Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum, WAAAM for short, is a little well less known than some aviation museums. I am convinced this should change. Read this and see if you agree.

WAAAM holds a special event every second Saturday. Appropriately enough, they call these events Second Saturday. Second Saturdays usually consist of some of the planes flying, a picnic lunch catered by the museum (fantastic pulled pork sandwiches), and usually rides for the visitors in some of the museums automobiles.

The images in the slideshow are from the July, 2012 Second Saturday. This particular Second Saturday focused a great deal on the Steam tractor the museum just acquired as well as the 1908 Stanley Steamer Model K they just acquired. I made sure I got a ride in the ’08 Stanley Steamer. It was way cool. Steam powered cars are interesting. They are very quiet, fast for the time frame, and some are rather stylish. The only downside relative to internal combustion automobiles, of the period, in my opinion is the time required to “get their steam up”.

The museum also recently acquired three new Waco biplanes. These aircraft are absolutely beautiful and were my primary interest in this visit. They are the 1928 WACO ATO, 1932 WACO UBF, and  1935 WACO YPF. The YPF is absolutely one of my favorite aircraft ever. The ’28 ATO is the red and black biplane in the slideshow, the ’32 UBF is the blue biplane, and the YPF (my favorite) is the plum biplane with the fancy striping.

Probably the hardest thing to document about the museum is the friendliness there. I’m not sure what it is, but there is an incredible welcoming feeling there when you walk in, sit down at the picnic lunch, etc.

Check out this museum and help bring them the attention they deserve.

Next blog entry will go over some of the post-processing on the images in the slideshow.

Here’s a closer look at my 7-12 Second Saturday gallery.