Today was a big day here in Concrete. The airport has a new name, Mears Field. The town of Concrete and people on the airport dedicated the new name this morning in honor of long time airport manager and resident, Jack Mears. Jack lives right next door to the front gate and has acted as caretaker, watchman and manager for many years.

A bit overwhelmed by the event, Jack was willing to pose by the new sign for a few moments despite seeming a bit uncomfortable with all the attention.

After a breakfast dedication, there was a three ship fly by to mark the first flight at the newly named Mears Field.

We had another good evening photo shoot, this time with the Fairchild F24G. This time we were up a bit later in the evening so we managed to get some sunset shots. And we decided to climb a bit higher out of the valley which gave us a great view of Mt. Baker which provided a stunning backdrop to some of the pictures.

It’s nice to have the Fairchild up and flying again after the engine vibration prevented us from flying to Blakesburg earlier in the month. Turns out it was the engine mounts that were causing the vibration issue. We had used a different kind of rubber on the engine mounts than was on the airplane before (likely tire sidewall). Turns out it was a simple matter of tightening down the bolts a bit with the new rubber and the vibration was gone. She flies like a smooth, luxury plane from the 1930s now.

In addition to the new photos in the gallery, you can see some older pictures we have found of our F24G from previous owners. It’s fun to see the airplane during its previous lives.

Again, just a sample of the photos. For a complete look at the Fairchild’s pictures, look at the F24G page in the aircraft section.

Summer shows no sign of ending, so with some beautiful evening light the other day we decided to take the Champ up to get some new photos for its page in the airplane section. Jim is flying the Champ and Herb is piloting his Tri Pacer as the photo plane.

Here’s just a sample of some of the photos, check out Champ’s page to see all of them. We plan to get some of the other planes up for photo shoots in the near future, so keep coming back for more vintage airplane pictures!

One of the airplanes that’s been begging for some attention in the hangar has been our L-4 Cubby. It’s a Wag Aero Cubby that was built in 1993 and has flown much lately. After towing it over to the maintenance hangar we discovered low compression in they cylinders and decided it was time for a top overhaul. All the cylinders are back and we’ve spent the past few days getting the engine back together.

Andy busy pulling cylinders on the Cubby. This plane was painted with Canadian livery to resemble the Flitfire Cubs that were built and sold to customers to support Commonwealth nations before the U.S. entered World War II.

The new top end awaiting assembly and a return to the sky.

Engine reassembly almost finished. We should do an engine start in the next day or two and have the Cubby back in the air soon.