Arlington is less than a week away, and we’re busy getting ready for this year’s show. The exciting news is there will be a much bigger vintage/antique aircraft presence this year with the new vintage barn that has been built by volunteers over the past several months, and Friday will be vintage airplane day.

The barn is truly an amazing project. It has been built from scratch, with logs literally being milled into lumber by volunteers to make the structure. It should be a great gathering center for the vintage crowd.

We will have a few of our airplanes on display in Arlington. The Ryan STA-Special will be back this year along with our Fairchild 24G. We’re planning on bringing at least one more airplane down, but haven’t figured out if it will be the Waco INF or the Fairchild PT-19.

We’re also going to bring some of our projects down to the Vintage Barn display. The Pietenpol Sky Scout project will be on display with its air cooled Ford engine. Also on display will be our Stinson HW75 project. This airplane is a former Civil Air Patrol Airplane that served in the northeastern United States during World War II. We have a group of CAP cadets from Bellingham who will be helping get the Stinson prepared for next week.

We look forward to seeing everybody at Arlington, be sure to stop by and say hello!

Over the weekend the NW Super Cub Fly-In was held here at the airport in Concrete. It was the first time they have held the event here and it was a lot of fun. There were around 15 airplanes that flew in on Friday and spent the night camping on the field.

Saturday morning a group of the bush wheel equipped planes headed out on the Skagit River and found some off airport places to practice their STOL skills. By lunch time the weather had cleared up and airplanes kept arriving all afternoon.

The take-off and landing competition was held on the grass runway parallel to the main runway here at 3W5. The organizers set up a orange stripe about a third of the way down the runway to give them plenty of room to slow down for their ultra short landings and keeping things as safe as possible.

By the time the competition was underway there were around 40 airplanes that had flown in for the event. We had more than a dozen Super Cubs, most with giant bush wheels. There were a handful of Cub Crafters Top Cubs and Sport Cubs as well as the company’s amazing Carbon Cub. A few Aviat Huskies showed up, including one on amphib floats. At the bigger end of the bush plane scale were six Cessna 180s and a 170. There were also quite a few spectators who flew in for the event in a random assortment of airplanes.

Watching the STOL competition was quite amazing. A few of the airplanes were able to get off the ground in under 100 feet and stopping in well under 150 feet. The shortest take off of the day was just 55 feet in a Cub Crafters Sport Cub, a stock version! The overall competition was won by Jason Gerard in his Piper L-21B Super Cub. Painted in Italian livery (it was one of the many L-21s that served in the Italian military), Jason managed a best take off of just 91 feet and a landing of 107 feet!

It was also fun watching some of the competitors in the “light touring” category. There was a 150 pilot and a 172 pilot both showing off their STOL skills in the airplanes most of us are familiar with. Results from the event can be seen here near the bottom of the page.

We have a bunch of video as well, should get those on the computer in the next few days. in the meantime enjoy a bunch of the photos below from many of the competitors.

What would you find at Stearman Field (1K1)? How about a bunch of Stearmans. We stopped by for dinner this evening and saw 7 Stearmans parked on the ramp. It was a beautiful day to fly, though a little hot (near 100). Perfect open cockpit weather.

Monosport that is. Manufactured in 1929, this is the fourth Monocoupe Monosport built out of 16 in all. Powered by a Kinner K5 of 100 hp, it has a listed cruise speed of 110 mph. The Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum obtained this aircraft from the estate of Bud Dake, who was the 3rd owner.

Glenn is starting work on this airplane while he waits for the carb and fuel pump off the Standard's Hisso to be overhauled.

The aircraft will be painted black with orange wings, at least at this point

Today was the 23rd celebration of Gus Wiebe's 65th birthday at the Halstead, Kansas airport, Wiebe Field. About 150 folks gathered, including about 15 airplanes. The temperatures were hot, in the upper nineties, but a strong southerly breeze helped keep it reasonable

Lots of tasty beef and pork were prepared and everyone brought something to contribute. To top it off, a band provided entertainment in addition to the occasional fly-by

I took this as Glenn was priming the Standard's Hisso engine for another start attempt. We had pulled the Standard into the shade from the hangar (door) to make it bearable for us. He had finished working on the carb and the fuel system the day before. Still didn't help.

He worked on the flow dividers for the primer later in the day, but it is storming out now so the next attempt will have to wait.

On Saturday we hosted our first open hangar/fly-in day of the summer and enjoyed a great turnout. About 25 different planes flew in during the course of the day and at one point we had about 30 airplanes (including several museum airplanes) parked on the grass. It looked like a real fly-in.

Of course the amazing weather helped and there were a lot of pilots in the area who have been waiting for a Saturday like we enjoyed in the North Cascades for quite a while. We had several visitors from Canada as well as from around the northwest.

A big thanks to everybody who stopped by for hamburgers and hot dogs and make it such a fun day.

Keep an eye on our schedule for the upcoming dates for more open hangar days. In addition to the annual fly-in next month which will include Addison Pemberton’s Boeing Model 40, we plan to have another open hangar day in August and again in September. We will also have our annual Corn Roast as well this fall. We will be posting the dates in the next week.

Oh, and for those of you waiting on the Pietenpol update, sorry, it was a busy week. We’ll have the post up in the next couple of days including photos from the Pietenpol project of our guessing game winner. Turns out he’s building an Air Camper, so was quite familiar with the airplane.

Two lives devoted to each other... and to aviation.

We had a nice visit back on May 25th with Mr. and Mrs. Chet Peek in Newcastle Oklahoma. It is rare to meet such a fine couple. Their unique relationship has always included a mutual love of airplanes. Chet, a noted aircraft historian and restorer, is nearing 90-years old and is a pleasure to be around. Marian, a Master-Gardener in her own right, is also a joy. By the end of our visit, she had loaded us up with a bag-full of plants that Leann has now transplanted to our yard in Texas.

The 2+ hour stay was way to short. I told Leann on the way home that I could spend all day with Chet and still not have time to listen enough to his stories and knowledge. Chet was a maintenance engineer during WWII and served in the 8th Air Force. He reminisced about flying home after the war in a B-17. Chet's civilian Engineering career has included trailer manufacturing, the refrigeration business, and several years as a university professor at the University of Oklahoma. Over the years, he has restored many antique airplanes, including a WWI Curtiss Jenny which he literally built up from nearly nothing. He has also authored several books on aviation history, including his latest book on the Standard biplanes to be released very soon. In 2007, Chet was inducted in to the EAA-Vintage Aircraft Association Hall of Fame.

On May 3, 1999 the Peek's hangar was blown away by a violent tornado. Though they lost three of their beloved antique airplanes, tools, cars, and other personal items to that storm, they seem to have taken all in stride. Their re-built hangar is only about 1/3 its original size. But it is enough. The couple spend a lot of time there gardening and working on their projects.

Chet showed us around his very early Taylorcraft model DC-65, which I believe was the 35th one built. This airplane is unique in that it has never been a military airplane. It's metal-spar wing is one of very few that remain. Many DC-65's carried the military O-57 and later, the L-2 designations. Chet's airplane is in the original factory colors, although Chet says the fuselage trim stripe in yellow should be a little wider and extend farther forward onto the boot cowl. At 89 years-old, Chet is still actively flying his Taylorcraft several times a week. He is looking forward to flying it on his 90th birthday in November. Chet is also building a home-built Pietenpol Air Camper, to be powered as the original 1929 design with a Ford Model A engine.

Went out to the airport early this morning to try and start the Standard after Glenn worked on the mags. Now we have a carb problem which he'll try to solve Monday.

Rained like the dickens 3 times today.

Glenn stopped working on the Standard and started building an Ark. I rounded up the Waco's 2 x 2.

The Creve Coure crazies held their annual parade. I took a shot to the throat with a marshmallow and ate it. All in good, clean fun.

After that, Al BBQ'd his famous filet. I can't begin to tell you how good this is to eat.

While dinner cooked, Shannon and Terry and others flew their electric RC planes. Shannon and Moe had a midair later, destroying both models.

After supper, Al and John were awarded Certificates of Appreciation for all the work they've done for the American Waco Club.

Stepping outside after dinner, we were amazed by this glorious sunset.