Stinson Reflection

Here is another shot from the Texas Antique Fly-In.  I did a little editing and effects in iPhoto to create a small piece of art.  The vintage car hub cap gave off a cool reflection of the Stinson SR-10.  The shot below that is the vintage setting that set up the inspiration. Fun car and a GORGEOUS Stinson!

Rearwin Cloudster

This weekend I can hear the jets powering through the skies over Alliance Airport for the Fort Worth Airshow but my mind is back in time at last weekends antique fly-in.  Radial engines, biplanes and fabric are more to my liking!  One of the highlights from last weekend was Don Pellegreno's Rearwin Cloudster.  Don did a very nice job restoring this red beauty.  A few photos featured below.

Flying Over Fall Colors - Max Haynes

Fly along on a ride over the fall colors with ace air-to-air photographer Max Haynes.  This years fall color flight photo essay features a good looking group of T6/SNJs cruising over the Minnesota countryside.

Click here to join the flight... http://maxair2air.com/11AIR/2011FallColorFlight/01.html

Links - http://maxair2air.com

Texas Antique Fly-In 2011

The forecast was clear skies and light winds for this weekends Texas Antique Fly-In.  So I gassed up and flew the 170 the short flight north to Gainesville, Texas. This year my buddy Keith Moody rode along for the early morning flight up.  We arrived to 10 to 15 airplanes on the field and joined some friends enjoying the pancake breakfast.  As the morning passed the airplanes kept arriving.  We stopped to inspect airplanes around the field with the occasional stop to say hello to friends.  A few of this years highlights include a Rearwin Cloudster, Stinson SR-10, Howard DGA, DC-3, Call-air, N3N and Temco Pinto... and that is just a few.  I was going to call it good mid-morning and head back to my home airport when more airplanes kept arriving.  We made our visit last as long as possible then left just after lunch.  Another great event and great showing of rare aircraft types.  At the time of our departure there were well over 50 aircraft.  Pictures below showing a few highlights.  More pictures over at this gallery...
https://picasaweb.google.com/dtlinn/TexasAntiqueFlyIn2011

Rearwin Cloudster

L-4

Cessna 120

Corben Baby Ace

Vagabond

Lycoming Cub

Call-Air

Howard DGA

Stinson SR-10

Temco Pinto

T-28

N3N

DC-3/C-47

The line up with a Stearman overhead

Fleet

Link - http://texasantiqueairplane.org/ - http://antiqueairfield.com/

Spartan Executive - The story of N20200

Take a look over at Photorecon at the videos of Steve Marini telling stories about his Spartan Executive.

http://photorecon.net/1937-spartan-executive

Want to know how many Spartan Executives survive today?  Take a look at our listing on our web site.  Click on "Spartan Executive" under the Featured Pages.

http://www.flytoanothertime.com

Stinson SR-8 at Rare Aircraft

While reading up on the blogs I follow I saw a post at Rare Aircraft's blog about their latest project.  Check out the blog posting about the Stinson SR-8B they are restoring!  Rare Aircraft turns out some finely detailed restorations.  So I am looking forward to keeping up with the progress on this rare beauty.  Follow the links below...

Rare Aircraft Blog - Stinson SR-8B

If you have not heard of Rare Aircraft take a few minutes to read up on them and click around on their photo filled web site!

Rare Aircraft - the web site

Blakesburg Antique Fly-In 2011

It appears that 2011 was another great year at the Antique Airplane Associations annual fly-in held in Blakesburg, Iowa.  Some great pictures have come thru in the form of two videos from my aviation acquaintance, Jim Savage.  This years event featured the Monocoupe aircraft and it looks like one of the largest gatherings in recent years turned out!  Here are a few examples of the Monocoupe's in attendance.  Be sure to check out the links to the two YouTube videos that Jim produced with his pictures from this years event.  Thanks, Jim, for sharing the pictures!

British Airways Ad Features Vintage Aircraft

Well done British Airways!  Take a look at the vintage aircraft they used in this promotional ad for the airline.  It takes you back to Another Time!



And... the making of the ad. Very cool.

Cessna AW - The Oldest Cessna

Andrew King, antique airplane restorer and pilot, recently flew the rare 1928 Cessna AW to its new home at the Eagles Mere Air Museum in Pennsylvania.  This extremely rare airplane is the oldest flying Cessna and was restored by Gar Williams back in the late 1970s, early 1980s.  Andrew posted pictures of the the Cessna on a few internet forums so I thought it was worth a re-post here on the blog.  Below are a few notes from Andrew about the trip from Illinois to Pennsylvania.  Thanks to Andrew for allowing me to re-post.  An amazing airplane at the age of 83!  I bet Cessna never imagined an AW flying the skies 80 years after it was built!

The AW flies quite well for a 1928 aircraft. It has frise type ailerons which are quite effective and not as heavy as the ailerons on a lot of the aircraft of that era. The rudder is too small but the 'plane is reasonably stable directionally, and you get used to it. Elevator is pretty normal, not too heavy, and effective. I ran the 110 Warner at 1675 rpm, which produced a cruise of about 90 mph-- when they raced them back in 1928 they got 125 mph out of them, probably at full power. It would out-climb the 2000 C-172 with 160 hp fuel injected Lycoming and two people on board. Stall was about 45 mph, and one of the surprises was the sharp break and wing drop. A base-to-final stall would be a bad event. It was about 9 flying hours over two days from Poplar Grove to Eagles Mere, the longest leg was from Mt. Vernon, OH to Somerset, PA, 2:25, and after being jammed into that small cockpit for that long I had to walk around the ramp for a while to straighten out my legs. There are two 22 gallon wing tanks, and fuel burn was about 7 gph.

It was quite an amazing experience, and thanks to Gar Williams and George Jenkins for making it possible.

Take a few minutes and watch the video here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2j4qsCV_24

Links - Eagles Mere Air Museum - Poplar Grove

Oshkosh 2011 Pictures

Well, another year gone by and another Oshkosh AirVenture passed.  We did not attend this year but I wanted to post a link to the outstanding pictures that were posted on the WIX forum.  One great shot is the one above of Ed Vesely flying lead in the CAF Helldiver with an F-18 Hornet on his wing.  The F-18 is wearing a historic Navy paint scheme in honor of the Navy's 100th Anniversary.  Thanks to Chris Garber for allowing me to post his photo.

Oshkosh is THE aviation event to make so if you haven't been you need to plan to make the event at any cost.  It is worth it.  It is like an aviation family reunion!  So many airplanes and so many friends all in one place.

Take a few minutes to look thru all the pictures by following this link to the 2011 Oshkosh Photo Thread.

Links - CAF Helldiver - AirVenture Oshkosh - Warbird Information Exchange

Oklahoma Weekend Trip

Oklahoma Sunrise

My wife and I took our 170 up to Oklahoma last weekend for a family reunion and to try to avoid the Texas heat we flew up on Saturday morning.  It was an easy flight up with a flying time of only 1.7 hours. The town closest to the reunion with an airport was Sallisaw.  Nice little airport with a courtesy car.  The car was a retired police cruiser but much to our disappointment it had the police gear removed.  We could have made quite the entrance at the family reunion with lights flashing!
The reunion was my wife's side of the family and we enjoyed the whole day visiting with all of them.  I met some family members that were pilots so we swapped flying stories for a few hours.
Sunday morning we made the return flight with a flying time right at 2 hours.  We found 75 degree temperatures at 4500 feet.  Nice way to beat the heat!  It felt good to land back at our home airport by 9am.  By 10am we were home and enjoyed a brunch with Mom Linn.  Full family weekend with transportation provided by Cessna and a sunrise provided by God.