Many people view Labor Day weekend as the end of summer.  But for members of the Antique Airplane Association, Labor Day weekend means it's fly-in time!

The Antique Airplane Association/Air Power Museum (AAA/APM) holds their annual fly-in at Antique Airfield (IA27) each Labor Day weekend, and each year hundreds of AAA members gather for the event.  This year was exceptional, with gorgeous weather over the entire span of the event, and a turnout of over 300 antique and classic aircraft.

My trip to Blakesburg was to begin on Wednesday, August 29th, but the morning dawned to low ceilings and intermittent light rain and mist.  I had hoped to get started in the morning, but that plan went away as the low clouds hung around into the afternoon.  It was frustrating because just a few miles west of Oshkosh there was usable VFR weather.  But I had to be able to get out of OSH first!

At around 2 PM the skies started to brighten, and we made our break for it.  Jeri (my wonderful wife) headed for Blakesburg in the car, hauling all our gear for the weekend, and I headed for the airport.  I pushed the Waco out, made one final check of everything, started up and taxied out.  At 2:35 PM I lifted off and headed straight west through a gap between two rain showers, and about 5 minutes later was able to turn on course for Blakesburg.  The rest of the trip was flown in great weather with a nice tailwind, and 2.8 hours after lifting off at OSH I was touching down at Antique Airfield.

Thus began a wonderful weekend of flying, fellowship, relaxation and just good fun!  The great weather made for a tremendous turnout of aircraft and people, with lots of flying during the day and lots of "hangar flying" in the evenings.  Perfect!

Here's a sampling of some of the aircraft that were in attendance at the fly-in...

Tom Brown, of Unity, WI, was at Blakesburg in his Waco QDC, the oldest flying cabin Waco.

Ed Wegner, of Plymouth, WI, flew down in his Fairchild 24.

There were lots of really nice aircraft, including this "Gullwing" Stinson.

Of course, my favorite area of the fly-in was the Waco area.  There was a whole lineup of Wacos, both open and cabin.

John Swander was there with his award-winning UEC.

And Harv Applegate had his YKS-6 looking good, as usual.  (Note the Rose Parakeet in the background!)

Each year the AAA/APM fly-in has a theme or two.  This year one of the themes was "Wright Whirlwind Days".  Here's a Wright Whirlwind engine on Tom Lowe's Stearman C3R.

It's easy to tell that this is a Whirlwind engine.  It says so right on each cylinder!

Of course there was a lot of flying going on.  Here's Dave Allen giving a ride in his Waco ASO.

And of course I gave several rides in my UPF-7.

All in all, a great time was had by all!  Many thanks to Bob and Brent Taylor and the entire AAA/APM staff as well as the many volunteers who make the fly-in happen.  It's always a great way to spend Labor Day weekend!