Aug 2014 Antique Airfield lives up to its name
Antique Airfield/Blakesburg, Iowa – the crown jewel of the Antique Aviation Association’s (AAA) fly-ins. Their motto “Keep the antiques flying” is that’s exactly what’s happening right now at Blakesburg. If you’re in awe of gorgeous antique aircraft, or rare and downright quirky old birds, you should think seriously about putting this fly-in on your 2015 calendar.
This Culver V, 2-seat cabin monoplane (above) arrived late this afternoon. It’d be hard to miss the pronounced dihederal wing, even from a distance, and the baggage compartment sits strangely behind the firewall and ahead of the instrument panel.Â
The arrival of this Aeronca C-3 (above) sent me flying across the field to catch a glimpse of it landing. It’s a cute, squat little airplane that just can’t help itself – it’s gonna draw a crowd.
There’s a sturdy 1946 Fairchild 24R with outrigger landing gear here, and not even collecting a crowd while I was strolling by.
This 2014 AAA fly-in is featuring Interstate and Great Lakes Aircraft and there are a sizable number of both families of aircraft on the field.
Paul Fuller’s Great Lakes from Indiana (below) was flown in this afternoon by Steve Givens. I couldn’t help but notice nary a bug or blade of grass was going to be stuck to this fine aircraft for long. Wish I had a crew like that waiting for me every time I landed!
I love running into ladies wearing LLT tshirts!
And if my day wasn’t great enough already, Tom Edmondson from Kansas City arrived with gift in hand. Now tell me this isn’t cool. He took this photo of Gayle Schipper giving me a ride in her Bücker Jungmann at last year’s Blakesburg flyin, textured it to look like an oil on canvas, blew it up and gallery wrapped it. It’s wonderful and will soon be hanging on my living room wall. Thank you Tom!
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