Wisconsin Flying Hamburger Social is June 14

Once again, the Kelch Aviation Museum is hosting one of the weekly gatherings of the Wisconsin Flying Hamburger Social on Wednesday evening, June 14 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Join us for a cook out off hamburgers, brats and all the fixin’s for a free will donation. Fly in or

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Brodhead Airport Pancake Breakfast May 21

The Kelch Aviation Museum will be open this Sunday during EAA Chapter 431’s Community Pancake Breakfast at Brodhead Airport. Stop over between 7:00 a.m.and noon to see our collection of aircraft and our plans for the future. We’ll have the Curtiss 12-W up flying, weather permitting. Community Pancake Breakfast is

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First Flight of Spring

Pilot Greg Heckman took the Curtiss 12-W out for a short flight over Brodhead yesterday to shake off the winter cobwebs. Everything performed well.

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$30,000 Challenge Grant

Last summer, the Brodhead Area Foundation award the Kelch Aviation Museum a $30,000 challenge grant toward our $1 Million Capital Campaign to build a new museum facility. As has been mentioned here and in our many area presentations, having the community support of our museum project is critical to our

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Alfred & Lois Kelch Scholarship

Each year, Vintage Aircraft Association Chapter 11 in Brookfield, Wis. awards the Alfred & Lois Kelch Scholarship to a young person in southeast Wisconsin, “…interested in pursuing their interests in any field in aviation.” The 2016 recipient was Luke Lachendro from Beaver Dam, Wis., who has been very active in

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Speaking Tour

We have recently been bringing the Kelch Aviation Museum story to various civic and aviation groups in the area. Optimists Club, Kiwanis, Chambers of Commerce and EAA Chapters.  We will be speaking at the regular meeting of EAA Chapter 60 in Beloit, Wis. on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017. If you’re in

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Rediscovering Aviation – An interview with Jeanne Scholes

During the summer of 2016, 88-year old Brodhead resident Jeanne Scholes visited the Kelch Aviation Museum for the first time and told us stories of her flying days as a young girl. She took lessons at age 15, soloed at 16 and earned her private pilot certificate at 18. Jeanne flew Stearman,

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Video Presentation for our $1 Million Campaign

We are proud to release this new video to support our $1 Million capital campaign to construct a new museum facility. In it, you’ll meet Al Kelch, see firsthand the history behind the Kelch organizations and how learn how the Kelch Aviation Museum came to be. You’ll also learn about

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Stearman Photo Shoot

On Thursday, November 3rd, with perfect autumn weather, we conducted an air-to-air photo shoot of our 1928 Stearman C3B with noted aviation photographer, Jim Koepnick. Greg Heckman was the Stearman pilot with Eric Berens piloting the photo ship, our 1932 Curtiss 12-W. Here is a short video clip from the

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New Stearman Prop

Now that we have several flight hours on the museum’s Stearman C3B, its time to start taking care of the squawks that have turned up on the airplane. One of those was the propeller. On take-off, the Wright J-5 engine wasn’t turning up to the proper RPM, only about 1,500

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