Paul Berge, lifetime AAA member and host of Iowa Public Television's
Side Roads, has put together
Iowa From the Air as a video presentation.
Click for the video.
Paul Berge lives in central Iowa. He was an FAA air traffic controller
for many years, is a CFII and utilizes his own Aeronca Champ for
instruction. He also owns a Marquart Charger. Paul was the editor of
IFR magazine for 5 years as well, as well as a freelance
producer. Among his TV features was a story about the WWII Glider
Pilots and one on the APM.
Paul is a professional writer with a regular column called "Flights of
Fancy" in The Pacific Flyer magazine. His books include
Bootleg Skies, Ailerona and the Logbook plus the
short story, Zen and the Art of Pumpkin Bombing for AVWeb's online
magazine. He currently hosts the
Hangar Flying Theater aviation blog. Paul
has been the MC of the annual "Gone Home" awards ceremony at the
AAA/APM Fly-In and was elected to the AAA Board of
Directors at the 2007 AAA/APM Fly-In. He claims he once shook hands
with Richard Nixon at Teterboro Airport, NJ, where he grew up.
This issue of the Antique Airfield Runway is a bit shorter than
normal, but it is packed with information about the AAA/APM and our
plans for its future. As AAA members this information will give you a
roadmap for the future and outline opportunities to get involved in
helping the AAA/APM along that future path.
It should be in your hands before the end of the year (mailed December
9th 2007).
The Antique Airplane Association and the Board of Directors of the Air
Power Museum are excited to announce that the 2008 AAA-APM Fly-In will
commemorate the 90th anniversary of air mail service in the United
States. The 2008 Fly-In theme will be
Air Mail Days, to honor the pilots and airplanes of the
early air mail service. The dates for the fly-in are August 27 to
Sept. 1, 2008, at Antique Airfield near Blakesburg, Iowa.
Welcome to the premiere of yet another
video/slideshow presentation here on the AAA/APM
web site. This feature, as the title states, is about the annual
"Pumpkin Drop" held each year at Antique Airfield on the first Sat. of
Nov. It is the last "official" activity held at Antique Airfield
during the year but it is arguably the most fun. This year was the
12th annual and while not certain we were the first to come up with
such a notable way to dispose of pumpkins we are certain we are the
longest continuously running such event.
This year we were blessed with near perfect weather, a good crowd made
up of our AAA/APM directors, volunteers, members, neighbors and
friends from five states, twenty eight aircraft (with fifteen of those
acting as "bombers") and more pumpkins than could be dropped in an
afternoon !!
Aircraft included three J-3s, two PA-11s, two Aeronca 7ACs, two
Champion 7GCBCs, two Cessna 170s and one each of the following;
Aeronca 11AC, Aviat "Husky" (on amphibious floats), Beech Debonair,
Cessna 140, Cessna L-19, Cessna 180, Cessna 172, Cessna 182, Fairchild
PT-26, Hatz Classic, Luscombe 8E, Melfa "Mouse", Miller C (Piperbipe),
Pietenpol, Piper Vagabond, Piper PA-28 & a Socata Rallye.
Throughout the afternoon pumpkins rained from a continuous parade of
bombers all attempting to hit the target (an old boat and trailer)
much to the amusement of the assembled spectators. While most tries
were in vain a few pumpkins did manage to land within inches of the
target. Our crack team of ordinance experts determined that the
closest "hit" belonged to Bill Weyers and his sons, Sam and Nick. So,
for the next year they retain bragging rights as well as the traveling
trophy (which for some strange reason never fails to be returned ??)
So sit back, turn up the sound and
enjoy the feature!
It has been a bit over a month since I last communicated with the
viewers to this web page and since that time we have managed to update
the site not only with the video/slideshow of the AAA/APM National
Fly-in but also a listing of all the award winners.
As well we have updated you on the exciting news about the
Alexander "Bullet" being built by Mary Hanson that is now flying.
However I imagine many of you are waiting for word about the redesign
of the web site that is being undertaken by Russell Williams. Well the
news is we are continuing to move forward with that project and
several technical steps have taken place to facilitate that
process. So please continue to watch this space.
In the meantime please enjoy the
second video/slideshow presentation of the 2007 AAA/APM National Fly-in
and keep watching this space.
And as we have stated previously, if the current or
past
video/slideshow presentation piques your curiosity and you want to find
out more about the Antique Airplane Association and the Air Power
Museum and you are not currently a member of the AAA nor a donor to
the APM, please consider joining with us to help "Keep the Antiques
Flying".
It has been a long time since the AAA/APM web site has been
updated and I am certain that those who are regular visitors to this
web page have been disappointed and discouraged by that lack of
timely updates, as well as other problems with the web site.
I will not go into to the reasons why this has been the
case as excuses will not solve these problems. However I am here
to let you know that hopefully we have turned an important corner
to not only keep the web site updated, in a more timely manner,
but also to let you know that a complete redesign of the web site
is on it's way in the not to distant future. This project is being
spearheaded by our web master Aaron Klugherz with help from well
known antique airplane collector Russell Williams. With their
experience and foresight we look forward to the new and improved
AAA/APM web site.
In the mean time please enjoy this update in the form of a video/slideshow
presentation of the planes, people and events that took place
during the very successful AAA/APM National Fly-in over this past
Labor Day weekend. We were blessed with perfect weather during the
course of the fly-in and had over 400 aircraft in attendance. At the
end of the fly-in Dennis Trone's one-of-a kind OX-5 powered
"Thunderbird" was voted Antique Grand Champion.
There will be more to report on the fly-in so stay tuned to
this page. In the mean time if the video/slideshow presentation
inspires you to want to find out more about the Antique Airplane
Association and the Air Power Museum and you are not already a member
of the AAA or a donor to the APM please consider joining with us to
help keep the antique airplane movement viable and alive for the
future.
