Lest folks think that Antique Airfield is only for biplanes and 1930's, here are a couple of photos of the Cubs, Luscombes, Stinsons, Funks, Aeroncas, Interstates, and other classics that arrive and fly regularly at Antique Airfield. Everybody is welcome! Photos by Sharon Tinkler.

Thursday morning is a beautiful day at Antique Airfield, sunny with light winds. Arrivals are steadily coming in for the fly-in. Here's a sampling, with more to come later today:

Photo by Bob Punch

Don Pellegreno's Fairchild XNQ-1

Photo by Bob Punch

Gail and Doedo Schipper in Bücker formation
Photo by Bob Punch

Steve Roth cleaning up the engine compartment of his Fairchild 22

Eric Presten's Bleriot replica, assembled and ready to fly when the conditions are calm

Photo by Bob Punch

About 40 planes have tied down for the night at Antique Airfield to kick off the first day of the fly-in. Some folks have requested an update on field conditions, so here it is: There has been some rain in the past few days, but Antique Airfield drains well, being on the top of a small hill. The runway is firm. The ground in the parking area is slightly soft in patches, but no problem for taxi and parking.

The weather forecast is for possible rain showers Thursday, but sun and highs in the low 70s Friday through Monday, which should make for a great fly-in.

The Bleriot replica built and flown by Eric Presten is already on the field and assembled. So far several featured Fairchild aircraft have arrived including Steve Roth's Fairchild 22, Don Kirkpatrick's Fairchild 24, and Don Pellegreno's Fairchild XNQ-1. Photos coming with tomorrow's update.

Nothing like a fly-in to motivate finishing up airplane restoration and improvement projects. This is a phenomena that your editor is well acquainted with! Several Luscombes from Texas Chapter members have been seeing a lot of attention these past few weeks and days:

Dick Ramsey has been putting the finishing touches on his Luscombe after a cowling restoration and refinish and a landing gear rework. He's planning to fly north to Blakesburg in the company of Terry Wallace.

Meanwhile Howard Hollinger has been putting in late nights on reassembling WSA, "World's Smallest Airline", after a restoration. Assuming all goes well the plan is to depart Austin, TX, in formation with Cynthia Grant's also newly restored Luscombe headed to Iowa.

Monday saw several departures from the Northwest heading for Blakesburg. Russell Williams left Seattle in his Ryan SC-W and was able to ease through the Cascade passes with room to spare: Click here for the Spot tracking page for the trip.

Upon reaching Spokane Valley, near Felts Field, the home of many antiques and biplanes, a 4-ship formation of Stearmans was flying low and slow heading east. These same appeared again at Bozeman later in the day. Likely we'll see them at Blakesburg too.

Now that Tim Lunceford's got two Heath's flying, he sent us a few additional photos of his latest acquisition to collect 'em all. The uncovered frame is a replica of the Heath Baby Bullet, the cockpit of which makes even the Center Wing look big. Tim has obtained a Bristol Cherub engine to install making the Baby Bullet as original as possible.

Tim Lunceford of Albany, OR has a thing for Heaths. He completed restoring the Heath Center Wing racer over a year ago and has been flight testing it, tuning the propeller. The Parasol is now assembled and ready for first flight. Both airplanes feature original paint schemes.

More Heaths are on the way from Tim as well, stay tuned for future project pics!

Mike Gretz has researched the controversy over who performed the first flight in Iowa and where was it? Was it Ely & Mars, Baldwin, or Hartman?

Find out by reading the full article here.

The Blakesburg fly-in starts next week! Here's a selection of the past few day's registrants:

Cessna 195 N1571D Stan and Sandy Sweikar Dameron, MD	Cessna 120 N1867N Mark Pasqualino Poplar Grove, IL	Aeronca 15AC N1182H Dennis Toepke Port Angeles, WA

Interstate S1B1 N6513C Betty Deal West Union, IA	Waco UKC NC14047 John Patterson Frankfort, KY	Stearman N2S-3 N1066N James McDonald Newport Beach, CA

Anderson Greenwood AG-14 N3904K David Powell Rogers, AR	Cessna 195 N195MJ Roald Lutz Sandia Park, NM	Command-Aire 5C3 NC997E Robert Lock Polk City, FL

Stearman E75 N5000V Randy Miller Grand Junction, CO	Cessna 170B N8340A William Weyers Grimes, IA	Curtiss Robin NC323J Fred Dexter Loudon, NH

Starduster Too N2369 Don Bates Sunrise Beach, MO	Howard DGA-15P NC9125H Presley Melton North Little Rock, AR	Rearwin Cloudster N4404W Ed McKeown Village of Lakewood, IL

Cessna 170 N3827V Mark & Gloria Robotti Lindstrom, MN	Luscombe 8A N45768 Peter Burgher Brookline, NH

Eric Rearwin's Cirrus Hi-Drive powered Rearwin Speedster is under restoration by Tim Talen, and we've published several photos. Tom Graetz sent us a photo of the same airplane from either 1969 or 1970 for comparison. Definitely will take the new version!

Currently under restoration: