The annual Arlington Fly-In is underway at the Arlington airport just a short flight south of Concrete. This is the biggest fly-in of the year for our area and the museum once again has a strong presence at the vintage barn display.
Our perennially popular Ryan STA-Special is parked out front of the barn again and is joined this year by our Fairchild PT-19 and the somewhat rare Call Air A-2. Everybody at the museum has been very busy the past few weeks getting things ready for fly-in season and the Call Air in particular received plenty of work.
The airplane was restored nearly 20 years ago, but for the past several years it has been collecting a bit of dust in one of our hangars. When the decision was made to bring it down to Arlington, a lot of work was done to polish the paint and aluminum to get it looking bright and colorful again. The result is one of the best looking Call Airs anybody has seen in quite a while. Though there aren’t too many of the airplanes out there, so we admit the competition isn’t as tough as it is in some other airplane categories.
Other vintage and antique airplanes around the barn include the beautiful Stinson Model O and the Boeing Model 40 should be arriving soon.
Visitors to the barn at the Arlington Fly-In checking out the Stinson SR-9 wing.
In addition to the airplanes, we have several things on display inside of the vintage barn as well. Jim pulled off the fabric from the top of the Stinson SR-9‘s right wing to give visitors a look at the inner workings of the old gullwing. The stout construction, including a fair amount of steel, had many visitors commenting about the bridge-like construction used for the wings.
We also brought down the painted fuselage of our little Culver Dart, a selection of vintage propellers and a partly disassembled Continental A-40.
Visitors last year really enjoyed being able to see a little of what goes into a restoration and we’re looking forward to getting a steady stream of interested people again this year.
If you’re in the Puget Sound area, or even in the greater pacific northwest, be sure to visit Arlington this year and stop by the barn and say hello.
