Charlie Gay sent in photos of his Stinson V-77 project, N743PM:

It's moving along. Hopefully flying soon. Wish I could keep this one.

We had to make most of the bump cowl for the R-985. I could salvage enough bumps from wrecked cowls to have some skins to start with. The english wheel and leather slapper work great for dents.

All the framing is new to fit the V-77 firewall mounts. Harbor Freight sells a great tubing rolling machine with three rollers and crank wheel for $180. Really handy for this kind of work.

Going for low drag. No external cowl scoops, all flush rivets and fasteners on the whole airplane. I bonded the cowl skins with AeroPoxy to keep oil from coming through the seams and keep rivets from working in the future.

Carpet edges are not bound yet. We made the chrome steps from raw streamline stock. Bent over a mandrel filled with sand dug up from our field by the river. Pauls Chrome near Pittsburg did the chroming. I highly recommend them.

We can manufacture new gear leg bushings and heat treated internal shock pins if anyone needs them. Pitot tube was found new in the box online.

Charlie Gay

2008 & 2009 have been banner years for the annual AAA/APM Invitational Fly-in here at Antique Airfield over the Labor Day weekend. Near perfect weather both years plus an outstanding group of antique, classic, warbird, neo-classic and homebuilt aircraft have made for some memorable times.

But 2010 has arrived and it's time to start planning for our annual celebration of flight here at Antique Airfield.

This year we've decided to join with other aviation events in Iowa by celebrating 100 years of aviation in Iowa, "Iowa's Centenary of Flight." For a taste of what Iowa aviation can be, here's a short video preview of the Blakesburg fly-in:

Greg Herrick has promised to attend in his Fairchild FC-2

D.J. Short will be returning from Warrensburg, MO in his OX-5 powered KR-31, the 2009 AAA/APM Grand Champion Antique

Eric Presten, Schellville,CA plans to be in attendance with his Rotec radial powered, wing warped controlled Bleriot replica.

Here's the Wisconsin Chapter's January newsletter. Note that the next chapter meeting is a Chili lunch this Saturday the 30th at Wausau Downtown Airport. There will be a ski runway weather permitting. Details are in the newsletter.

See all the Chapter Newsletters.

Robert Greenwall sent us a new feature article, the story of the restoration of his Aeronca KCA, which he then took to Blakesburg in 2009:

Metal pole buildings have long replaced barns as the preferred structure for Nebraska farmers and ranchers, but I shamelessly describe my experience of discovery in the classical way..."it was found in a barn!"

Video of the first taxi test of the Stinson Model O replica at Evergreen Aviation Services, from January 18.