope that someone is able to take over the business. There’s a lot of value there, and a well known “brand”.

Best to you, Burl!

MTV

Zzz wrote:Can't blame a guy for wanting to cash out at 80. I hope someone who loves Sedans buys the business.

100% agree - I hope someone buys him out early so he can start spending that time with his wife, well earned. I’m tempted to pick up another set of his Cessna fuel screens for spares - although I’m pretty sure the Burl fuel screens that I had installed in my 180 will pretty much last a lifetime, my lifetime at least.

Yes!

There are a lot of Cessna 18x owners on this site.

Take note.

Aside from a few phone calls and visits while in AK, I don't know Burl from Moses, but there are several of his mods on my 180 and cub. Most are just cool things that a guy oughta do, but one that stands out in my mind as a 'must have' is his fuel bladder finger strainers. These are a work of art, and it is almost a shame to hide them in your fuel tank. If you ever anticipate needing to replace bladders (and you should) you probably need to get a set of these on the shelf now.

Take care, Rob

Burl was awesome to deal with when I was restoring a Sedan. Hope he enjoys retirement and that someone steps up to keep the business alive.

After years of soft closing, today I noticed the website is devoid of any info. Just the "we're closed" message.

This is a bad deal for the Sedan fleet. I would hope some inspired individual would pick up the baton, but if I recall, Burl's price was quite high and it would be hard to ever see a profit from such a small fleet. Shame, because the Sedan is a really wonderful airplane.