Paul Cullman in his 1931 Curtiss-Wright Junior CW-1S

Well as promised, Paul Cullman visited again, this time with his beautiful Curtiss-Wright Junior CW-1S. As much as we liked the L-5 visit (more pictures from that visit below), seeing the Junior was a real treat. This airplane was built in 1931 and was Curtiss’ answer to an affordable airplane during the depression. It was sort of the LSA of its time and was designed to cost about the same as a ‘medium class’ automobile. Unfortunately, today’s LSAs don’t quite even come in at the expensive class of cars.

The small, two seat pusher design looks rather unusual and apparently the airplane’s were teased a bit during the 1930s for looking like a bathtub. But it looks like a lot of fun to fly and is so simple. Originally the airplanes came with a tiny Szekely 45 hp three cylinder radial. Paul’s Junior is a CW-1S and has the 40 hp, nine cylinder Salmson radial on it. The engine is great and looks just like a miniature version of a bigger radial.

Nine cylinder 40 hp Salmson Radial Engine

A few more pictures of Paul’s Stinson L-5 that he flew in the other week.

Ambulance Door Open on the Stinson L-5

Stinson L-5 Cockpit

Stinson L-5 from the apartment

Paul Cullman is a somewhat regular visitor to Concrete. He stopped by with his Grob motorglider a few times over the summer, but today he flew in with his Stinson L-5B. We’ve heard stories of the airplane, and it was great to see it up close. Paul has been flying for a long time, and was entertaining us with stories from his early days when he says he was much less responsible.

Stories of landing a Champ on one wheel and taxiing to the parking space without letting the other wheel touch sounds like an amazing demonstration of skill more than anything else. He says it was the local flight school who called it irresponsible because the students were trying to emulate the maneuver!

Paul’s L-5 is an ambulance version from 1944. He has promised to fly some of his other interesting airplanes to Concrete in the coming weeks, so stay tuned and who knows what might show up!

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.

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.

Harold Hanson the founder of the museum paid us a visit this weekend. Here is Harold standing by the Fairchild 24G that is almost complete for our trip to Blakesburg. The engine top over haul is just about done.

New inter-cylinder baffles being fit to the new cylinders.

Well after a whirlwind of the Vintage Fly-In and Oshkosh and a week to recover, we’re finally back to update the blog. Sorry about the delay.

The fly-in here in Concrete was a great success again this year. Despite some weather woes with IMC mornings and thunderstorms in the evening, there were plenty of airplanes flying in old and new. It was one of the better years for antique airplanes and it was also a better than normal year for non flying visitors.

We have plenty of notes on improvements for next year, especially for parking of antique, vintage and classic planes, and we hope to have a few new things for the fly in next year as well.

There were some some great aircraft on display and the awards handed out by the Concrete Vintage Fly-In are listed below.

Grand Champion – Howard DGA 15P – Fred Lundeen – Olympia, WA

Reserve Grand Champion – Stinson SM-8A – Greg Larson – Snohomish, WA

Champion Warbird – Sterman N2S4 – Kent Johnson – Auburn, WA

Champion Antique – Lockheed 12A – Jim Perry – Monroe, WA

Champion Classic – Cessna 195 – Bob Juranich – Des Moines, WA

Champion Contemporary Classic – Bellanca 14-9-2 Cruisemaster – Rock Snodgrass – Lake Tapps, WA

Champion Experimental – Van’s RV8 – Marc Drake – Arlington, TX

Best Short Wing Piper – PA-22 150 – Herb Huesitis – Point Roberts, WA

Antique Airplane Association Choice – Stinson SM-8A – Greg Larson – Snohomish, WA

After last night’s rain we were a little nervous about the weather. Waking up to IMC it didn’t look good, but as airplanes circled overhead we knew it was thin. About 10am the clouds opened up a bit and the dam broke on the airplanes flooding in. Dozens arrived one after the other making it a busy morning for the parking crew.

The day turned out to be a beautiful one with the temperatures staying a bit cooler. We had a great turnout of antiques and vintage airplanes and a lot of people driving in.

Here are a few pictures from today, more on the way including some of our award winners…

Well after a lot of work all week (and for the past few weeks), the fly in is finally here. The weather forecast for the weekend has been nothing but CAVU and warm temperatures. Even this morning was forecast clear skies all weekend. But by afternoon it was apparent that was going to change. Eventually a monster thunderstorm developed over the North Cascades and flowed west over Concrete. The result was torrential rain for about 15 minutes with thunder and lightening as people scrambled to cover open cockpits and run for cover. Eventually the rain subsided, but everything was quite wet. The upside is the grass should be a bit greener in the near future and the fire danger is down.

Hopefully the weather will look better tomorrow for the busiest day of the fly in. There should be some great planes flying in and scroll down a post to see the schedule for the weekend. Hope to see you up here!

The weather is looking good, the grass is mowed and the planes are arriving. Tonight there will be a movie at the museum’s hangar and tomorrow is the big day with lots to see and do. For a complete schedule of events check out the image below. We hope to see you here and look forward to a great weekend.

A group of r/c airplane pilots had a fly in over the weekend. Despite some windy conditions, they flew their large scale models throughout the weekend. Some of the planes are remarkable in their detail, and even more remarkable in their size. Several 1/4 scale planes were present and a few that were even bigger. One of the pilots had a Yak 55 with a 19 horsepower engine!!

We’re currently getting ready for the Vintage Fly In this coming weekend. We have heard from quite a few pilots who are flying in some great airplanes. Jim has been hard at work tidying up the hangars and getting everything together to make the fly in a great weekend. Remember there is a breakfast for all visitors at the high school across the street from the airport on Saturday morning and lots of things to see and do all day long.

We hope to see you up here, and it’s suppose to be a warm weekend, so plan accordingly.