Rhinebeck Museum trouble

[BobGhee]

A complete and meaningful transition of management could very well involve
closing the aerodrome for a period of time. As far as hard work goes, I have
one man in mind...I've seen his dedication!! He could be the first person back,
with a set of keys and a list of contact info. It would be a case of taking stock of the damage and rebuilding from there....

[ONEALM]

Fear not - there are more than enough volunteers for all levels of engagement at ORA. From the management to the mechanics to the pilots to the ground runners, secretaries and parking lot staff, there are plenty of competent people willing to step up. Some are alrady there doing a great job. Some are merely standing by for NYS to do what they must.

When the current board leaves there will be - to quote the current management's propoganda - "three deep" waiting to come in, clean up and forge ahead.

[Otto Knobetter]

I doubt that, should the petition succeed, the Rhinebeck Museum would need to close for any substantial period of time. Of course a lot would depend upon when such a transition might occur - whether during the winter or the show season.

Even if flying had to be temporarily suspended, I am confident that the remaining / returning "Old Guard" along with some of the talented, enthusiastic and dedicated newcomers, would put on a better, MORE EDUCATIONAL show than has been the case for the last few years. Why? Because we've done it. Engine run-ups, taxi demonstrations, guided tours, ground show acts and photo ops have all been done on rain-out/wind-out days. When people who live and breathe early aviation history are involved, rather than pilots who show up to fly a plane in their spare time, the public CAN tell the difference!

Heck, when Cole Palen started doing Saturday "shows" in the early 1970s, he did so without flying. (Prior to that he only flew on Sundays.) He brought out his 16mm movie camera and we all helped film silent comedy melodramas using the aeroplanes and vehicles as props. Cole invited visitors with cameras to film alongside him and everybody had a ball! The success of that helped convince him to start flying on Saturdays the following year.

So fear not! There is no lack of experience, expertise (technical, administrative and showmanship), and most importantly the spirit of Cole Palen's Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, waiting to return.

I know. I was there - and I'd be back.

Otto

[BobGhee]

Well said, Otto. During the '70's, I visited ORA only about 3 times, however,
those visits had a huge, life-long impact on me. The reason was simple;the
enthusiasm I saw on the ORA property!! The Old Guard knew and loved the
history that they were portraying!!

[The PIPE]

Dear Fellow ORA Lovers:

The PIPE here again, after a loooong while...got to enjoy the model flying on Sunday at ORA the weekend after Labor Day (Tropical Storm HANNA drowned out the Saturday part of the show) and some AMAZING photos came from my first "real serious" trial of my Vivitar Series One MANUAL 70-210mm 35mm film SLR style zoom telephoto mounted onto my Pentax K100D digital SLR camera....!!!

The Old Guard sure WAS a great bunch people to have around...and as Otto himself related to me back over three years ago, Cole's antics even helped out with getting the career started, of someone who would find their greatest future success working with "people" like Palpatine and Yoda...just read what Otto wrote to me, from an excerpt of what he wrote, back on July 29, 2005, when I asked him about the possibility of silent movie melodramas inspiring Mr. Palen's antics on airshow weekends...with my clarifying comments in [brackets] as usual...

"The silent movies were also [as well as other entertainment sources] an inspiration to Cole. In fact, the Saturday shows began when Cole decided to make his own silent melodramas and invite the audience to film along with him! This was about 1971 as I recall. The idea was that there weren't enough visitors to make it worth flying and putting time on the engines, but he wanted to give a unique experience to the visitors who were beginning to show up in increasing numbers. Besides, he enjoyed having an excuse to play with this toys and silly friends! So he would cook up a plot (what a fertile imagination he had) and would set up shots for his 16mm camera entirely on the ground. He would put the tail of a plane up on a sawhorse and shoot the cockpit from a low angle with nothing but sky in the background, while someone rocked the wings, and someone else blew puffs of flour past the lens. Or stand the aeroplane on its nose and shoot from the front, with the tail pointing at the sky! Any audience members could stand right next to him with their own super-8 cameras and film along. The natural clowns among the ground crew were the actors, and the antique vehicles featured prominently. One of our first subjects was "The Rum-Runner" featuring Tom Connely as "Sid Sopitup", who abducts Trudi in the process of smuggling booze into the US in his Waco 10, pursued by "Mort Mounty" (played by yours, truly). Everything ended with the obligatory bomb explosion, and Trudi - who by this time had drunk up all his profits - staggering off with the villain!

There followed "Dash through the Clods" (the title, if nothing else about the movie, was based on the first film to feature an aeroplane, "Dash through the Clouds") and a series of "Biff and Barf" movies about Tom and Bob Tholl's continuing rivalry over Trudi's affections. Tom and Bob developed into a real comedy team, and would routinely break everyone up - both on and off camera - and during the air shows. Trudi, of course, was the original, played by Judy Meyers.

They were really dumb, and the next year Cole began flying on Saturdays, but it was "FUN FUN FUN" while it lasted.

For a while it was thought that all these films were lost when Cole's house burned, but a few did survive and someone put them on video for the staff a number of years ago.

[And following, here's where the link to The Force and Wookiees comes in]....

Finally, Cole encouraged a group of college students who were making a WWI swashbucker to film some ground sequences at the Aerodrome. The film, which was premiered in the Red Hook theater, won first prize at a national competition and one of the kids, Ben Burtt, got a job wth George Lucas. He did the sound design for all the Star Wars movies, edited the last one as well, and directed some of the "Young Indiana Jones" TV shows!

Not bad for a guy who started his career eating his lunch in the cockpit of an old SPAD in a hangar at Roosevelt Field."

Even the vintage CBS kid's standard TV series "Captain Kangaroo" did a Palen-esque adventure there many decades ago...with I THINK Cole even doing his nefarious Black Baron role...

...and I just WANT to see ORA brought back, as close as it possibly can, to those great days, but that is only possible (of course) AFTER "the management" that ran out The Old Guard is REMOVED by the state, and OUR Old Guard, the people that actually KNEW Cole himself, can return to bring back COLE PALEN's Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome once more to us!

Yours Sincerely,

The PIPE!

[womenfly2]

Anyone know or hear anything new at ORA?

WF2

[curtisswright]

I heard a radio advertisement on friday trying to drum up business for rides. They also advertised live music for Sat and Sunday. I guess if you can't bring in people through the traditional way of providing a quality airshow and taking care of the collection, you have to try something else.

PS Wonder why Cole's triplane has a broken wing strut and the top wing is askew. Do they even have to trash the static displays?

[womenfly2]

Yes Curtisswright, when I was there for the Model meet no WW-1 planes flew because they had no pilots for the WW-1 show that Sunday. Does this make sense? I did see the Dr.1, very sad.

It was also so sad to see lots of motor parts, airplane parts, misc items all laying around on hanger floors, behind hangers in the open being exposed to the weather and slowing rusting or rotting away. Even in the 3 main hangers on the hill the displays are very effected by the dampness and the displays are showing it. Does not take a lot of money to straighten thing up a bit, some good old house cleaning is in order here.

In the big main hanger one can start to see the neglect of care showing on the display items and planes. They do not need to look like the NASA displays but at least give them some TLC.

All-in-all I love being at ORA!

IMO,
WF2

[JohnFitz]

I also toured the collection while at the R/C Jamboree and it was sad to see the condition it is in. I think I counted at least three different model Hisso's just laying around and a 300hp model H on display. Love to see the Indian and Morgan get restored too. Just so much stuff just rotting away.

[air male]

The decline of ORA is no mere coincidence. As more pieces of the collection fall into disrepair from neglect, it will be shipped out to replace destroyed planes or to add to the Air Shows inventory, like the Nieuport 24. I imagine people at Omaka patiently waiting for opportunities to enhance its collection.

I still go to ORA, but I hate what I am seeing. It isn't anything like when Cole was around. He'd be shocked at the deplorable state of the air shows and the way the buildings and collection are deteriorating. And they keep saying, "In the tradition of Cole Palen."