[AAC Cadet Leader]

javro504k, thanks for posting linked article.

RED HOOK — Fifty years after its debut flight, the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome is still reaching new heights.

At this year’s Business Excellence Awards, the Dutchess County Economic Development Corp. felt the aviation tourism attraction deserved recognition in the Special Achievements category.

The aerodrome’s air show president, Hugh Schoelzel, said it is the "world’s premier draw for antique aviation ."

Annual attendance figures range from 14,000 to 22,000, depending on the weather.

Schoelzel said 2009 was a "bad year," thanks solely to rain on the weekends during the aerodrome’s season of June to October.

"I myself live an hour and a half away. I understand if there’s a forecast of thunderstorms, people aren’t going to come," the Litchfield, Conn., resident said. Schoelzel, now retired, was vice president of TWA, the former U.S.-based airline.

The rain didn’t stop people from all over the country from attending air shows and touring the Rhine-beck Aerodrome Museum.

"This summer, we had people from 18 countries," Schoelzel said. "It’s known worldwide.

"It is the place to go to see old airplanes," he said.

[0x1d]The museum was founded by Cole Palen as a nonprofit foundation. He arrived in northern Dutchess in 1958 to buy an abandoned farm and hack out a crude runway on a hilltop.

Pilots began putting on demonstrations in 1961 on Saturdays and Sundays. Palen died of a heart attack in Florida in December 1993 at the age of 68.

Today, the star of the show is its 1909 Bleriot XI.

It is the oldest flying airplane in the United States, said Don Fleming, a spokesman for the aerodrome.

The antique plane is famous for being the first to fly across the English Channel. Its landing gear consists of bicycle wheels and rubber bungee-cord shocks.

"Saturdays, we emphasize the pioneer airplanes from 1909-1914," Schoelzel said. "They are very valuable. We don’t fly them very high. We lift them off the runway."

The air shows on Sundays portray World War I airplanes.

Pipe bands, planes performing acrobatic maneuvers, and fireworks helped the aerodrome commemorate its 50th anniversary this year.

"We also participated in the quadricentennial to a great extent," Schoelzel said. "We recreated the Wright Brothers’ flight in 1909."

For 2010 and beyond, the focus is to secure grants to improve facilities, build a permanent restroom and restore airplanes to add more to the show.

According to aerodrome statistics, visitors drive on average of 100 miles to attend shows.

Schoelzel said the explanation for their willingness to travel is a simple one.

"It’s unique," he said. "There are other museums, but they are static. The typical museum — you go and look at the plaques. ... We have four hangars of airplanes in the museum, but most people come for the action, the sights, the sounds; the smells are so unique. It’s a part of history you can’t enjoy anywhere else."

Reach Sarah Bradshaw at sbradshaw@poughkeepsie journal.com or 845-437-4811.

i will send the reporter a link. anyone like to make a phone call?