Cynthia Grant and Howard Hollinger's wedding will take place at 1pm on the steps of the Library at Antique Airfield. Photos to come soon!

Jim Clark sent a photo of the taxi test of an Inland Sport, just out of restoration.

Got a favorite fuel stop that's antiquer-friendly? Send it in and we'll publish it for the benefit of other members. Two good stops when approaching Blakesburg from are:

Carlson Aviation at Yankton, SD. Gary and Katie Carlson run the FBO which has a great terminal and lounge, cheap gas (ask about an antiquer & Oshkosh discount) and wonderful friendly service. Hangars are available for antiquers. After a long day of being bumped across the South Dakota badlands, Yankton is a welcoming place to relax.

Greenfield, IA now has a 24 hour credit card gas pump, and is the home to the Iowa Aviation Museum which is well worth seeing.

A quick look inside the Iowa Aviation Museum.

Cynthia Grant and Howard Hollinger sent a quick set of photos about their flight to Blakesburg from Texas:

One of the best things about flying a Luscombe is the interesting people you meet at fuel stops along the way. We met Joe Champagne, winner of the 2008 Airventure Best Luscombe award, at Miami, OK. At Lee's Summit, MO, we met Howard Cox, who is looking for a Luscombe 8A.

Joe Champagne at Miami, OK.

Howard Cox at Lee's Summit, MO.

Chuck Doyle sent us this photo of a pair of Twin Beech's preparing for Corporate Wings at Blakesburg. Matt Younkin's C model and Chuck Doyle's D model at members Doug Rozendaal's hangar Mason City IA.

Cynthia Grant sent some photos about Howard Hollinger's and her trip to the Fly-In at Blakesburg:

We have arrived! We left Dallas yesterday morning, stopped in McAlester, OK, and Miami, OK, then spent the night in Lee's Summit, MO. Landed in Blakesburg today about 2PM. The first picture is us on the ramp at Mid-Way (KJWY) with NC1761K and WSA, ready to leave. The next two are of NC1761K and WSA, somewhere over Oklahoma.

Cynthia

For some time Mike Grimes, Addison Pemberton and others have been working to get AC43.13-1B updated to unambigously authorize the use of modern, readily available epoxy adhesives when restoring and maintaining wood structures in vintage aircraft. Mike Grimes has worked with the FAA and has some advice on how the antiquer community should engage with the FAA. The following is from Mike:

Many of us collaborated on the rewrite of AC43.13-1B about 15 years ago. When the work was edited in Washington, D.C. by the head FAA maintenance guy a lot of the good information got tossed out and some bad info inserted.

I am well aware of the West System/epoxy/adhesive issue. I am also well aware that this is just a SMALL part of the problems in the current AC.

I have been trying to stress to Addison and everybody else that what we REALLY NEED to do is draw awareness to the FAA folks in Washington, D.C. that AC43.13-1B needs to be overhauled. If we are successful in this THEN they will allocate funds for the revision. If nobody complains about the need to revise AC43.13-1B then it probably won't get revised. Simple.

Once we get the door opened then Dick and I can work with the FAA and correct the AC, including the adhesives issue.

Again, we need letters to the FAA (AFS-300) indicating that we vintage aircraft owner/maintainers need AC43.13-1B updated as we depend upon it for ACCURATE data in order that we can maintain our vintage aircraft in an airworthy condition.

DON'T MENTION THE EPOXY ISSUE, IT'S NOT WHAT WE WANT TO ACCOMPLISH AT THIS MOMENT. I'll take care of that at the proper time. Trust me.

For right now what needs to be done is for the aviation community to let the FAA know that AC43.13-1B is critical as a data source for the Maintenance and repair of vintage and amateur built aircraft. This is what Charlie Fellows is fighting for right now, but he's bucking a large bureaucracy that's attempting to allocate funds to varied other projects. As Charlie told me, he had to fight uphill to update AC43.13-1B recently and when it was done there was NO feedback from the aviation community for which it was updated. Result: Lack of interest by the FAA chiefs in updating AC43.13-1B. If they decide not to update it there is no way that I, or anybody else, can help in getting it fixed.

Solution: Flood the FAA with letters from the aviation community Indicating our need for AC43.13-1B to be updated so that we can have up-to-date data for the maintenance and repair of vintage and amateur Built aircraft. This is a safety of flight issue!

U.S. Dept. of Transportation
Federal Aviation Administration
AFS-300
800 Independence Ave. SW
Washington, D.C. 20591

Attn: Charlie Fellows, if you wish.

The plan to fix the adhesives mess is already in place, but I need a Format to put it on. An revised AC43.13-1B is the place to start.

MJG

Skeeter Carlson's Thomas-Morse Scout is temporarily residing at Spokane's Felts Field after being a star attraction at the Spokane Biplane Fly-in this year. Matt Malkin and Clay Anderson got an up-close tour by Larry Howard while on their way to the National Fly-In in Matt's Harlow PJC-2.

Matt Malkin and Clay Anderson, first time visitors to Blakesburg, headed east from Renton Airport near Seattle, WA, flying in Matt's Harlow PJC-2.

This is a family airplane: Matt's grandfather owned this airplane for 30 years before passing it on to Matt. Matt flies through Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade range east of Seattle.

Monday was a short day due to fog in Puget Sound in the morning. The Harlow was tucked away for the evening in Larry Tobin's hangar at Felts Field in Spokane. Matt and Clay's wives Wendy and Julie are road-tripping along the same path, we'll see who gets to Blakesburg first! Clay loading up: