Pietenpol events

The Air Camper’s 80^th Birthday Party!

On July 23, 24, 25 (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) the faithful assembled in Brodhead, Wisconsin, to properly hold a birthday celebration for the design of the ubiquitous Air Camper. Over the years, a lot of people have built and flown this venerable old design, and we had some 22 examples show up at Brodhead for the three-day party.

Across the whole USA on opening day, Thursday, it was a bad weather day for flying a Pietenpol. Just imagine flying a Piet to Brodhead from California or West Virginia – and then home again. We still had a half-dozen sturdy types check in. On Friday and Saturday they still kept coming until we had a busy flight line indeed. The wind gusts were rambunctious at times, but good judgment prevailed and we had no incidents (at least with Pietenpols).

On Thursday morning, BPA arrived with tables, chairs, two canopies, and other paraphernalia - and with a whole group of volunteers from Oshkosh to handle all the paperwork of registration, name badges for both non-members and members, taking of individual member photos, issuing BPA Membership Appreciation Award tickets, displaying these awards, distributing Saturday Forums schedules, and answering questions. It seemed as if everyone was smiling as they checked in and the paperwork was quickly processed by the Oshkosh group of volunteers (all Dee’s family members). Because of the excellent help, we were able to get a nice photo of most members for use in future BPA publications.

The Saturday Forums were, as always, informative and educational, and just plain fun! One of the Saturday afternoon Forums was a complete briefing and discussion about the mass flight of Pietenpols (20 or so) from Brodhead to EAA’s Oshkosh AirVenture on Sunday morning. This briefing resulted in an almost seamless arrival in Oshkosh (the busiest airport in the world on that morning). The mass dawn patrol takeoffs from Brodhead on Sunday morning were an inspiring sight and sound indeed! Where else but in Brodhead?

This year, as we had pointed out in BPA News, we wanted to restrict the free awards to BPA members only. No more giving away a Bingelis book to someone who doesn’t know who Tony was or what the heck the book is all about. This year we did have a good number of Pietenpol-related awards, and a number of general prizes, too. The Saturday evening drawing just before Chapter 431’s traditional pork chop dinner drew an overflow crowd to the Pavilion. It seemed that anyone who held a prize ticket was roundly cheered (or commented about) by other members. Obviously, the Member Appreciation Awards are popular. Chapter 431 had made up distinctive and colorful banners for our party, featuring a classic Pietenpol. These banners were displayed around the grounds during the reunion. On Saturday evening the Brodhead Chapter added these banners to the list of awards and the banners were very popular prizes.

This year, being the Air Camper’s 80^th birthday, EAA had made up 1,000 woven patches depicting the Air Camper. One was to be awarded by EAA to the pilots of each homebuilt that flew into AirVenture. So many homebuilts showed up at Oshkosh, that EAA was about 23 patches short! So - there are no more souvenir patches. Some of us thought we might scrounge one for our Pietenpol wall. Nope!

As usual, our hosts – Brodhead’s EAA Chapter 431 did all the right things. From grounds and camping maintenance to food preparation and service, providing the Pavilion for display and sale of Piet gear, ideas and souvenirs, and use of the Dining Hall for Forums – everything was expertly and cheerfully handled by our hosts. Thank you one more time!

We have to mention the South Hangars at Brodhead. We all know of the gems of aviation history and of the new Pietenpols being expertly built there. The friendly folks open their shops and hangars to us. It’s a fabulous opportunity and it’s right there – at Brodhead.

Once again, we realize that it’s the people that make Brodhead glow! Friendly folks just sitting around, telling a few airplane tales, watching the ongoing “air show,” and enjoying meeting new people and reuniting with old friends. Of course, there are always builders who are armed with camera and tape measure, making notes to take home.

It’s becoming a “bucket list” item for Piet people to make the journey to Brodhead at least once, no matter what part of the USA or Canada (or Germany) you call home. Each year some of the old timers are not there, but the enthusiasm of the newer folks carries on the tradition of friendly activity of the Low and Slow persuasion,