Sep 2015 Beautiful Saturday at the Blakesburg Antique Fly-in
I woke up smiling this morning because I’m in Iowa at the AAA/APM Antique Airfield Fly-in. Some of the coolest planes on the planet are here and the owners can’t wait to show them off and tell you all about them. You just need to wonder by, strike up a conversation and everything else takes care of itself. I was lucky enough to catch a fantastic flight today in a Meyers OTW but trust me, I’m not the only lucky bystander finding themselves inside a rare vintage bird.
I owe a huge “thank you” to Jim Jones for letting me tag along on a roundtrip flight from Antique Airfield to Pella, Iowa and back. Jim owns this 1942 Model OTW-145 and let me get some serious stick time on this short little cross country. It was a fun to fly, stable airplane that responded quickly to my light tugs on the stick and gentle jabs at the rudder pedals. Of course, you can’t see a thing over the nose on landing but Jim did a beautiful job on hardsurface and back on the grass at Antique Airfield. I LOVED flying this beautiful piece of history!
We flew to Pella to join up with Jim’s friend Shane who owns another shiny OTW. The formation flight back was as good as it can get!
Rick Waldo showed me this Piper L4 and I’ll soon be posting a video describing the history of this aircraft.
I also have a video I’ll be posting soon about this Fairchild 71 passenger and cargo aircraft. It flies like a Supercub – a Supercub without flaps – and the wings fold back. Amazing.
Today was also our LadiesLoveTaildraggers meet up on The Porch at Antique Airfield. Sharon Tinkler and I did our best to try and snag a few new lady taildragger members and I think we just may have succeeded. If you’re a woman pilot at this fly-in, chances are you fly a taildragger —- or at least want to.
Thank you to the Blakesburg Historical Preservation Society for serving us their homemade pie and ice cream at our event. All I can say is their pies really are homemade and two words, “Cherry Crunch”!!
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