The American Waco Club held their annual fly-in at Creve Coeur airport (in the St. Louis area) over 14 through 17 June.  The weather was beautiful, if a bit hot for some, and a good number of Wacos were in attendance.  I think I saw a count of 22 Wacos flown to the fly-in, and counting the Wacos that are based at Creve Coeur there was something like 38 Wacos in attendance.  Pretty nice group!

I flew down from Oshkosh on Thursday morning, the 14th.  I had to stop on the way at Bigfoot Airport in southern WI to issue an airworthiness certificate to a light-sport aircraft, then stopped for fuel in Canton, IL.  Then I headed for Creve Coeur, arriving at about 1 PM.  Here's a picture of my Waco parked next to another UPF-7 right after I arrived.

There were some very nice airplanes at the fly-in.  Like this collection of F-2s.

And this UBA, which is quite rare.  The Straightwing in the background is darned nice too!

The UBA is a side-by-side arrangement, with dual controls.  It has a very large baggage compartment where the front cockpit would normally be.  Pretty interesting airplane!

I managed to do some flying each day of the fly-in.  Gave a few rides, and just generally enjoyed my airplane and the company.  On Saturday morning we had a fly-out to Aero Estates, near Belleville, IL.  this even was hosted by Mark and Elaine Harter, who own a cabin Waco.  This event was very well attended, both by Wacos and other types.  Here's a picture of a group of UPF-7s that were in attendance.

It was a great fly-out and the Harters were wonderful hosts.  Thanks to them for their hospitality!

Saturday evening after the final meal and presentations I went over to Frank and Carol Kerner's hangar (I've known them for many years and had been visiting with them on and off all weekend).  The Kerners are great folks!  Not only is Frank an airplane guy, he's also a guitar player (as am I).  Of course this led to a jam session!  We ended up with 4 guitars and a drummer, and just had a great time singing and playing until "In the Midnight Hour".

Sunday morning meant I was heading home, and I had a great flight.  Stopped at Freeport, IL for fuel, then headed for Oshkosh.  When I got within 10 miles or so of OSH I decided that it was too nice a day to quit flying, so I headed out west of town and flew around checking out the sights for a while.  Then finally headed in and called it an event.

What a great weekend!  I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who had a hand in putting on the fly-in.  I met lots of nice people, and renewed several friendships as well.  I look forward to next year's event already.  Thanks Creve Coeur gang!!

As I reported in my last entry, the Waco had developed an oil leak that needed some attention.  The leak was tracked down to the oil pump area.  Specifically, it was leaking where the duplex oil pump mounted to the accessory case.  The plan of action was to remove the pump and replace the gasket.  Sounds simple, but Murphy was lurking about!

Here's the pump just about ready for removal from the engine, or so I thought...

What should have been a relatively easy job turned out to be anything but!  After draining the oil, removing the lines and letting them drain out, and removing the nuts from the studs, the pump should have been ready to come off the engine.  But it had different ideas!  After spending several hours trying to get the pump to slide off the studs with absolutely NO success at all (it hadn't even budged) I finally ran out of ideas and patience and had to call for help.

A couple of phone calls netted the idea to apply some heat with a heat gun, in hopes that this would expand the pump enough to break it loose.  I was at the point where I was game to try anything, so out came the heat gun.  I got the pump hot enough that I could hardly touch it, and a couple of gentle raps with the plastic hammer and "pop", the pump was loose.  HALLELUJAH!!!

Upon inspection of the pump after removal it appeared that someone had possibly tried to repair a leak in the past by excessive application of gasket sealer material (instead of just replacing the gasket itself).  It's no wonder the pump didn't want to come off.  It looked like there was enough sealer on the gasket and on the mounting studs to hold the pump on the engine without any nuts on the studs at all!!  Definitely a case of someone thinking "more is better".  Yeah, right!!

Here's the pump after removal from the engine....

A good cleaning of the mounting surfaces on the engine and the pump as well as the mounting studs got us to the point of being ready to reinstall the pump. FINALLY!  Here's the pump with the new gasket in place....

An appropriate application of gasket sealer and the pump was ready to go back on the engine.  Everything went very well on the installation, and in no time the pump was mounted and saftied and ready to accept the lines....

In short order the lines were on, oil was back in the system, and the engine was test-run to check for leaks.  Voila!  No leaks around the pump, or anywhere else worth mentioning, so a test flight was in order.  After a 45 minute flight there was almost NO oil on the belly.  VICTORY!!

The plane has flown over two hours now since replacing the oil pump gasket and no leakage is apparent.  The job was harder than it should have been, but the outcome is as desired.  Now we're all ready to head for Creve Coeur and the Waco Fly-in!

Jeri and I planned to head for Bartlesville OK and the annual Biplane Expo this past weekend.  But the weather conspired against us.  A big line of thunderstorms blocked our path on Thursday.  Yes, I probably could have picked my way through, but I hate fighting the weather and I hate to think that one of those T-boomers might be sporting some hail to throw at my airplane.  We decided to stay close to home and see what Friday would bring.  So instead of heading for Bartlesville we flew down to Hartford WI to visit the gang down there.  We had a nice visit and a nice flight down and back (taking the long way home of course).

Friday once again conspired against us, as we woke up to thick fog in the morning that didn't burn off until just before noon.  And again there were thunderstorms along our route to Bartlesville as well, so we decided to officially scrub the trip and instead flew around the local area.  We flew to Central County Airport near Iola WI for lunch, then once again took the "scenic route" home.  Nice flight, and the Waco was safely back in the hangar in case the storms decided to get nasty.

As we pulled up to the hangar at the end of Friday's flight Jeri noticed that some oil had made its way into the front cockpit.  I had been noticing more than the usual amount of oil on the belly after the last few flights, and this time there was a LOT of oil on the belly.  It was painfully obvious that we'd developed a leak.  So Saturday and Sunday were spent tracking down the source.  The leak has been located and the appropriate parts ordered, so my next entry will detail the repair.  Always something!!!