Army Wings and Wheels Fly-In June 5-7, 2009

The Army Wings and Wheels fly-in, Poplar Grove, Ill. Airport (C77). June 5-7, 2009. This is an L-bird and warbird fly-in with a bunch of military reenactors. YOU SHOULD GO!!!

http://www.armywingsandwheels.com/

Taylor

Taylor,

Have you contacted the organizer about the event? Are you thinking of going?

Ryan

Yeah. I'm going. I'm trying to get a group of L-birds to fly up there from TX, if you want to join that'd be great. So far I think we'll have, My L-5, Lanny Parcell in Doug Damiano's L-5, and Mark Todd in his. It'd be cool to get a 4 ship going.

I wonder if the squadron would let me... and if I could afford it. That would be some trip!

Ryan

Taylor thanks for starting this subject.

I'm Tom Murray the promoter, or rather, I prefer "organizer" for this event.

2009 will be our third year. The first two years were successful beyond my best expectations. As an L-3 owner I had been approached by the local EAA chapter to hold a L-bird fly-in. I put them off for over a year.

When I finally relented I told them to if I were to head this up I wanted to truly educate people about the role played by liaison aircraft in military aviation. In order to do that I felt we needed to place the airplanes into their proper relationship to Army Ground Forces and their equipment. Thanks to the support and participation of the local reenacting and military vehicle communities we were able to pull this idea off.

Because of this approach the event has evolved into something taht feels akin to a county fair atmosphere, a bit of three ring circus. The weekend now features many of the activities you would find at any EAA chapter or type club fly-in: pancake breakfasts, aircraft judging, flight competition, Sat. night dinner. It also has evolved to include WWII battle reenactments, camp displays, a vehicle review held in conjunction with a liaison aircraft demonstration, experts speaking on a variety of related subjects including WWII liaison pilot veterans. Awards are given to vehicle owners and reenactors as well as aircraft owners. It has been a lot of fun the last two years and I think it will be more so this year.

Poplar Grove Airport (C77) is a small uncontrolled field about 55 miles northwest of Chicago O'Hare. It has two grass and one paved runways. It is the home of the Vintage Wings and Wheels Museum who is a joint sponsor and host of the event. It is held on the Museum's 12 acre campus amoung it's '20 and '30's vintage buildings. The airport with it's open spaces, and grass runways is a haven to all sorts of vintage and homebuilt aircraft. It truly is a fine aviation community and fully supports the Museum and this event.

There is no registration fee for the event. Lunch is provided free to participants on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday's dinner (pig roast) will be $15.00. Breakfast is a typical fee for a fly-in breakfast. We will provide you transportation to and from local hotels or you are free to camp with your aircraft. Many of the reenactors camp on the Museum grounds. On Friday night we load all who are interested up in the military vehicles and convoy into town to the Culvers resturant for dinner.

We would love to see all of you at Poplar Grove in June. Please check out the event website at www.ArmyWingsAndWheels.com It is a work in progress but will give you a good feeling for the event and what we do here.

Tom Murray

Do you guys do a message pick-up at the event?

Ryan

We've done one the last two years and plan one for this year. Check the first page of the website.

Bump! If you're in the area - consider going!

Ryan