Our 2027 Cherokee Lead is Ronnie Mowery

Ronnie Mowery grew up in northern Ohio and became fascinated with aviation as a child. Due to time, family and money flying would have to wait until his 30’s where on a chance stop at the local airport he found they were starting a ground school on his only available evening. He took this as a sign and with support from his wife Cyndi, who had tried to get him to take flying lessons earlier, signed up. The year was 1992 and due to time and family it was 1993 before he earned his pilot’s license. Flying was still on the back burner for the next six years until he purchased his one and only aircraft, a 1977 Grumman Cheetah. Prior to owning the Grumman, he had flown a total of 8 hours the previous year, after the purchase he was averaging 75 hours per year. An instrument rating followed in 2003, and he has accumulated over 200 hours of actual instrument time since and enjoys flying in the clouds. With retirement in 2017 he and Cyndi moved to South Carolina and into an airpark. His average yearly flight time went from 75 hours to almost 200.

In 2018 the Grumman’s were invited to join the Cherokee’s on their mass arrival into Oshkosh. Ronnie was one of two Grumman’s that joined that year and has only missed one arrival since. In 2019 he began hosting a mini clinic in Aiken, South Carolina and besides this attends several others to assist as a safety pilot. He is very honored to have been chosen to lead the Cherokee flight into Oshkosh in 2027.