Everybody has been busy up here at 3W5 for the past several days getting ready for the fly in. Grass is being mowed, airplanes are being washed, and final preparations are being made to welcome vintage airplane enthusiasts from around the region.

Here at the museum, everybody has been busy trying to get ready for the weekend. In addition to getting ready, work continues on some of the airplanes, including the newest short wing Piper, the Vagabond.

There was also some airplane shuffling that took place this week. The Call Air that was so popular at the Arlington Fly-In this year was moved into one of the main display hangars where it sits happy after getting so much scrubbing and polishing.

We’re looking forward to another fantastic fly-in again in 2011, and hope you’ll be able to join us here in Concrete. More information about the fly-in can be found here. Drop by and say hello.

Just a reminder that the best little vintage fly-in the the northwest is coming up this weekend. If today’s forecast can be believed, it even looks like summer will make an appearance this weekend as well!

We’ve been busy at the museum getting airplanes ready and over the next few days we’ll be getting things ready at the airport. We’re expecting another great turnout of airplanes including several Stinsons to celebrate this year’s featured manufacturer, including the beautiful Model O. The oldest flying Boeing in the world will be back once again along with several other historic airplanes.

This year’s featured speakers will be Erik Lindbergh and Tom Casey. Mr. Lindbergh will be talking about the inspiration from his family history and how he’s trying to inspire the next generation of aviators as well as the next generation of electric airplanes. Mr. Casey will talk about his epic flight around the world on straight floats. He was the first and so far only person to circumnavigate the globe on straight floats and there are several amazing tales from the trip.

Breakfast will be served at the high school across the street starting at 7am Saturday and food will be available at the airport all day.

We’re looking forward to another great fly-in this year and hope you can join us whether you arrive by plane or by car. For more information on this year’s fly-in click here.

With a short gap between the Arlington Fly-In and the Concrete North Cascades Fly-In, progress is being made towards the first flight of our Piper Vagabond. The fourth short wing Piper to be restored in our collection, the Vagabond recently enjoyed having its wings attached and is looking like an airplane now.

The wheel pants are being finished up with plenty of sanding to achieve the stunning detailed finish to match the Clipper, Colt and Tri-Pacer. Using a laser to achieve a level stripe, the pants will soon be masked before the final clear coating is applied.

After that there are just a handful of details remaining including attaching the ailerons, final attachment of the windshield, gap fairings and the weight and balance.

Then we’ll just have to hope for some good weather, which has been in short supply this summer, for a first flight.

Saturday is typically the busiest day for the Arlington Fly-In and this year the weather cooperated for the big day. Opening day on Wednesday was warm and sunny, but Thursday decided to show what an IFR day might look like for a fly-in with 400 foot ceilings and off and on rain. The good news was the foul weather sent many visitors to the vintage barn to see our displays and stay dry.

Friday was cloudy and cool, but sunshine and 70s made Saturday the best day of the week. With the  good weather and the weekend, a lot more airplanes showed up, including more vintage aircraft. Early in the week we enjoyed the Fairchild 24, Stinson HW75, Boeing Stermans, Stinson Model O, a pair of Fleets and a Travel Air. To fill things out on Saturday some airplanes from the small end showed up including an Aeronca C3, Paul Cullman’s Curtis Junior, and a Culver Dart. And with the better weather, Addison Pemberton was able to fly over the mountains from Spokane in his spectacular Boeing Model 40C.

Addison Pemberton's Boeing Model 40C.

This year the vintage planes added some fly-bys to the show on both Friday and Saturday. The museum’s PT-19 and Call Air each flew both days, along with the Stinson Model O. On Friday the Fairchild 24 and Fleet 7 joined in and on Saturday the Boeing Model 40C impressed the crowds with some laps around the pattern. At the end of the fly-in both our PT-19 and Call Air each received Champion awards in Antique and Classic categories respectively.

Paul Cullman's Salmson powered Curtiss Junior

Overall the antique and vintage turn out was a good one once again and the displays in the barn proved to be a hit with visitors even when it wasn’t raining.

Now less than two weeks for the our home field fly-in, the Concrete North Cascades Vintage Fly-In 2011. We’re looking forward to another great turnout and look forward to seeing everybody there.

Culver Dart and Aeronca C3.

The annual Arlington Fly-In is underway at the Arlington airport just a short flight south of Concrete. This is the biggest fly-in of the year for our area and the museum once again has a strong presence at the vintage barn display.

Our perennially popular Ryan STA-Special is parked out front of the barn again and is joined this year by our Fairchild PT-19 and the somewhat rare Call Air A-2. Everybody at the museum has been very busy the past few weeks getting things ready for fly-in season and the Call Air in particular received plenty of work.

The airplane was restored nearly 20 years ago, but for the past several years it has been collecting a bit of dust in one of our hangars. When the decision was made to bring it down to Arlington, a lot of work was done to polish the paint and aluminum to get it looking bright and colorful again. The result is one of the best looking Call Airs anybody has seen in quite a while. Though there aren’t too many of the airplanes out there, so we admit the competition isn’t as tough as it is in some other airplane categories.

Other vintage and antique airplanes around the barn include the beautiful Stinson Model O and the Boeing Model 40 should be arriving soon.

Visitors to the barn at the Arlington Fly-In checking out the Stinson SR-9 wing.

In addition to the airplanes, we have several things on display inside of the vintage barn as well. Jim pulled off the fabric from the top of the Stinson SR-9‘s right wing to give visitors a look at the inner workings of the old gullwing. The stout construction, including a fair amount of steel, had many visitors commenting about the bridge-like construction used for the wings.

We also brought down the painted fuselage of our little Culver Dart, a selection of vintage propellers and a partly disassembled Continental A-40.

Visitors last year really enjoyed being able to see a little of what goes into a restoration and we’re looking forward to getting a steady stream of interested people again this year.

If you’re in the Puget Sound area, or even in the greater pacific northwest, be sure to visit Arlington this year and stop by the barn and say hello.

Over the winter we did some disassembly work and repainting of our newly acquired Culver Dart. The airplane had been in a hangar fire and was burned badly, but most of the parts were in good condition.

The Lambert R-266 is in good shape and after finishing cleaning the crankcase, we can’t wait to get it repainted and back together. Though with the summer flying season upon us, this is likely to be pushed to the back burner until fall. It would be nice to get it done, but there are some other airplanes that need some work for this summer and we’re also keeping going with the Bulldog project.

The engine was fairly dirty, and the fire didn’t help. Several hours were spent with various paint removers as well as a small rotary wire brush. Eventually it started to clean up nicely.

One of the neat things about cleaning up an engine like this are seeing the markings that are often missed without a close inspection. Here the foundry mark can be seen.