CONTACT… - Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome

#47, Fall 2012

CONTACT… Top: Cole Palen checks the fabric on his Monocoupe 113.
Verdict…No good! This early photo, courtesy of Mike Lockhart
Presidents Message shows the 113 prior to restoration by Gordon Bainbridge in the
Thank you for supporting Cole Palen’s Old 1970s. The Monocoupe flew in the shows for a few years and then
Rhinebeck Aerodrome. We just finished a very safe hung in the museum for another 20 years or so. Bob Coolbough
and successful airshow season. has been chipping away at restoring the Monocoupe to fly again.
This fall we raised more than $270 toward materials for the
If you visited this year you may have noticed the restoration from visitors to the air shows, but we need more funds
progress being made on the Spirit of St. Louis to cover the expenses of new spars and other materials to finish
replica. Ken Cassens has been working on the Spirit the job. If you’d like to help, please let us know!
since June and will continue through the winter on
this and other projects. Bottom left: Our Sopwith Dolphin reproduction as rendered in pen
and ink by artist Brittany Rose Vianney Huebl.
You also may have noticed a new Ryan sign on the
front of the Ryan hangar. A big thanks to Tom INSIDE…
Polapink and Jim Hare for donating the materials,
Claudia Waag for painting the sign, and Ken Cassens Membership News & Recent Activity…...2
for helping me put it up. The sign is more durable Recent Activity, continued...…………......3
and better looking than the previous one. Thanks to Air Show Report……………………...…...4
all who helped. Air Show Report, continued………….......5
The Demoiselle……………….…………....6
Now that the airshow season is over, work has begun Welcome to The Flying Circus …………..7
on the Fokker DVII engine. During the annual
inspection this year, Bill Gordon and his team
discovered that the original 1918 Mercedes engine
had low compression, so we did not fly the aircraft
this season. We are also planning on recovering the
1910 Hanriot tail feathers so that aircraft can return
to the skies next year. Look for progress on these and
other projects in the near future.

Thank you,
Michael DiGiacomio
Rhinebeck Aerodrome Museum President

-1-

Rhinebeck Aerodrome Not already a member? Join us!
Museum
Your membership support is vital to our museum!
Board of Trustees The Museum has reintroduced the $25 “Fledgling” membership. This level
entitles members to four quarterly issues of Rotary Ramblings and a 10%
Michael DiGiacomio, President discount in the Aerodrome gift shops. Our $50 level entitles you to one-year
Warren Batson pass to the museum and airshows, four issues of the Rotary Ramblings
Don Fleming newsletter and a 10% discount at our gift shops. Please spread the word about
Larry Klein the Aerodrome and consider giving a gift of membership to someone you know.
Jim Record
H. Knick Staley Family and Lifetime memberships are also available.
Joel Weisbrod Please Consider Becoming a Member Today!

Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome Recent activity…
Airshows
Rhinebeck Aerodrome Museum Board member Warren Batson was presented
Board of Trustees with a special award from the Academy of Model Aeronautics at the Mid-
Hudson R/C Society’s 46th annual meet. Warren is president of the Mid-Hudson
Neill Herman, President Club, and he and his club were recognized for their assistance with buildings
Don Fleming, VP of Promotion and grounds maintenance and repairs after Hurricane Irene damaged to
Aerodrome grounds last year. The Mid-Hudson R/C Society was also
Jim Kick, Treasurer recognized as a leader club by the AMA at the event. The AMA has 170,000
Tom Daly members, and this was a significant award. Congratulations to Warren and the
Mid-Hudson R/C Society.
Paul Heimbach From the AMA District II blog:
Bill King "In recognition of the MHRCS' long-standing relationship with the Aerodrome,
Larry Klein AMA Vice President for District II, Eric William, presented the club with the
AMA Award of Merit, and MHRCS President Warren Batson was awarded the
Hugh Schoelzel AMA District Service Award for his outstanding leadership and guidance in
directing the club's assistance to the Aerodrome in the wake of Hurricane Irene
Rotary Ramblings last year."

Is published quarterly by the AMA District II Vice President Eric Williams presents two awards to the MHRCS and Warren
Rhinebeck Aerodrome Museum as a Batson. From left to right, Eric Williams, Warren Batson, Bob Allen, Whitney Philbrick and Jim
Rangitsch.
benefit of Museum membership
©2012.

All rights reserved.
Permission is granted for aviation

enthusiasts to freely copy and
redistribute portions of this
newsletter.

Rhinebeck Aerodrome
Museum

P.O. Box 229 / 9 Norton Rd
Rhinebeck, NY 12572
(845) 752-3200
Fax (845) 758-6481
www.oldrhinebeck.org

Editors:

JoAnn DiGiacomio
Geoff Giordano
Carol Harklerode
Tom Polapink

Contributors:

Photos: Mark Beaumont, Bob Clarke,
Bob Coolbaugh, Don Fleming, Mike
Lockhart, Hugh Shoelzel, Tom
Polapink

Articles: Mike DiGiacomio, Erin
Dinan, Neill Herman, Tom Polapink,
Robert Waldvogel

-2-

Ken Cassens is making good progress on the Aerodrome’s Spirit
of St. Louis reproduction. The leading edge plywood is being pre-
shaped to wrap around the leading edge of the wing; this is an 8-
foot length. This process was repeated six times to cover the
length of the 46-foot wing. Everything from the trailing edge for
the wing back is completed, and Ken has been focusing on the
landing gear and strut fairings.

Over the summer, Mike and Dave Lockhart delivered the last
known remaining pieces of Cole Palen’s Aeromarine 39-B from
Florida (see Rotary Ramblings Summer 2012 issue for the full
story). Mike points out some of the bits and pieces to WWI Aero
board President Sean Tavares; what remains of the Aeromarine’s
upper right wing panel hangs on the wall behind them.

The Aeromarine in happier days…perhaps one day it will again be
in one big piece! Photo: Mike Lockhart

Nate Hammond helped with rides for a few weeks over the These photos show the recent progress that Bob Coolbaugh has
summer. He and Alex Jameison scrub the New Standard for the made on Cole Palen’s Monocoupe 113 (pictured on the cover).

next load of passengers. The top photo shows the refinished instrument panel with a

Consolidated instrument cluster that was donated by Dan Taylor.
The bottom image shows the fuselage just after Monocoupe-style

pinstriping was applied. Photos: Bob Coolbaugh

-3-

Air Show Report The Aerodrome welcomed re-enactors to participate and enhance
Neill Herman the WWI environment for our visitors in mid-September. Jake
Valter and Robin Wallace bring us back to 1918.
Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome is truly an antidote for
our CGI world of pixelated machines and action Photo: Hugh Shoelzel
heroes. The 2012 season has come to an end marking
the 53rd year of real machines and real live action
heroes. Many thanks to our staff and volunteers who
work our humble little field and bring it to life. The
2012 shows were opened by our nonpareil low-level
aerobatics act, remarkable enough to see once, but now
an ORA show standard. 2012 saw the return of Cole's
wonderful Fleet 16B Biplane, as well as the return
of several vehicles including the Packard moving van
and Indian motorcycle. One more treat for the 2012
season was the addition of a new act; Norton The Bear,
made his debut in September, and though currently
hibernating, will return every Saturday for the 2013
season.

Work also continues on the Spirit of St. Louis project
attracting visitors and evoking old memories. Key
events this season included a very successful benefit for
The Wounded Warrior project, a WWI weekend that
featured an Austro-Hungarian encampment, and a fall
festival that ranged from children's face painting to
pumpkin bombing. Not to be audibly underdone by
airplane noise, great pyrotechnics, and the rumble of a
Renault Tank, live music preceded many shows. Talent
ranged from swing to reggae and delighted pre-show
visitors. Once again I would like to thank all of our non-
CGI unsung heroes for preserving this little piece of
heaven.

Above: Aerodrome docent Phil Monteleone educates interested

scouts about Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis under

the wing of the Aerodrome’s reproduction. Below: Bill Gordon
greets Aerodrome visitors in Neill Herman’s Great Lakes.

Photo: Mark Beaumont

The Red Hook VFW 7765 Color Guard participated in our
Wounded Warriors weekend. Photo: Don Fleming

-4-

The Connecticut Wing of the Civil Air Patrol stopped by for a visit
during our WWI weekend. Photo: Art Dammers

Above: Carol Harklerode drops a pumpkin from the Aerodrome’s Tom and Eileen Hishon visited from Wasilla, Alaska, to take a
New Standard, piloted by Bill Gordon. Photo: Bob Clarke good look at the Aerodrome’s Fokker D.VII. They are building a
Below: Carol scores a direct hit on the water-main to the village! 7/8-scale Fokker D.VII of their own. Photo: Brandon O’Connor
The pumpkin-bombing festival took place during our last two
weekends of shows in October. Photo Mark Beaumont Special Thanks

Above, right: Marius Ivascu has brought the parachute drop act • Claudia Waag - for painting the new Ryan Airlines Sign
back to the Aerodrome’s air shows. Photo Mark Beaumont for our Spirit hangar, and Jim Hare and Tom Polapink
for donating the sign material.

• Paul Heiland - Donation of Aeromatic Propeller Blades
• Jeff Alexander – Article for Motorcycle Classics. Read

it on-line at, http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/classic-
motorcycle-touring/old-rhinebeck-aerodrome-rhinebeck-
ny-zhol.aspx

Wants

Your email address! We need your email address so we
can deliver future issues of Rotary Ramblings to you
electronically. This will save postal and printing costs and
allow us to apply your membership dollars further toward
covering other expenses relating to the museum and
keeping our vintage aircraft flying. Send your email
address along with your name to [email protected]

Do you have a J-3 Cub or Aeronca Champ that you‘d like
to donate to the Aerodrome to help some of our up-and-
coming pilots gain valuable taildragger experience? We’d
certainly appreciate it!

Copies of old home movies and photographs shot at the
Aerodrome over the years for our archives.

One pair of 6.50 x 10 wheels, brakes and tires for Velie
Monocoupe 113 restoration. Also seeking a donation of
$1,600 to cover expenses for new spar material for this
aircraft.

-5-

The Demoiselle Emulating the success of the Bleriot XI of the same
Robert G. Waldvogel period, the Demoiselle became Santos-Dumont’s first,
and only, aircraft to be duplicated—and in significant
The Demoiselle, a small, frail monoplane seemingly numbers.
incapable of supporting a single pilot, not only reflects
the equally short man who designed it, but the long Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome’s example, a reproduction
lineage of lighter-than-air craft that preceded it. That built by Cole Palen in the 1950s at his parent’s Red Oaks
designer, 5-foot-4, 110-pound Alberto Santos-Dumont, Mills home, is displayed in its Pioneer Aircraft Building
who hailed from Brazil, spent most of his life in France, on the hill.
site of the world’s first successful aerial balloon ascent
by the Montgolfier Brothers in 1783 and an event that (A more detailed account of the Demoiselle’s design and
may have subconsciously sparked his experimentation. history can be found on the Old Rhinebeck website by
clicking on the “Collection/Airplanes/Demoiselle” tabs
Retaining the minimal-size design simplicity of its and then accessing the link under “Related Articles.”)
predecessor No. 19, but eliminating its deficiencies, the
airplane featured a three-boom bamboo frame. Its
rectangular-shaped, significantly-cambered, high wings
were covered with a double layer of silk tightly stretched
over bamboo ribs and mounted, as characteristic of his
previous airframes, with pronounced dihedral.

A single vertical and horizontal, fan-shaped surface, The Aerodrome’s No. 2 Demoiselle is a “modern” representation
swung on a universal joint at the frame’s triangular-apex of a Demoiselle using Aeronca Defender wings and a steel-tube
meeting point, served to form its tailplane and
respectively provided yaw and longitudinal axis control. fuselage structure rather than bamboo construction. Dave Fox

A 30-hp, two-cylinder, horizontally-opposed, water- flew it at the Aerodrome in the 1970s, and it hopped down the
cooled Darracq engine, mounted above the pilot, drove a runway for a year or two in the late 1990s with Brian Coughlin at
6.9-foot-diameter, 6-foot pitch, two-bladed Chauviere
wooden propeller at 1,400 rpm. the controls. It has been in storage since then. This summer we

Ground maneuvering was accomplished with two rigidly pulled it out and assembled it to exhibit in our museum as an
attached pneumatic tires and a single, small skid at the authentic piece of Aerodrome history.
rear.

The pilot, cradled by a strip of canvas slung across the
frame below the power plant, was like that of the Curtiss
Model D; a virtual extension of the airframe. The seat
was restricted to small, 120-pound operators.

First unveiled in France in March 1909, the elegant but Kurt Muller and his brother Paul of the Seattle Museum of Flight
diminutive aircraft, with a 330- to 370-pound gross combined efforts to create this larger-than-life caricature of
weight, resembled a young lady because of its
translucent, silk-covered wings. It was therefore dubbed Alberto Santos Dumont, which is representative of artwork of the
the “Demoiselle” in French. It was the world’s first
sport plane, and successfully married Santos-Dumont’s period depicting Dumont. The Aerodrome’s #1 restored
lighter-than-air experience with an internal combustion Demoiselle is seen here as well.
engine in a very low-weight, fixed-wing structure. With
an average maximum, level-flight speed of 52 mph, it
produced 12 pounds per horsepower and 3.1 pounds per
wing square foot of lift, and in September 1909 flew 11
miles in 16 minutes.

-6-

Welcome to the Flying Circus
Erin Victoria Dinan

For the first time on DVD, “Cole Palen’s Flying Circus” The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome prides itself as a living
is the story of a brave charismatic, and self-proclaimed museum and utilizes its collection by returning its
loner, who accomplished the impossible and left the acquisitions to the sky. “A plane is not a plane unless it
extraordinary legacy that is the Old Rhinebeck can fly,” Palen said, a belief carried out daily by
Aerodrome. In this beautiful, colorful, exciting, and museum staff. For the first time, a museum has crossed
touching documentary, Palen comes alive again, along the traditional “velvet rope” to bring visitors a living,
with his misfit cast of characters. A film fit for people of breathing museum. By putting the once static back into
all ages and all walks of life. Interviews with some of the motion, the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome preserves Palen’s
original aerodrome pilots and volunteers include Dave vision while allowing staff and visitors the unique
Fox and Richard King. opportunity to interact with its collection. Not only is
this museum bringing to life its physical collection of
artifacts, it also celebrates the imagination and creativity
of Cole Palen, his characters, and his land of misfit toys.

Born in 1925, Palen had always been fascinated by Erin Dinan is our gift shop manager and has a master’s in fine
aviation. As a young boy growing up next to an airport arts from SUNY, New Paltz.
in New York State, the allure of the barnstormers and
early aviators only further ignited his passion. The A GREAT GIFT FOR ANY OCCASION!
footage of Cole Palen’s Flying Circus illustrates how "Cole Palen’s Flying Circus” has been broadcast on the History
this early enthusiasm manifested itself in his ultimate Channel, National Geographic and several PBS broadcasts around the
creation: his beloved aerodrome. country and overseas since it was introduced in VHS format in
1988. This classic video, now in DVD format, chronicles the early days
of the aerodrome and has rare footage of the late Cole Palen and his
cronies from the early day: Like Stan Segalla (The Flying Farmer), Bill
and Dick King, Dave Fox, Bill Hammond, and show characters in
action such as Sir Percy Goodfellow, Trudy Truelove and the Black
Baron of Rhinebeck.

The retail price of the DVD cannot be discounted, but members get
free shipping and handling (a $4.95 value) by calling (845) 752-3200
and referencing your membership number.

-7-

Left: DeHavilland expert Michael Maniatis dropped by the Aerodrome with his
immaculate DH.82 Tiger Moth for the Aerodrome’s Golden Age biplane fly-In.
Right: Beware of the Bear!