Rhinebeck Museum trouble

[Bitz Dr1]

.................................Sorry- this was a repeat posting, and I deleted it.

[tazbat]

Bitz DR1... you summarized well, the group of people that the true friends of ORA have been struggling with for the past six years. I find it interesting that you even mentioned the "darker criminal fringes." It is there but many folks through out the years have laughed at the fact and labelled some of us as bad for defaming good peoples characters. Ha...!

You came in here recently as a non-invloved person looking for a place to lodge your famous DR1. Sadly you discovered that ORA has become what so many have posted in this thread. But, on the same hand, you realized that it would have been a mistake to have left it there.

I checked out the photos you posted of your plane and find it simply amazing how the plane came back to you and the state it was in. If you are still looking for a place to park your plane, I suggest talking to the folks at the Curtiss Wright Museum in Hammondsport, NY. They are a solid group of people, far away from the rotten apples in Rhinebeck.

Salute!

[Bitz Dr1]

Thank you very much for the input. It has been a very interesting path thus far for this Dr1. Yes, perhaps I was being a wee bit idealistic, but it really is a rare thing to have such a collection in one place as the ORA does, and it is a lovely airfield with so many years of positive memories formed, and lives influenced. Hopefully, the machines are cared for as they should be.

This specific one is needing lots of new wood, and the re-construction process has already been started.

As for the previous mention of the criminal element, one can imagine the layers of crossed paths in that sort of environment, and one would be surprised at how close everyone is throughout the layers. There is a level of omnipotence that comes along with the empowerment of connections- especially deeply rooted ones. Thus my exit. That is not a fair environment for a simple gearhead like myself. Nasty monsters like that bring out the Irish in me, and ones with such deep roots usually chew up thorns in the side. For now, this old bird is happy right here in the shop, slowly inching closer to feeling the chill at altitude again.

Cheers~

[Javro504k]

Poughkeepsie Journal 11/11/2009

Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome honored for keeping aviation history alive | poughkeepsiejournal.com | Poughkeepsie Journal

[Bob_D]

Ms. Bradshaw should be turned on to this thread.

[womenfly2]

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

..... what?

[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?

[air male]

Well done Hugh! Spoken like a true politician.

[VNulk]

Where is this place? Have I been travelling to the wrong aerodrome since Cole's passing?

By the way, if any wish to email Sarah as I did, her address is:

"sbradshaw@poughkeepsiejournal.com" without the space after Poughkeepsie.

[Bitz Dr1]

As I stated in my frustrated postings of late- Rhinbeck NY is a place that is filled with folks that abuse their influence, and it is a Who You Know sort of situation.
That article is a total farce, and lacks any reference to fact, aside from the weather.

Surely, the reporter is already aware of this thread, and she is a tool being used in the balancing of real criticism with BS reporting. It is a rich man's club, and they are omnipotent.

We should all attempt to clarify the reality though, so I will add to the E-mails sent as well, pointing out that the very paper that she works for was, and apparently still is in collusion with fraudsters, and abusers of fact.
Afterall, they did pull the mentions of the NS crash this Summer from their internet archives. This was an active effort to mask the facts, executed by ORA's "friends" in the paper. Poughkeepsie Journal is not news- at least in this area of reporting.