A 1977 Cessna Cardinal 177B aircraft, being given away by the world's largest pilots association, U.S.-based Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), in its annual sweepstakes, has been refurbished with coatings donated by ANAC (Akzo Nobel Aerospace Coatings) through its distributor network.

The sweepstakes, which features a different restored aircraft each year, is the mainspring of the annual membership drive with every member entered. The members, who own and operate primarily single and twin-engine planes for business and personal use, are able to follow the progress of the work on line and through AOPA's publications, taking notes for their own projects. AOPA has a membership of 414,000, two thirds of all pilots in the U.S.

The paint design, applied by Advanced Aircraft Refinishers of Georgia, was created by Scheme Designers, owned and operated by Craig Barnett of Cresskill, New Jersey, who also works with OEMs on paint schemes. His inspiration for this project was the Cessna Cardinal logo, originally displayed on the tail in a smaller form.

After the complete disassembly of the airframe into more than 280 parts, each piece of the airplane was put through a thorough the paint refurbishing process to ensure that the best possible protective finish was achieved.

Following the removal of the existing paint layers, the surfaces were chemically cleaned and a conversion coating applied. A zinc chromate epoxy primer was followed by ANAC's Alumigrip Matterhorn White topcoat, producing a superb, high-gloss finish.The white was then masked for the application of the red, gold and black trim, all in ANAC paints. The paints were donated by ANAC distributor Aero Performance.

The fully restored airplane has been on display at aviation events around the U.S.

For more information visit www.aopa.org or www.anac.com.