Friends Of Synergy

This campaign raised more than $19,000. THANK YOU!

FRIENDS OF SYNERGY - THE "HAND PROP" PROJECT FOR SYNERGY

What is Synergy?

If you don't know by now, you have come to the wrong place. Google "synergy aircraft plus John McGinnis". Or go to his FaceBook page. Or to www.synergyaircraft.com. When you have decided to help, pass this on to all your aviation buddies, please.

Update 1 Sepetember, 2012: After fees and uncollected pledges, the Synergy Aircraft project raised just over $80,000. While that amount, less reward costs for backers, is enough to reach the Kickstarter milestone and keeps the project going, it's still a long way short of what is needed to fly the airplane to Oshkosh in 2013.

John McGinnis wrote to express his appreciation for the Friends of Synergy program and to all who have supported it. As of today, September 1st, the reward structure that was based on the Kickstarter rewards is closed. This will allow Team Synergy to complete final reward orders and shipments.

Please send Friends of Synergy (FOS "at" n6zb "dot" info") your:
Shirt size? (S, M, L, XL, XXL)
Hat color? (Black, Navy, White in US-made Team Synergy style, Brown in shortbill style, limited colors in small original style)

If we don't have your shipping address we will email you, otherwise we will use the one you sent us through PayPal.

Donations to the project are still being made and are still very gratefully received. At Oshkosh John estimated that there were seven man-years of work remaining to pay for, and they are pushing hard to have the resources to delegate and outsource as much as possible. Backers can still donate using the "Donate" button on the Synergy website. You'll receive confirming emails from PayPal and John acknowledging your contributions.

Why this and why now?

Like anyone trying to build a revolutionary new airplane in a garage (there really is no parallel, but that sounded good), John is still in need of funding. One recent tactic was to have been a Kickstarter.com project. Read about it on links on John's FaceBook page. The short version is that KickStarter turned it down for 'not being a good fit with their focus.' .

Keep in mind that Gates, Jobs and Rutan started in the equivalent of their garages. Then remember the pre-internet crowd funding of the Voyager's record-setting trip around the world 25 years ago. Did you miss your chance to be a part of that like I did?

I am one of the favored few who have visited the shop and helped out a bit. You can even see my balding head in one of those micro-second pictures in the latest videos - where we are skinning the snake. I'm not trying to be a name-dropper, just to say that I am one of the believers. This is a good time to say that I have no financial stake in Synergy and don't intend to, either. The only thing I will get out of this is Karma or a "mitzvah" or whatever you prefer to call it.

In my case, the help was a small bit, but hey, not everyone can be good at composites! It's the real thing. Getting to know the team of family, friends and others that John leads is really worth the trip even without the airplane.

I have wanted to "crowd source" some financial help for Synergy for some time. Now that Kickstarter has declined, we can go ahead with "HandPropper" (with thanks for that name to Dave Birkenstock ). This is a world-wide effort. I have coordinated this with John McGinnis. In order to avoid taking his time away from building, Pat Panzera (publishes Contact magazine, edits EAA's Experimenter magazine) and I are going to get it going. You know, hand propping needs someone to yell “contact”, right?

Here is how it will work:

You can "donate" directly to Synergy at the SynergyAircraft.com website.
There will not be a financial middle man. Find the donate button and click it.
The information about the donations will be forwarded to me so that I can, for John, organize and administer the "tokens of appreciation".
The tokens of appreciation will be almost the same as they would have been on KickStarter - see the end of this post for details. Give more, get more.
Unlike Kickstarter, there is no threshold. You give, you get. Some tokens will need to be ordered in batches, so the "get" will not be instant.
Also unlike Kickstarter, there will be matching funds. I will be the first "matcher". For every $100 and up contribution, I will give Synergy another $25. That's an excellent ROI for you! This will continue until my pre-set limit (pre-set with John) is reached. It means if you give early you will be leveraging your gift. This will be handled between Synergy and the matchers. I am also, here and now, inviting the real enthusiasts to contact me directly to become fellow matchers.
If you give any amount you are a member of Friends of Synergy. We don't collect dues or have boring meetings, but you are invited to "friend" the project and take public credit. There will be an honor roll somewhere on the web and you will be able to opt-in or opt-out, of course.
Maybe we can have a meeting at the beer tent at AirVenture2012. I'm in. Details to follow.
I don't know how long this will go on, but it will go on so long as it is helping with the primary mission - getting Synergy flying. Any Questions?

The gift levels and their tokens of appreciation are:

$10 & up		A signed, limited edition, color postcard to your snail mail address
$25 & up		A limited edition Synergy mug
$50 & up		A Sponsor edition Synergy T-shirt
$100 & up		A Synergy hat and your name on the airplane and priority in line to ride in it - the hat is your credential
$250 & up		A VIP swag bag filled with and including all of the above plus priority in line to fly it during your ride!
$500 & up		You have reached the Team Synergy Bronze sponsorship level, all of the above plus additional benefits to be public later
-----		from $500 and up, you get all the tokens from the lower levels plus...
$1,000 & up		You will have personal access for a meeting with John and some of the team. This is a very special thing.
$2,000 & up		The Team Synergy Silver sponsorship level with all of the above plus additional benefits to be public later
$5,000 & up		The Team Synergy Gold level sponsorship with all of the above plus additional additional benefits to be public later
$?????		John is a creative and open minded person. Don't be shy.

Shipping in Continental U.S. and Canada is included. Other countries will require a shipping increment TBD. Canada may require HST or PST+GST.

write to Howard Handelman "FOS at n6zb dot info"