By SPARKY BARNES SARGENT

Jack Greiner's Rose Parrakeet and Larry Howard’s 1930 Laird LC-1B-300 in front of Antique Airfield’s hangars.

Every Labor Day weekend, antiquers from all over the country pack their bags, load their airplanes (or autos) and head like homesick aviators to the Antique Airplane Association/Air Power Museum’s Invitational Fly-in at Antique Airfield in Blakesburg, Iowa.

It’s a low-key, grassroots fly-in, where airplanes fly from dawn to dusk, and old friends reunite, while new friends are made.

This year’s delectable selection totaled 369 aircraft, including Howard DGA-15s, Mullicoupe, Twin Beechs, Ryan, an Interstate Cadet, Stearmans, Wacos, Meyers OTWs, a Heath Parasol, Pietenpols, Parrakeets, Aeroncas, Pipers, Luscombes, a “Mr. Mulligan” replica, Rearwins, Cessna T-50, Lockheed 12, and more.

For more information: AntiqueAirfield.com.

Elaine Huf flew “Rudolph,” her 1947 Aeronca 7BCM from Pennsylvania, and her husband, Tom, flew his 1944 Cessna T-50 “Bamboo Bomber,” to the fly-in.

Paul Poberezny presented the EAA Founders Award to Robert Taylor, who founded the Antique Airplane Association in 1953.

More than a dozen handsome Howards filled the flight line this year. They flew in from Washington, Connecticut, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, California, Minnesota, and Illinois.