Sparky Barnes sent us a video of flying in Addison Pemberton's Boeing Model 40 at Air Mail Days. It is almost like being there - give it a view!

The video is a Windows Media file that takes a while to download, so please be patient. Click the image below to get the video.

Cross Country – the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Piper J-2. Its eighteen day mission: To explore new horizons. To seek out new airports and new friends. To boldly go where no J-2 has gone.... recently! Click the picture for the photo log.

The Vintage Aircraft Association's Executive Director, H. G. Frautschy, stopped by Antique Airfield for a quick visit on his way back to Oshkosh from Kansas City on September 25th.

He was flying the 2nd EAA Young Eagles GlaStar. While not the first GlaStar to grace the grace at Antique Airfield we beleive it may be the first one configured as a conventional geared version to alight here.

Thanks for stopping by H.G.

Addison Pemberton sent us this summary of the Transcontinental Air Mail flight.

The transcontinental airmail reenactment was a trip into a time warp for all of us. Ben Scott with Al Holloway in Ben's 1930 Stearman Jr Speedmail, Larry Tobin in his 1927 Stearman C3B and myself in the 1928 Boeing 40C, along with our invaluable staff photographer George Perks, left NY on Sept 10th as planed in CAVU weather. Our reception and host in NY was the Air Power museum at Republic Field. Our NY family took care of us with wonderful support and excitement.

We left NY with a low alt clearance to overfly the Statue of Liberty and JFK. We found ATC extremely friendly and helpful for the entire trip with many low altitude fly-by requests at most of the big cities we overflew. We assigned the call sign "AIR MAIL ONE" for the trip to avoid confusion and streamline our flight. Rebecca Maksel from Air and Space rode with me in the Boeing 40 from NY to Bellefonte (2 1/2 hrs). She was a real trooper and wrote a great article about the experience.

I have to say after being a student of the airmail pioneers for many years I am even more impressed with the story after flying the Transcon. The task seems impossible considering they flew these routes in darkness and in adverse weather. Remember we flew this route on our terms and still had to work to stay safe.

The trip went well through our Chicago stop until weather stopped us 130 miles east of Iowa City in Rochelle Illinois. We were hosted in Rochelle by a wonderful airport family and warm town reception for 4 nights and 5 days as the gulf hurricanes fed a stationary warm front in the Midwest that yielded 5 inches of rain for 4 days in a row. On the last day we were able to run under the weather and broke out into blue and a million as we crossed though Des Moines IA now 4 days behind sced. We passed though the Wyoming high country with light winds and modest temps which was a real blessing for all of us. In Rock Springs I picked up Mary Weber in the Boeing from the DC USPS to ride with us to San Francisco. She was wonderful and was a delight to have along. We pushed hard through Nevada and encountered a rotor out side Winnemucca which caused us to drop from 6500 to 6000 feet instantly. If the seat belts had not been tight we could have been ejected from our open cockpits.

We arrived in San Francisco Thursday Sept 18th 3 days late with clear blue skies and were hosted by Bud Field at Hayward airport. Bud was wonderful and picked up all of our SF expenses for the day and a half we were there. We were met by Bill Boeing Jr's daughter Susan to receive the NY mail that had traveled with us for 2600 miles. It was Susan's grandmother who had handed the mail to the 1st Boeing 40 east bound from SF in 1926. After a wonderful ceremony we took off for a SF bay tour for golden gate and city picks with a stop over at SFO and a wonderful reception by the SFO airport museum. We then returned to Bud Field Aviation for a hosted dinner party and program.

On Friday we headed for home. Ben and Al headed for Reno and Larry and I headed for Spokane. Larry and I spent the night in Portland OR Friday night. We woke up Sat am with flyable VFR, 2500 broken and 3500 overcast. We headed for the Columbia Gorge and then up to Pasco for our final fuel stop before arriving in Spokane early afternoon.

We passed Cascade Locks, OR in light rain with 2500 overcast and good visibility but very high moisture content and cool temps. We were now wearing our Colvenex cold weather flying suits. Then it HAPPENED: Larry's engine was running rough for a few seconds at a time and then IT QUIT!! This is the one of the worst places in the Pacific Northwest for an engine failure. The Gorge at this point 10 miles west of Hood River is bordered with steep cliffs on both shores with small two lane highways and nowhere to go!! He had a 25 knot tail wind and when Larry turned to the only small field in sight on the Washington side of the river the head wind almost stopped him. He had no choice but to put the airplane down on a small driveway with large trees. He hit hard with very slow forward speed and the airplane wrapped itself around the tree trunk with the left wing and landing gear absorbing all the energy. Larry called me and said the he was OK, a real blessing to hear.

I circled the crash sight for 50 min to help emergency personal and was able to reach Larry on his cell phone to find out that he was fine and standing near the airplane. The airplane was a mess. With in a few hours he was driven to Cascade Locks and we flew home to Spokane in the Boeing counting our blessings and reflecting on our adventures. Thanks to Larry's quick thinking and low energy biplane my dear friend was spared his life and will fly again.

After this experience Larry, Ben, Al, George, Mary and myself will remain close life-time friends with Transon memories that we will carry the rest of our lives!!!!!!!!

A very humble pilot to have lived history up close and personal with an increased respect for the Air Mail Pioneers. Total flight time NY-SF 29 hrs.

Addison Pemberton Spokane WA

The online Antiquer's Store is now open! If you forgot to get your Pilot's Pub Beer Koozies and Air Mail Days pins at the fly-in, now you have another chance and can order online. Open all the time. Look for more Antiquer merchandise in the future.

Click for the Antiquer's Store.

Brent Taylor has kindly provided the complete list of award winners for the 2008 Fly-in, including the Grand Champion award winners (same as below) and the Chapter, Type Club, and special awards.

Paul Berge and Taryn Pemberton presenting the 2008 fly-in awards.
Photo by Jim Jones

Here's the Wisconsin Antiquer newsletter for September 2008.

See all the chapter newsletters.

Here are the award winners from the 2008 fly-in. Ben Taylor had the brilliant idea of holding the ceremony out in front of the pilot's pub at sunset!