"The grace of service is the spirit of belonging."
― Lailah Gifty Akita

That quote describes our friend Mike pretty well!

I imagine by now most our AAA members and fans know of the passing of APM President Mike Gretz on Friday Jan 15th after a short illness.

Both the modeling world and the old airplane world have lost one of their most selfless promoters. We know the family has been left with a financial burden due to the medical bills associated with Mike’s cancer battle, so here at the APM, our Board Secretary Stephen Black and I decided to do something about it. Hence a crowdfunding campaign has been set up to help - click here to contribute.

We hope that all our AAA members and fans will get involved in making a contribution and spreading the word about this effort to help Doris & the Gretz family.

Thank you,

Brent Taylor
President AAA

It is with great sadness we must report that APM President Mike Gretz has "Gone West" after a short illness. Mike has been an integral part of the leadership here at Antique Airfield, the AAA and especially the APM for years. Along with his wife Doris and other family members, he is a big reason for the success and growth of the APM and the AAA/APM Invitational Fly-in.

Mike gave selflessly of his time and talents and we will miss him greatly.

A fund will be set up in a few days to help Doris and the family pay for extensive medical/care costs associated with Mike's illness. We will make an appropriate announcement here an on our Facebook page when ready. Tailwinds and blue skies Mike...

The Board of Directors of both the Antique Airplane Association and the Air Power Museum are pleased to announce the 2016 AAA/APM Invitational Fly-in will celebrate "BTB Days" ... Back-to-Blakesburg and Back-to-Basics.

Back in 1971, the first AAA/APM Invitational Fly-in was held at Antique Airfield near Blakesburg, IA and that event has been around long enough to have created it’s own history that many of our younger/newer members may be unaware of.

The AAA/APM Invitational Fly-in, envisioned as a "by-the-members, for-the-members" convention and reunion, was a revolutionary way to hold a major aviation event - one that over the last 40+ years has proven time and again to be popular with our membership. Antique Airfield was then and still to this day owned in total by members of the Taylor family and the Air Power Museum (APM). As it receives no federal, state or local monies, the AAA/APM Invitational Fly-in is a private event that is truly "by-the-members, for-the-members"!

While the past four decades has seen many changes in Antique Airfield and in our membership, the direction AAA/APM Founder Robert Taylor envisioned for the AAA has remained steadfast & constant. That is why the 2016 AAA/APM Fly-in will be known as "BTB Days" or Back-To-Blakesburg!

As for Back-to-Basics, we plan to put the emphasis of the event on how the AAA/APM Fly-in was and has remained to this day; simple, relaxing and fun with antique/classic aircraft flying from dawn till dusk.

Plus instead of a particular theme and featured aircraft (as we have done these past fifteen years or so) we will, as we did in the early days of Antique Airfield Fly-ins, showcase those new restorations coming from the hangars and shops of our members from around the country. Start making your plans to attend today!

Brent Taylor
President AAA
AAA/APM Invitational Fly-in Chairman

The Air Power Museum (APM) is pleased to announce it has teamed with eBay for Charity in their "Win Bigger Sweepstakes". All our AAA members can, if they’d like, help the APM attempt to win a $25,000.00 grant from eBay for Charity.

Integrated into eBay's regular buying and selling platform, eBay Giving Works makes it easy for people to support important causes, both in the U.S. and abroad. It enables sellers to donate a portion of their sales and buyers to shop while supporting their favorite charities — all the while giving nonprofits like the APM an opportunity to engage new supporters.

This holiday season, eBay is encouraging our community to Wish Bigger – and #WinBigger! Starting today November 2 to December 27, when you make the APM your favorite charity on eBay, you could win too! eBay is giving away a grand prize of a $2,500 eBay gift card, along with weekly $250 gift card prizes, to randomly drawn supporters who add a favorite charity! Let’s both #WinBigger.

The organization with the most new favorites at the end of the Sweepstakes will win a grant of $25,000 from eBay. Second place will win $15,000 and we will randomly select a participating charity to win a third place grant of $10,000.

It only takes a second; click the link below and add us as your Favorite now!

http://charity.ebay.com/charity-auctions/charity/airpower-museum-inc/73405/?favorite=button.

That’s it! Thanks for your support and giving us a chance to win this grant!

Brent Taylor
Treasurer APM

For full contest rules and details click here.

Photo by Sharon Tinkler, photo pilot Harve Applegate

The 2015 Blakesburg Fly-In is underway. Thursday saw great weather, light breeze right down the runway, and a large number of arrivals. By the end of the day Antique Airfield had seen 222 unique airplane arrivals during Wednesday and Thursday, which is great turnout for Thursday.

The weather is predicted to be great, albeit hot, for the remainder of the weekend. Come out and join us at Antique Airfield!

Photo by Kelly Mahon

Online pre-registration for the AAA Fly-In has closed. You can still register and come to the fly-in, but you'll have to do it at the fly-in itself. We look forward to seeing you there!

Once again the AAA Fly-In will feature the Youngest Pilot Award, co-sponsored by the Nebraska, Colorado, Michigan, Texas, and Marginal Aviation Chapters. The youngest pilot who flew to Antique Airfield from their home base as PIC will receive a plaque and a Lifetime membership in the AAA. The lifetime membership alone is a $600 deal!

If the Youngest Pilot has already received the award in a prior year then the award will go to the next youngest. Yes, this has happened before!

This worthy award, and many others as well, are excellent reasons to stick around for the "Gone Home" Awards Ceremony on Sunday evening. We look forward to seeing you there!

Looking at the long range forecast it looks like it is going to be nearly perfect conditions for the upcoming AAA fly-in over Labor Day weekend. Some showers this weekend should get the field nice and green, but it will be dry and in peak condition as the fly-in starts.

If you're one of those who is waiting to see what the weather would do before pre-registering for the fly-in, now you can block out the time. You can save yourself time at the fly-in by pre-registering online - there are still a few days left before pre-registration closes this coming Sunday.

With just a week to go until the start of the AAA/APM invitational Fly-in a lot of work is happening around Antique Airfield. The work is not only to get the field ready for the Fly-in but also to continue on the major infrastructure projects via the 2015 APM Capital Improvement Fund.

In relation to those projects much has been accomplished yet much remains to be done. For example, the re-graveling of the roads/driveways here at Antique Airfield continues and while we hope to be completely done by the start of the Fly-in it will be close !! Already some $4K+ has been spent on this project alone. Several of the high visibility projects have been finished “THANKS” to the hard work of a very dedicated and hard working group of volunteers. Those projects include;

1. The new hangar doors on the APM Main Museum hangar which are now complete and fully operational.
2. New roof on the APM Annex.
3. All new sheet metal on the façade of the APM Main Museum Hangar
4. The exterior wall of Powell Hall rebuilt and new steel installed.

While these major projects and several other smaller projects have been finished, much remains to do via the 2015 APM Capital Improvement Funds. Included are electrical, insulation and finishing the interior of Powell Hall, installation of systems (electrical, pneumatic, plumbing and heat) in the APM Restoration Center, new windows for the APM Gift Shop and more.

It’s obvious that with the AAA/APM Fly-in just ten days away, most of the above “to do” projects will have to wait until after the Fly-in, though we hope to get the new windows installed in the APM Gift Shop by the Fly-in. However, plans are being formulated as to making further progress this fall/winter.

We look forward to all our Fly-in attendees seeing firsthand what has been accomplished in improving the looks of the APM and moving it forward.

We also want to “Thank” the following for coming and helping out this weekend (my humblest apologies if I missed anyone);

• Dan, Dakota & Lu Quinn
• Mike Criswell
• Ken Marth
• Luke Pieper
• Mark & Teri Lancaster
• Eric & Jane Fritz
• Rick Gritters
• Jessica Fuller
• Holly Vanorny
• Harve Applegate
• Aaron Klugherz
• John Lossner
• Travis Gregory
• Mike & Doris Gretz
• Marcy Taylor
• Ben Taylor

Brent Taylor

Luke, Mike & Ken start on the task of installing a new exterior wall on the Powell Hall portion of the APM Annex.

Dakota doing what he loves best...running machinery!

Progress!

Kinda looks like a summer camp project ?? Aaron Klugherz brought down his portable CNC machine and the new signs for the rebuilt Flightline Gate #1 were engraved. Here Harve, Ben, Aaron & John apply some paint to the sign.

RLT checking on the progress of the project at Powell Hall.

Almost done!

After sanding the new signs are ready for finish and installation.

Fly-In pre-registration is closing this Sunday evening! If you pre-register you can save time at the fly-in during sign-in, and you get a picture of your airplane here on the website. You can register online with this link: Click here to register.

Here are the latest pre-registrations (for which we have photos):

	1948 Piper PA-11 N4978H Nick Hildreth Red Oak, IA		2011 RV-4 N799D Dallas Grimm Sioux City, IA (Brent Taylor photo)
	1954 Cessna 170B N2748C Don Jonas Foristell, MO (G.R. Dennis Price photo)		Piper PA-12 N4259M Tom Murray Urbandale, IA
	1945 Aeronca 7AC N81571 Larry Hoppes Springville, IN		1991 Cygnet N4215G Mike Hargrave Marshalltown, IA
	1929 Fairchild 71 NC9780 Marlin Horst Bird in Hand, PA		1947 Cessna 120 N3114N Shane Vande Voort Pella, IA (Megan Vande Voort photo)
	1941 Stearman PT-17 N941MG Lin Oakley Zebulon, NC		1948 Piper PA-15 N4567H Mark Flounders Bloomfield, IA (Brent Taylor photo)
	1930 Waco QCF N11497 Scott Johansson (Photo by Bob Cameron)		1947 Stinson 108-2 N8074K Rick Gritters Pella, IA (Charles E. "Chuck" Stewart photo)
	1943 Howard DGA-15P NC68431 Ron Wagner Tonka Bay, MN (G.R. Dennis Price photo)