There's going to be a special event at the AAA National Fly-in in two weeks. Soon after Cynthia Grant flew her newly restored Luscombe, she and Howard Hollinger, both of the Texas Chapter, announced their engagement. The wedding will take place at Antique Airfield on Saturday September 5th. Congratulations to Howard and Cynthia!

Details of the wedding ceremony will be made available as they come in, but your best bet is to check once you get to the fly-in. Bill Tinkler will give away the bride.

As you may remember Larry Tobin had to put his 1927 C3B into the trees in the Columbia River Gorge 30 miles east of Portland Oregon last Sept 20th on our way home for the Transcontinental NY-SF mail trip. See the photo below of that memorable day. After a lot of soul searching and mental recovery the airplane is back on its feet and assembly has now started to see it fly again. The center section, new landing gear and most of the systems are ready for assembly. John Pike at Big Sky now has the final contract to finish all four new wing panels by Christmas this year. So with any luck our little local treasure will grace the skies of the Pacific Northwest again soon enough. Congrats Larry on the drive to finish the repairs.

Addison Pemberton

Bob Jenkins Jr sent us these photos and information on the Command-Aire project that he's working on:

My dad and I have been working on our 1928 Command-Aire 3-C-3 project for the last couple of years. It is coming along and we just got the rebuilt wings on it the other day for dry rigging. The wings needed a complete rebuild with new spars and ribs. The airplane still has all it's original sheetmetal including engine cowling, turtle deck, seats, floorboards, and intrument panels.

My dad has owned the airplane since the 1960's, it was purchased from Shelby Hagberg. A full set of photos can be viewed at my online photo album.

Bob Jenkins Jr.
Lifetime member

Cynthia Grant's Luscombe is flying again after a restoration by Joe Sills at Kitty Hill Airport, Leander, TX. Cynthia will be bringing her yet-to-be-named Luscombe to Blakesburg in a few weeks, along with Howard Hollinger in WSA.

Photo by Howard Hollinger

That's a pretty big grin hiding behind the microphone!

Photo by Howard Hollinger

Color coordinated shoes and car to accessorize the airplane.

A successful first flight, popping the cork.

Photo by Howard Hollinger

Dave Walmsley just finished this DH-82A, and the movie shows still shots and a takeoff/landing sequence in the Boulder, CO area. Dave's planning to bring it to Blakesburg in a few weeks!

Simsbury Flying Club, in Simsbury CT will be holding a Fly-In and Classic Car drive-in event September 20. More details are on their website http://www.simsburyairport.com. The organizers are looking to make the fly-in more antique aircraft friendly and to reach out to the antiquer community.

This weekend August 15, there are antiquer-oriented fly-ins at Bayport New York and the Evergreen Fly-in at Pearson Airport, Vancouver, WA.

See the complete list of local and regional fly-ins.

Gail and Doedo Schipper in Longmont, CO were flying formation in this video of two Bücker Jungmanns. Gail is in the blue, Doedo in the yellow, with video by Eric Menchen, camera ship flown by Marijke Unger.

Photo by Caroline Sheen

Runway Cinema 2009 Schedule: Classic Aviation Films of the 1930s

Man has always desired entertainment. It used to be that he'd entertain himself during the day with only sleep to fill his lonely nights. Then man invented fire. Now he could draw pictures of his friends and accomplishments on dark cave walls. Next he invented the light bulb. Soon after came nitrocellulose film and the projector. Now man had moving pictures for entertainment! Finally man made it to the nuclear age after learning to split the atom and harness its power.

We at Antique Airfield have packed the power of cold fusion into a bright, high quality, HD projector of aviation movies for your evening enjoyment. Of course the screen has to be rather large, nine feet by twelve feet actually (or if you prefer fifteen feet diagonally), so as not to melt. The happy side effect will be the ability to see these grand aviation movies from the wind tee if one wishes.

Of course, just in case you were to chose to enjoy this entertainment spectacle whilst spinning about on the wind tee (as in the days of your youth), we must also provide for an equally technologically mind blowing sound system! All the better to hear it with if you please. Well placed extraordinarily high quality, rich sounding speakers will flank the screen (not so close as to melt however) hooked into a 5000 watt pro audio system.

So come join us, while your aircraft rests, tied down in the grass at Antique Airfield. Don't worry; it will still be there in the morning when we recreat the pageantry and wonder of the previous night's entertainment.

Aaron Klugherz
Projector-Meister

If it's July in Iowa, it's time for RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa), reportedly the largest mass bicycling event in the US (and maybe the world). For the past 36 years this annual week long movable feast has been a mecca for bike riders from all of the world and has inspired many similar events across the country. Though officially limited to 8500 riders the "day rider" count can be much higher with counts in the 12-14 thousand range.

But what has this to do with Antique Airfield and old airplanes? Well over the years RAGBRAI has been "Barnstormed" by the likes of AAA members Gary Lust, Jack Greiner and others. As well, the route for the ride passed by Antique Airfield in 2000 and did again this year on July 23rd.

While the ride in 2000 brought many of visitors into the APM there was no official "Barnstorming" planned. However APM Board President Ed Nedderman (deceased) and Brent Taylor did end up hauling airplane rides from 10am to 6pm that day. We hadn't planned to but an offer of a donation from one rider to see the area from the air snowballed into a day of flying.

Once news of the intended route for 2009 showed that RAGBRAI would again be going down the Bluegrass Rd. from Blakesburg to Ottumwa, Gary Lust was contacted to find if either he, or any of the other "American Barnstormers Tour" pilots and aircraft, would like to use Antique Airfield for ride hauling operations on that day. Though Gary would end up not being able to participate, Chris Price informed us that he would be bringing the New Standard D-25 to Antique Airfield to participate.

Flash ahead to July 23rd which was sunny and cool with light winds. Chris arrived with the New Standard late in the morning, just ahead of the throng of bicycles as they descended upon Blakesburg headed on towards Ottumwa. He quickly had his road signs and banners in place and was just as quickly taxiing out with his first load of passengers. And he would remain busy for the next 5-6 hours!!

Along with the New Standard we had the APM open for tours as well as several aircraft out on the grass for display. Several local members were also on hand, including Erik Edgren in his clipwing T-craft, Travis Gregory in his 11BC Aeronca (aka "Cousin Eddie") and Les Gaskill in his Piper J-2. The T-craft and Chief along with the APM's Ryan STA, could be seen often in the air that afternoon with there antics helping to attract the crowds of cyclists to stop, visit and take a ride with Chris in the New Standard.

A localized rain shower that turned into a thunderstorm put a damper on the days activities late in the afternoon. Though it did not move over Antique Airfield, it was close enough that airplanes were tied down, secured back into the hangars, or flown home. But the storm moved quickly out of the area and Chris, always eager to fly, offered rides those of us whom remained. He certainly did not have to ask twice and another four plane loads of Antique Airfield locals/volunteers were treated to a wonderful evening ride in the classic New Standard.

It was certainly a great way to end a really fun day here at Antique Airfield. Thanks Chris!!!

Rich Hornbeck and Fred Martin have confirmed they'll be bringing their aircraft to Corporate Wings, this year's National Fly-in, in less than a month.