In my last installment I talked about the American Waco Club fly-in at Creve Coeur airport in the St. Louis area, and mentioned that part 2 of the story would be coming shortly.  Well, here it is!  Part 2 of our Great Waco Adventure started on Sunday, June 21^st when we headed for our next stop, Evansville, IN.  We would spend a couple of days with our friends Wayne and Beth Ray before continuing on to the NWC event in Mt. Vernon, OH.  We really enjoyed our time at Wayne and Beth’s, and enjoyed meeting some of the folks in the Evansville area.  Thanks Wayne and Beth!

On Tuesday the 23^rd of June we pointed the Waco east once again, and after a fuel stop in Seymour, IN, we landed at Wyncoop Airport in Mt. Vernon, OH, where the National Waco Club was holding their 50^th Anniversary Reunion.  As you can see in this “self portrait”, my wife Jeri was enjoying the flight!

There were quite a few Wacos on the field already, and there would be a lot more before the event was over.   The folks at Wyncoop were ready for us, and soon we were in our parking spot and getting settled in for the event.  With tie-downs deployed and rental car arranged, it was time to settle back, relax and enjoy the NWC 50^th reunion.

The movie “Field of Dreams” comes to mind.  That film’s tagline, “if you build it, they will come” certainly applies. Andy Heins and Doug Parsons (and all their helpers) “built” the NWC 50^th reunion and the Wacos came.  Over 50 of them!  And some rare ones too!!   With that many Wacos on the field, Wyncoop Airport was indeed a “field of Waco dreams”.  Wyncoop Airport is the perfect venue for this event, and I want to thank owner Brian Wyncoop for making his neat little field available.  In this aerial photo taken by Jim Cunningham from the front seat of our UPF-7, you can see 39 airplanes on the ground.

Here are some of the highlights of the reunion.  First, here’s Harold Johnson’s original 1934 UMF-3.  This airplane has attended all 50 NWC reunions!

Another long-time attendee is Eric Zimmerman’s UPF-7.  This airplane has never been restored, but rather continuously maintained since new.

Dick Jackson arrived in the one and only Waco D.

The only F-2 on the field was Lee Parsons’ beautiful example.

The Waco CRG was designed and built specifically to compete in the 1930 Ford Air tour.  Two CRGs were built, and only one still exists.  It’s owned by Pete Heins, and it looks and sounds wonderful!

There were several “Straightwing” wacos present.  Here’s a lineup that includes (nearest to farthest) Jim Clark’s CSO, Pete Heins’ CRG, and Dave Allan’s ASO.

Dave Allan did a lot of flying during the event.  Here he is taxiing out for another flight.

There were a good number of cabin Wacos in attendance.  Here are three very nice examples.  From left to right; Andy Heins’ 1935 YKC-S, Doug Parsons’ 1934 YKC, and David Parsons’ 1934 UKC.

There were more “little Fs” at the field than I’ve ever seen in one place!  Here are 4 of the 7 that attended.  The two nearest planes are RNFs and the to farthest are INFs.

On Wednesday the 24^th of June a group of us flew about 50 miles west to Mt. Victory, OH for breakfast.  The grass airport is adjacent to a great truck stop/restaurant.  Here’s a view of the place as seen through the struts and wires of our Waco.

Another great fly-out was held on Thursday the 25^th of June.  About 20 Wacos flew to Waco Field in

Troy, OH.  The Field is part of the Waco Historical Society museum, located about half a mile from the original Waco factory.  In fact, when we departed from Waco Field we flew a circle around the original factory buildings, which still stand.  Here’s our Waco sitting in front of the museum hangar at Waco Field.

Sooner than we’d have liked, Sunday the 28^th rolled around and it was time to point the Waco west and make our way back to Oshkosh.  Weather looked OK, but it was to be a slow ride.  The wind was 25 mph right on the nose, so we had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery as we worked our way toward home.  At exactly 2 PM on Sunday, June 28^th we touched down at Wittman Field and brought our Excellent Waco Adventure to an end.

I want to thank everyone who worked so hard on both the AWC fly-in at Creve Coeur and the NWC 50^th Reunion.  Both events were fantastic and everyone involved is to be commended.  We can’t wait to get to future events!  Wacos and Waco people are the best!  Ask Any Pilot!!!!

We recently flew the Waco to two great events – the American Waco Club fly-in at Creve Coeur Airport in St. Louis and the National Waco Club 50^th Reunion in Mt. Vernon, OH.  It was an excellent trip!  We had a great time at both events and at all points in between.  I’m going to break the story up into two parts so that I can cover all the details and include some photos.

We left Oshkosh on June 18^th, headed for Creve Coeur.  Our first challenge was working around (or more accurately between) two large areas of heavy rain, one in central Illinois and the other in central Iowa.  Our timing was right to catch the gap between the two storms and we had a great flight from Oshkosh to Creve Coeur, with a fuel stop in Canton, IL.

When we got to Creve Coeur the first thing we noticed was the temperature.  It was pretty warm!  When we took off from Oshkosh it was 60 degrees, so jackets were in order.  It wasn’t much different in Canton, so we put our jackets back on after our fuel stop.  But somewhere just south of Canton we found the warmer air, and by the time we landed at Creve Coeur we couldn’t get our jackets off fast enough.  This was just a preview of what was to come over the next few days!

Here’s a picture taken shortly after we arrived at Creve Coeur.  We’re parked next to Al Womak’s Waco SRE.

Dick Jackson attended both events with the one and only Waco S3HD, more commonly referred to as simply the “Waco D”.  Here’s the “D” at Creve Coeur shortly after Dick arrived.

Here’s a lineup of three beautiful Wacos including (left to right) Phil and Ruthie Coulson’s UBA, a QCF-2 belonging to John Cournoyer, and a newly-restored YKS-7.

In this picture you can see Jim Wheeler’s ZQC-6 alongside a newly restored UPF7 that features a 300 Lycoming.  I guess that would make it a HPF-7!

This was Jeri’s first time at Creve Coeur, so she took the grand tour of the Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum as well as many of the hangars on the field.  There’s always something happening at Creve Coeur, so there’s no shortage of things to look at and people to talk to.  We had a great time renewing old friendships and making new ones.

As is customary, the AWC fly-in included a Saturday morning fly-out to Aero Estates in Belleville, IL.  Mark and Elaine Harter host this event, and as usual it was a very good time.  Thanks to Mark and Elaine for their hospitality!

Here’s our Waco parked at Aero Estates next to a UPF-7 that came all the way from western Colorado to attend the fly-in!

Al Womak parked the SRE next to the Waco D are Aero Estates.

Jeri and I want to thank Phil and Ruthie Coulson and the whole AWC gang, as well as Al Styx, John Cournoyer and all the folks at Creve Coeur, for another wonderful AWC fly-in!  We had a great time and we are already looking forward to next year.

Part 2 of this story will be posted shortly.  Stay tuned!!