National Aeronca Association Bulletin Board

I just got back from the Blakesburg fly in. I thought I would post some pictures. There were some beautiful aircraft there. Unfortunately Aeronca was not very well represented, there where some there but not many. Anyway here they are:
Me, in front of the Stinson tri motor:







I am not sure who the Sedan owner is. I went by it a few times and never saw them. I wanted to say hi, but couldn't. Most likely a forum members plane.

Good job Clipperfixer,

Were there really that few at Blakesburg ? How was the overall attendance ( by flying pilots)? Of those who did fly in, what was the most prevalent model ?

Dale

Dale,
I have never been before. I understand attendance was pretty normal. They announced 338 aircraft in attendance. My photography sucks and so I just posted some of the better shots I got. I was there on Saturday only and the first aircraft took off at 6:40 and the pattern pretty much stayed full all day until sunset.
The largest group by far was the Luscombe, that was the theme aircraft for this year. There were tons of them. Unfortunately I have no interest in Luscombes. (mainly because there is no way I will fit in one!!) I was mainly interested in checking out the Champs for ideas as I rebuild mine. I don't think there were but about 6 champs and there were some Citabrias and American Champions there. I know this is most likely never going to be a big Aeronca fly in, but I was hoping for a bit more there. It was worth the trip and there were some beautiful aircraft there. The blue Beech and the black Waco were outstanding. Of course standing next to one on the field is as close to owning one as I will ever do. The Stinson tri motor was very very nice too. There of course were many, many nice aircraft and quite a few outstanding ones as well.

And of course I mentioned two of my favorites there, and I can't find the pics of them. LOL. If I can find them I will post them up.
Ray

I could not find any pics of the waco, but here is the Beech, and I found this pic of the 195. It was outstanding too.

Ray,

Thanks for posting the pictures. The weather looked great! I really wished I had made the drive (plane is still down).

Richard

I was there on Saturday also so Ray, we probably crossed paths once or twice. Too bad we didn't have some kind of an Aeronca homing devise to help locate all the family pilots. I had my Champ preregistered but then a small 'woops' occurred and I ended up arriving by auto. How humiliating. For some reason, Champs and other Airknockers usually aren't too prevalent there. There definitely were some nice planes there and some that showed many hours and dollars of TLC. I too was enamored by the Staggerwing Beech. I would have loved to given it a new home but I think the care and feeding of it are more than my wallet can abide by. A few planes there that had 'For Sale' signs on them and many were quite nice, just none that interested me or that I could afford.

That's a fun place to go if you've never been but it was too hot this year for me to fully enjoy the total experience of it.

Larry,
I kind of figured this was more of a Middletown crowd than Blakesburg so I did not mention it. On top of that I was not 100 percent sure I was going till the last minute. I was hoping that the Aeronca guys were flocking together and had hopes that I would meet somebody from here..but the Aeronca's were scattered and I only talked to two of the Champ owners, they were the only ones I found. Both nice guys. I did get some ideas for my restoration there. I was hoping to get more. For some reason around here there are not many Champs.
I know what you mean about the Beech, I am afraid I can't afford to pay attention let alone put gas in it. I did talk to the Beech 18 driver for a minute. I asked him how much gas that burned. He shot back real quick "44 an hour" OUCH!! I guess that would put the Staggerwing at around 24 an hour. I guess if you have to ask how much it burns you can't afford it.
I drove too. My friend and I went together. Between us we own 5 aircraft.... Not one airworthy! Ha! Actually he has a flying Chief, but it is dog ugly and I can't fit in it anyway. He has a Culver V that is not running right so we drove. It was hot, we got there Friday afternoon, ate and set up our tents. Saturday we were up with the first Luscombe around the pattern at 6:40. We were planning on leaving Sunday after we had our fill, but it rained about 6AM. I got up threw the tents in the back of my wagon, took a shower, clean clothes and was out of there by 6:30. I was not going to muck around in the mud.
I had a good time. My buddy and I are making plans to go next year, his Culver and my Champ...but I am afraid my Champ isn't going to keep up! Hopefully we can get some of the guys from here next time.

If there's enough interest I'd be willing to set up an Aeronca meeting/forum next year at Blakesburg.