Antique Airfield, India Alpha Two Seven, Blakesburg, Iowa, and the Labor Day Fly-In Where the Antique Airplane Association Keeps Em Flying on a Grass Strip in the Middle of a Cornfield

SUMMARY: Antique Airfield (IA27) in Blakesburg, Iowa hosts the Antique Airplane Association’s invitational Labor Day fly-in on a grass strip in the cornfields.

Antique Airfield, identifier India Alpha Two Seven (IA27), is a private grass airstrip near Blakesburg, Iowa, just outside Ottumwa, and home to the Antique Airplane Association’s annual Labor Day fly-in. Founded by Robert “Bob” Taylor in 1953, the association exists to keep vintage aircraft airborne rather than parked in museums - its motto is “Keep ‘Em Flying.” Each year in the week leading into Labor Day, some of the rarest flying antiques in the world gather wingtip to wingtip on the grass.

What Is Antique Airfield in Blakesburg, Iowa?

Antique Airfield wasn’t an airport that grew a fly-in. It was a fly-in that built itself an airport - carved out of an Iowa bean field on purpose.

The field sits on farmland near Ottumwa, in southern Iowa, with grass runways, a cluster of weathered hangars, and no control tower. At its heart is the Airpower Museum, a nonprofit that keeps the entire operation running.

There’s no asphalt, no glass terminal, and no security fence between visitors and the airplanes. It is deliberately, proudly old-fashioned.

Who Was Bob Taylor and Why Did He Start the Antique Airplane Association?

Robert “Bob” Taylor founded the Antique Airplane Association in 1953. Looking at the aircraft of the 1920s and 1930s - Travel Airs, Wacos, Stinsons, Curtiss Robins - he saw the airplanes that taught America to fly being scrapped, chopped up, and left to rot in fields.

Taylor refused to treat them as junk. He saw them as “history you could still fly.”

His answer was the association and its motto: Keep ‘Em Flying. Not preserved behind a rope or bolted to a pole, but in the air - engines running, fabric taut, the smell of castor oil in the breeze. After early gatherings moved around, Taylor and his family put down permanent roots on the Iowa ground that became Antique Airfield.

What Is the Labor Day Fly-In Like?

The fly-in unfolds in the week leading into Labor Day, and pilots who love old airplanes routinely call it not the biggest gathering on the calendar, but the best.

The approach alone is memorable. You descend over green-and-gold farmland until the grass field simply appears out of the crops. There’s no tower, so you make your radio calls in the blind and keep your eyes outside - see-and-be-seen flying the way it was originally done.

The traffic pattern is slow and courteous: a Piper J-3 Cub at 60 mph, a Stearman PT-17 behind it, a Beech Staggerwing joining the flow, a straight-tail Cessna 170 sliding in on the forty-five. You touch down on soft, slightly bumpy grass, let the tailwheel settle, and S-turn while taxiing so you can see over the long nose. Someone in a straw hat marshals you to a spot in the grass.

What Aircraft Fly In to Blakesburg?

The variety is the draw. The Antique Airplane Association centers on genuine antiques and classics, and Blakesburg is where the rarest examples come out of the woodwork.

Expect to see Travel Airs, Wacos (pronounced “Wah-co,” not “Way-co”), Stinson Reliants and Voyagers, Beech Staggerwings, Curtiss Robins, Fairchilds, Ryans, and Fleet and Great Lakes biplanes. Add to that a flood of Cubs, Champs, Chiefs, polished-aluminum Luscombes, rudder-pedal-less Ercoupes, and big round-engine Cessna 190s and 195s.

Some of these aircraft are the last flying example of their type in the world - not in a climate-controlled hall, but parked in the grass, flown in hundreds of miles and flown home again.

Can You Camp at Antique Airfield?

Yes. Pilots camp right next to their airplanes, tents and sleeping bags tucked under the wings. When the day’s flying ends, campfires come up and the “hangar flying” begins - pilots swapping stories that grow a little taller with each retelling.

At Blakesburg those fires are ringed by real aviators, some of whom flew types you’ve only seen in books, and a few who knew Bob Taylor personally. It’s living history you simply can’t buy.

Daytime brings friendly competition, too: flour-bombing contests (drop a sack of flour on a ground target) and spot-landing contests (put the wheels down closest to a line), while someone else flies lazy eights over the corn just because the evening is beautiful.

How Do You Attend the Blakesburg Fly-In?

This is the most important practical detail: the Labor Day gathering is an invitational event for Antique Airplane Association members and their guests - it is not an open public airshow.

Before planning a trip, check directly with the Antique Airplane Association for the current field information, dates, and exactly how to take part. Whether you intend to fly in or drive in, the organizers can tell you how to join as a member or guest. Bring a lawn chair and an open mind.

Who Keeps Antique Airfield Running?

Antique Airfield and the Airpower Museum run on volunteers, members, and donations - not corporate sponsorship. There’s no banner draped over the runway.

When Bob Taylor passed, his family and the surrounding community kept the field alive because letting it die was never an option. The whole point, in Taylor’s vision, was never nostalgia - it was handing aviation forward to the next generation, so that decades from now someone is still twisting a tie-down stake into the Iowa grass.

Key Takeaways

• Antique Airfield (IA27) is a private grass strip near Blakesburg, Iowa, hosting the Antique Airplane Association’s annual Labor Day fly-in.
• The association was founded by Bob Taylor in 1953 under the motto “Keep ‘Em Flying,” to keep vintage aircraft airworthy rather than static.
• The field has grass runways and no control tower, requiring see-and-be-seen flying and non-towered radio procedures.
• Expect rare types - Travel Airs, Wacos, Stearmans, Staggerwings, Cubs - including some of the last flying examples of their kind.
• The event is an invitational for members and guests; confirm dates and access directly with the Antique Airplane Association before planning.