What an amazing fly-in this year! With great weather and an impressive group of airplanes that made the trip to 3W5, this year’s fly-in exceeded everybody’s expectations. We had a feeling things were going to be busy today after we had a large number of airplanes arrive yesterday. A huge thanks to all of the pilots and visitors who spent the time to come and visit the airport this weekend!

Our official count today was 168 airplanes flew in for the 2010 North Cascades Vintage Fly-In, and that’s a minimum number since there were airplanes that came and went without checking in. Not sure if that’s a record, but the airport was filled to the brim.

Included in that number were a number of amazing airplanes including Addison Pemberton’s Boeing Model 40C that we’ve been talking about all week. The plane was a big attraction and Addison was generous enough to give rides to more than a dozen people. We managed to get some pictures from a beautiful evening flight on board the Boeing. Truly an amazing airplane to ride in.

We also saw the return of the Student Prince that appeared in our 1988 video we posted earlier in the month. There were a pair of Howards, a Spartan Executive, Wacos, a Laird, Bellanca Cruisemasters, a line of Luscombes, Piper Cubs…the list goes on and on.

We’ll post more stories and pictures in the coming week from the fly-in. We just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to everybody who helped make the fly-in such a huge success.

Well as of 4:00pm on Friday afternoon we have clear blue skies, a west wind and already about 25 airplanes that have flown in for this year’s fly-in. There’s a beautifully restored J-3 Cub that has all of its original paperwork, including the bill of sale from 1946. A Waco YMF parked out front and our Fairchild PT-19 has been giving rides this afternoon.

We’re offering rides today and tomorrow in our PT-19, Waco INF and our beloved Aeronca Champ.

We’re showing the movie Pearl Harbor tonight at 7:30 in the main hangar and the classic film, Blue Max tomorrow night at 7:30.

Addison Pemberton is scheduled to arrive around 5:00 this evening and we plan to meet him in the air with the INF and fly around the Skagit valley a bit.

Tomorrow morning breakfast will be served at the high school from 7:00am to 11:00am and there will be food vendors here all day.

And don’t forget about our guest speakers this year, Addison Pemberton talking about his Boeing Model 40C and Richard Bach talking about his life as a pilot.

Looking forward to seeing everybody here at 3W5 tomorrow.

With the 2010 North Cascades Vintage Fly-In only a few days away, we wanted to let everybody know that we have two talks scheduled for Saturday afternoon.

Addison Pemberton will be talking about his Boeing Model 40C at 3:00pm and author Richard Bach will be speaking at 4:30pm. Both talks will take place inside the main museum hangar.

Mr. Pemberton will be arriving Friday afternoon with his Boeing and will perform some fly-bys during the fly-in on Saturday. The Model 40C is the oldest flying Boeing in the world and was found on a mountain top in Oregon where it sat for 70 years. After an exhaustive eight year restoration, the Boeing flew again for the first time in 2008.

The airplane can carry four passengers in cabin comfort, with the pilot sitting in an open cockpit. Mr. Pemberton will talk about the history of the Boeing Model 40C, as well as the incredible restoration that was completed to get the airplane back in the air.

Richard Bach is a legendary pilot and best selling author. The long time pilot and adventurer is very well known in aviation circles for his books that share the passion for flight many of us experience, but few of us can share in words.

We are honored to have these extraordinary speakers at this year’s vintage fly-in and we hope you will be able to join us as well. The weather forecast is looking great for the weekend and we hope you can fly, drive or ride up to Concrete to enjoy the airplanes!

With a week to go until the 2010 fly-in here in Concrete, we thought it was a great time to look back 22 years. We found this great video from the 1988 Concrete Fly-In on YouTube. There are lots of great airplanes in the video, many of them don’t seem to be around any more (or at least we don’t see them at the fly-in anymore).

We’re curious how many people recognize some of the vintage airplanes in the video. It would be great if somebody knew the current whereabouts of some of the airplanes and if we could get them to visit us once again, assuming their still in the area.

Also made us realize we should get out the video camera for this year’s fly-in, especially with some of the amazing airplanes we have flying in this year. Hopefully in 2032 we will still be seeing some of the airplanes flying in to 3W5 that we will see there this year!

Enjoy the video, and let us know in the comments if you recognize any of the airplanes/pilots from 1988.

We look forward to seeing everybody up here in Concrete next Saturday. Breakfast is served at the high school just a few hundred yards from the airport until 11am. Aircraft judging will take place all day, and Addison Pemberton will be speaking about his Boeing Model 40C in the afternoon. Come visit for an easy going, old-fashioned fly-in!

We are in the middle of the busy fly-in season here in Concrete. As soon as we finished getting everything put away after Arlington, it was time to start getting everything ready for our fly-in here in Concrete that starts a week from tomorrow (7/23-24). Everybody is invited to the fly-in and it’s a great place to be if you like an old fashioned, low key fly in with lots of old airplanes.

This year we’re excited as we have a special guest that will be visiting us here in the North Cascades. Addison Pemberton will be flying his one-of-a-kind Boeing Model 40C into 3W5 and will be staying for the fly-in. For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, the Model 40 is an incredible example of aircraft restoration. Pemberton and Sons Aviation spent many years tracking down the airplane, acquiring and fabricating parts and immaculately restoring what is now the oldest flying Boeing airplane in the world.

It’s a great honor that Pemberton will be flying his Boeing here to the North Cascades Vintage Fly-In. Even if you’ve seen the airplane before, this will be a great opportunity to get a close look at the airplane, ask questions and see it fly. And if that’s not enough, he and his family are flying in some other airplanes as well including a beautifully restored Laird LC-1B-300.

Continue reading »North Cascades Vintage Fly-In Coming Next Weekend

This was definitely the year for antique and vintage airplanes at the Arlington Fly-In. The new barn that was built by fly-in volunteers is amazing and provides a real focal point for the antique/vintage crowd at Arlington.

Bruce Angell and the team of volunteers who built the barn with a budget of zero dollars deserves a huge amount of thanks from the flying community. Much of the lumber used to build the barn was milled from trees donated by fly-in volunteers Herb and Janie Brown. Everybody who visited enjoyed the atmosphere around the barn, and the shade didn’t hurt either.

The museum provided most of the items on display inside the barn including our Pietenpol project and an assortment of wings, engines and other parts. We’re looking forward to future years with the barn and hope to provide even better displays for next year.

We also brought down our Waco INF which shared the area with numerous biplanes, including other Wacos, and aircraft from Fleet, Travel Aire and Stearman. Our Ryan ST-A Special drew lots of visitors with its sleek lines and our Fairchild 24 won Antique Reserve Grand Champion.

Jim’s son Drew has been working hard on a Piper Clipper for one of his customers and the airplane was finished just in time to be flown down to Arlington for the weekend. The effort paid off, Drew was awarded Grand Champion in the classic airplane category. The awards continue to stack up for the Jenkins family!

With the dust now settled, and the airplanes tucked into their hangars again, we’re busy getting ready for the North Cascades Vintage Fly-In here in Concrete which is only a week and a half away.

We will have an update about our fly-in tomorrow, including some exciting news about ride opportunities for visitors to the airport!

The Arlington Fly-In is in full swing and the new vintage-antique area is great! Volunteers in Arlington spent months building the barn that serves as the center point for the vintage and antique airplanes. Outside there are lots of great looking old airplanes and inside there are lots of airplane parts and memorabilia.

The barn is truly a great addition to the fly-in and a huge thanks to everybody in Arlington who came up with the idea and put it all together!

The museum has been working with the fly-in organizers and has provided many of the items on display. Inside the barn is our Pietenpol Sky Scout and Ford Model A engine. We also have several smaller items, and the speed corner with information about the Hall Bulldog project and other air racers.

Outside the barn we also brought several airplanes down for display. Our Ryan ST-A Special, Fairchild 24 and Waco INF are parked next to several other incredible looking airplanes. We even brought down one of our latest projects, a yet to be restored 1939 Stinson HW-75.

The airplane just came out of storage thanks to the help of a group of Civil Air Patrol cadets from Bellingham. The Stinson served with the Civil Air Patrol during World War II along the St. Lawrence Seaway and still has some of the original markings. After the war the airplane was put in storage and it still includes many original interior pieces.

We will be working with the CAP cadets in the area over the next several years to restore the airplane back to its original glory. There has been a huge interest in the rusty old plane, especially from the kids who want to help with the restoration!

The weather forecast continues to look like nothing but blue skies and thankfully slightly cooler temperatures for the next few days. Be sure to make the trip to Arlington this year and stop by the barn to say hello.

Arlington is less than a week away, and we’re busy getting ready for this year’s show. The exciting news is there will be a much bigger vintage/antique aircraft presence this year with the new vintage barn that has been built by volunteers over the past several months, and Friday will be vintage airplane day.

The barn is truly an amazing project. It has been built from scratch, with logs literally being milled into lumber by volunteers to make the structure. It should be a great gathering center for the vintage crowd.

We will have a few of our airplanes on display in Arlington. The Ryan STA-Special will be back this year along with our Fairchild 24G. We’re planning on bringing at least one more airplane down, but haven’t figured out if it will be the Waco INF or the Fairchild PT-19.

We’re also going to bring some of our projects down to the Vintage Barn display. The Pietenpol Sky Scout project will be on display with its air cooled Ford engine. Also on display will be our Stinson HW75 project. This airplane is a former Civil Air Patrol Airplane that served in the northeastern United States during World War II. We have a group of CAP cadets from Bellingham who will be helping get the Stinson prepared for next week.

We look forward to seeing everybody at Arlington, be sure to stop by and say hello!

Over the weekend the NW Super Cub Fly-In was held here at the airport in Concrete. It was the first time they have held the event here and it was a lot of fun. There were around 15 airplanes that flew in on Friday and spent the night camping on the field.

Saturday morning a group of the bush wheel equipped planes headed out on the Skagit River and found some off airport places to practice their STOL skills. By lunch time the weather had cleared up and airplanes kept arriving all afternoon.

The take-off and landing competition was held on the grass runway parallel to the main runway here at 3W5. The organizers set up a orange stripe about a third of the way down the runway to give them plenty of room to slow down for their ultra short landings and keeping things as safe as possible.

By the time the competition was underway there were around 40 airplanes that had flown in for the event. We had more than a dozen Super Cubs, most with giant bush wheels. There were a handful of Cub Crafters Top Cubs and Sport Cubs as well as the company’s amazing Carbon Cub. A few Aviat Huskies showed up, including one on amphib floats. At the bigger end of the bush plane scale were six Cessna 180s and a 170. There were also quite a few spectators who flew in for the event in a random assortment of airplanes.

Watching the STOL competition was quite amazing. A few of the airplanes were able to get off the ground in under 100 feet and stopping in well under 150 feet. The shortest take off of the day was just 55 feet in a Cub Crafters Sport Cub, a stock version! The overall competition was won by Jason Gerard in his Piper L-21B Super Cub. Painted in Italian livery (it was one of the many L-21s that served in the Italian military), Jason managed a best take off of just 91 feet and a landing of 107 feet!

It was also fun watching some of the competitors in the “light touring” category. There was a 150 pilot and a 172 pilot both showing off their STOL skills in the airplanes most of us are familiar with. Results from the event can be seen here near the bottom of the page.

We have a bunch of video as well, should get those on the computer in the next few days. in the meantime enjoy a bunch of the photos below from many of the competitors.

A bit of a last minute notice, but the 2010 NW Super Cub Fly-In will be held here in Concrete this weekend. The annual event has been held down near Snohomish east of Harvey Field for the past several years, but the grass field isn’t available there this year, so the organizers have worked with the town of Concrete to hold the event at 3W5.

The highlight of the fly-in is the STOL competition which will be held Saturday afternoon. Super Cubs and other aircraft from around the region look forward to this fly-in every year to test their ultra short field take off and landing skills. In past years everything from stock PA-18s to nitrous powered Super Cubs as well as a wide range of other aircraft have competed in the STOL competition.

They will be using the grass strip which is parallel to our paved strip here. It can just be seen above, to the right of the airplanes in the picture from our fly-in from a few weeks ago.

There are  four categories for the competition to accommodate everything from small LSAs, through the bush planes and on up to the heavier touring class of airplanes. It should be a great day for anybody who enjoys flying!