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Antique AircraftQ: What’s Better Than Old Airplanes?A: Old HOMEBUILT Airplanes!The Antique Airplane Association’s Legacy Log of Homebuilt AircraftThe Air Power Museum, located on Antique Airfield, houses severalhangars full of aircraft, parts and aviation artifacts, all “loosely organized”and “lightly dusted,” making for a glorious afternoon of rummaging,remembering and new discovery.Robert L. Taylor, first and only president of the Antique AirplaneAssociation, talks about the Legacy Log of Homebuilt Aircraft seatedin his office in the loft overlooking the Antique Airfield grounds. Taylorformed AAA in 1953, the same year that his contemporary and friend,Paul Poberezny, started the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA).by Ed LeineweberWell, it took me 41 years toget there, but I finally madeit to the Antique AirplaneAssociation’s (AAA) annual fly-in atAntique Airfield near Blakesburg, Iowa.Believe me, it won’t be another eon beforeI get back. The unbeatable combinationEd Leineweberof old airplanes, hangars full of oldaircraft projects, artifacts and parts, anincredible library and museum, and, best of all, the warmthand hospitality of the staff, volunteers and fellow attendees,will prove too much to resist.Matter of fact, I plan to go back well before the 42ndannual fly-in there next Labor Day weekend. After all,Antique Airfield and the Air Power Museum are open to thepublic every day of the year except Thanksgiving, Christmasand Labor Day (due to the members-only fly-in taking placethen). With luck I can make the trip much sooner in myrecently-acquired 1948 Globe Swift, or maybe even in theearly Bowers Fly Baby homebuilt now undergoing restorationin my shop. Either one would make a great ride to AntiqueAirfield!Speaking of old homebuilts (these days referred tomore often as “amateur-built” aircraft), the “Legacy Log ofHomebuilt Airplanes,” a recent initiative of the folks at AAA,particularly caught my interest. I was fortunate to have theopportunity to discuss it with Robert L. Taylor, the founderand only president of the Antique Airplane Association, as44 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2012 MIDWEST FLYER MAGAZINEhe gave me an extensive tour of the Air Power Museum andLibrary of Flight located on the Antique Airfield grounds.(As many of our readers are already no doubt aware,Robert Taylor created AAA the same year, 1953, that PaulPoberezny formed the Experimental Aircraft Association.Each founder was an early member of the other’s organization,and has remained so to this day. The first AAA fly-in was heldin 1954 at the former Ottumwa U.S. Naval Air Station, nowOttumwa Municipal Airport. It was moved to the present sitein 1971.)The Legacy Log is the brainchild of both Robert and hisgrandson, Ben Taylor. The idea is to celebrate and preserve thehistory of the very earliest of homebuilt aircraft, such as thedesigns produced by the likes of Corben, Pientenpol, Stits,Wittman, Bowers, or any of the many others. The primaryinstrument for making this happen is a new and separateAAA publication called, aptly, the Legacy Log of HomebuiltAirplanes. To date three issues have been released, and a fourthis due out shortly. Robert is the publisher and Ben is theresearch editor of the magazine.The first edition of the Legacy Log came out in early2011, contained 14 pages of black and white content, andwas laid out by hand, without the use of modern publishingcomputers and software. (Robert eschews computers, sayingthat he finds time spent at a keyboard and monitor tooboring. He enjoys composing his publications the oldfashionedway – cut and paste!)By the third issue, the magazine was 28 glossy pages,and jam-packed with color photos of antique homebuilts,as well as plenty of black and white content from magazine