The best of times,
the worst of times...

Sunday, September 22nd.

Sunday morning we joined the other campers for a communal pancake breakfast arranged by the campground owners. After stuffing ourselves with pancakes we headed northward towards Rhinebeck on the other side of the Hudson River. We were headed for "Cole Palen's Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome", an airshow with vintage aircraft in the tradition of the barnstormers of the 1920s.

Browsing through the postcard selection in the campground store a few days earlier Dan had spotted a postcard with a picture of an old red biplane in the skies over the Hudson Valley. Still not cured of his childhood dream of becoming a pilot and his fascination with old biplanes the card caught his attention right away. So when he found out that the Aerodrome was close by and put on airshows every weekend he knew right away where the coming Sunday would find him.

Jens decided to go too, so we headed towards Rhinebeck. Unfortunately, the trip there brought an unpleasant experience.

Driving through Kingston we approached an intersection where we were unsure of which direction we should head. We decided on making a left turn in the direction we thought we needed to go. This required a lane change into the left turn lane. Dan, who had the pleasure of driving that day, checked the traffic behind him and judged it to be far enough back that he could make the lane change safely. As it turned out, however, the Jeep Cherokee behind us in the left lane was going faster than expected. And two cars trying to occupy the same space in a traffic lane never works out too well...

So as we pulled over into the left lane we bumped right into the Cherokee. Nobody was hurt, but our van acquired a nice new dent above the front headlight and we put some nice scratches and marks down the side of the Jeep :( The thought of what this might end up costing us put some of the less polite chapters of our vocabulary to good use.

After banging our foreheads sufficiently we got out to talk to the guy we'd hit. He was already on the phone getting the police to the scene. We exchanged the necessary information with him and then a police officer arrived and took down all the information on the accident. Andreas, the guy we'd hit, turned out to be very nice and relaxed about it all, so luckily the cop saw no reason to ticket us, even though we were obivously at fault. Andreas wished us a good trip when he left, and the cop did the same, after giving us directions on how to get to the Aerodrome.

That whole incident sort of killed our high spirits, of course. But we decided to wait 'till later to file a claim with the insurance company and instead try to forget about it for the afternoon and enjoy the airshow.

Even more than the airshow itself there was one thing that really had Dan as excited as a little kid on Christmas Eve. In true barnstorming tradition the Aerodrome offered rides in a 1929 New Standard biplane!! So as soon as we got there he signed up for a ride. They were already booked full until 5pm when they closed for the day, but were expanding their program and letting people sign up for rides after 5 o'clock.

So excited beyond belief with the prospect of going up in a biplane later in the day, we settled in to watch the airshow. The airfield truly was no more than a field, cleared out between the trees. Sitting along the side of the airfield, between old hangars, wooden-frame biplanes, old Ford T's and 1920s Harley Davidson motorcycles and people dressed in period costumes there was no way of telling that it was the year 2002. It could easily have been a true 1920s barnstorming event.

There was as much of a show on the ground as there was in the air. The airshow was built around the rivalry of the pilot Sir Percy Goodfellow and the evil Black Baron of Rhinebeck who both fought for the hand of Trudy Truelove. While the plot evolved through a series of comic routines on the ground the airplanes were flying trick maneuvers in the air and dropping "bombs" at the Black Baron and his Henchmen. The entire story was narrated by an announcer in a tower on the side of the airfield. The show in the air was amazing and the show on the ground was truly entertaining.

The show opened with the "ribbon cut" maneuver performed by two Tiger Moth biplanes who gained altitude over the airfield and then dropped a roll of toilet paper from the plane and then succeeded in making several fly-by's and slicing the "ribbon" with their propellors. Another great show was put on by the "Flying Farmer" who performed amazing stunts in his Piper Cub. After making a series of loops and even flying the plane almost sideways across the sky he shut off the engine in mid-air (after which it is impossible to turn it back on) and then proceeded to circle the airfield and glide into a perfect landing. To top it off he taxied down the runway with his leg hanging out the open cockpit and waving to the crowd with both hands off the steering controls! Not bad for a 73-year old man! :)

Unfortunately the winds were very strong that day which meant that some of the WWI aircraft could not be flown safely and would have to remain on the ground. Which meant that the WWI dogfight show was cancelled. Even more disappointing, though, was the announcement that the passenger biplane rides were also going to be cancelled. That combined with our accident on the way there just made us realize that the Gods must've been against us that day. The announcer apologized many times for the inconvenience and promised everyone "windchecks" that would give free admission for an airshow at another time. To make up for the hole in the airshow they wheeled out all the aircraft on to the airfield and let everyone come out onto the field and see the airplanes up close and talk with the pilots. We did this of course, and got to talking with one of the pilots, Bill King, over by the grounded New Standard biplane. He didn't fly the New Standard but instead owned and flew on of the De Havilland Tiger Moths that had performed in the show. We asked him if he knew if the New Standard would be flying any of the following days, or if there wouldn't be passenger rides until the next weekend. He didn't know but told us to stick around until they closed up for the day. If the wind calmed down, he said, he might still be able to get us up for a ride. So we walked around the field some more to see all of the planes and then toured the museum hangars that housed even more vintage aircraft.

After everyone else had left and the pilots where taxiing their planes back in their hangars we found Bill again. He said he didn't know if the passenger plane would be going up, but instead he offered to take us up in his own Tiger Moth! By this time Jens was also sold on the idea of going for a plane ride, so we jumped at the chance. Since Bill had already flown that day he let his son take us up for a ride. Dan went up first and came back down with a smile straight from one ear to the other. The plane ride was like Christmas for the rest of his life -- a real dream come true. Jens came down equally excited and exhilarated.

Bill had originally asked for $50 for each of us, but all we had in cash was $90 and he agreed to take us up for that. We offered him that after the flight but he took only the $80, giving us the $10 back so we could have dinner on the way home :)

So that concluded our visit to the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome. It was really a great place. It was clearly a place created by enthusiastic people that had a passion they wished to share with others, and not just a money making enterprise. On our way home we stopped for dinner at a good Mexican restaurant and then headed back home to sort out the insurance issue in the wake of the day's accident...