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!

With the days getting a bit longer, and a bit warmer, we are starting to see more visitors to 3W5. Earlier this month a group of pilots from the EAA chapter in Bellingham flew in (and drove in) for a visit. Chapter 404 member Kerry Sim sent in some photos from the visit, which he says was thoroughly enjoyed by all those who attended, especially the ones who got to go for a ride in the Fairchild 24.

Below are the pictures and some notes from Kerry about the visit.

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