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Conference vmszoo::rc

Title:Welcome To The Radio Control Conference
Notice:dir's in 11, who's who in 4, sales in 6, auctions 19
Moderator:VMSSG::FRIEDRICHS
Created:Tue Jan 13 1987
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1706
Total number of notes:27193

260.0. "Rhinebeck WWI Jamboree" by WRASSE::FRIEDRICHS (Jeff Friedrichs 381-1116) Wed Aug 12 1987 10:36

    
    How many of you noters are planning on going to Rhinebeck this year???
    
    What is Rhinebeck?? you ask...  Rhinebeck Aerodrome is a grass field
    south of Albany, N.Y.  Surrounding this field is one of the largest
    collections of WWI and Barnstorming era planes.  The have some 5
    hangers full of old planes..  But that's not all...  Every saturday
    and sunday they put on a little show (stupid skits, great flying)
    where they actually take up many of these planes, including a
    bleriot-1911, a nieuport, and a fokker triplane.  It is really great
    to see what the skies would have looked like back in the early part
    of the century...
    
    But that's not all!!!  On the first weekend after labor day, (September
    12th & 13th this year), the Mid Hudson Radio Control Club holds
    a WWI R/C contest there.  The only planes that can enter are WWI
    era planes (sorry "Stik" planes are not eligible).  They have many
    classes for scale, plus a mission and combat contest..  The scale
    classes follow AMA rules for scale.
    
    The mission contest is comprised of 3 tasks...  1) bomb drop, 
    2) ballon burst, and 3) spot landing.  Maximum of 100 points for
    each task.  In combat, you pair up with another flyer and you
    go up and have 1-1/2 minutes to fly a simulatred dogfight.  Judges
    score who the best is on a point system...
    
    This is a GREAT gathering of planes..  Last year, there were something
    like 175 entries!!  They fly off of 6 (yes, I said SIX) flight lines.
    The mission is short enough that you will often get 6-8 or more
    flights in a day.
    
    I will be there...  I have a red Ziroli Eindecker.  However, I will
    be one of the pit crew for the 1/3 scale Eindecker that a friend
    is building..  Yes, 1/3 scale..  That is a 10ft wingspan!!!  Look
    for that and I should not be far from it...
    
    If you have any questions, feel free to ask away!!
    
    Cheers,
    jeff
    
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
260.1Two birds with one stone??LDP::OWENLDP Hardware Advanced DevelopmentWed Aug 12 1987 11:066
    Is the jamboree held IN ADDITION to the regular airshow, or in place
    of it?  I am wondering if this might be a good weekend to go and
    see both events in one day.  The standard show is at 2:30 if I recall
    correctly.  What are the hours for the jamboree?

    Chuck
260.2GREEN EYED MONSTER???GHANI::CASEYATHE DESERT RAT RC-AV8RWed Aug 12 1987 11:248
    Jeff,
    
    Man! am I jealous?!  I've read about Rhinebeck all my R/C life but,
    geography being what it is, have never had the opportunity to attend.
    
    Enjoy and be sure to put a DETAILED report in NOTES after the meet.
    
    Adios,	 Al
260.3more...WRASSE::FRIEDRICHSJeff Friedrichs 381-1116Wed Aug 12 1987 12:3735
    Yes, the jamboree is in addition to the regular show..  The hours
    below are what I remember from last year, but should be generally
    correct...
    
    Saturday
      7:00-10:00	Registration
      7:30-2:00		R/C Flying
      2:30-4:00		Full scale BARNSTORMING show
      4:00-6:00		R/C Flying
    
    Sunday
      The same in the morning...
      2:30-4:00		Full scale WWI show
      4:00 		Awards presentation..
    
    
    RE: -.1
    
    Well I grew up in the area, but my parents never let me do R/C planes.
    It was not until 3 years ago that I started flying R/C and could
    go down...
    
    To All - You do NOT have to be a good pilot to do well down there..
    2 years ago (my first flying there, my second year flying R/C) I
    was able to get a perfect score and walked away with 6th place..
    
    Believe me, my flying wasn't pretty.  After dropping the bomb in
    the center circle and breaking the ballon on the first pass, all
    I had to do was to land in the center circle.  Let me just say that
    I was amazed that all I broke was a prop when I realized I was still
    3 ft off the ground and over the center.  Can you say "down elevator"??
    
    Cheers,
    jeff
    
260.4can you help?RUTLND::JONEILLWed Aug 12 1987 13:304
    If you would be so kind, is it possible you could give directions
    from mass. I'm in the boston area.
                                                   thanks in advance
                                                          Jim
260.5That's a toughie!WRASSE::FRIEDRICHSJeff Friedrichs 381-1116Wed Aug 12 1987 18:0324
    Hmmm, this is going to be tough...  I grew up in the area so I know
    it by heart but I may not be able to explain it...
    
    First part is easy...
    
    Mass Pike (Rt 90) into NY state.
    Exit B2 off the NY Thruway to the Taconic State parkway south
    	(Be warned, no commercial vehicals or campers allowed)
    Exit ?? "Red Hook"
    Head west (Right at bottom of ramp, I believe..) towards Red Hook.
    (Now it starts to get fuzzy...)
    If I remember right, keep your eyes open for a billboard that gives
    you directions to the aerodrome.
    If you miss it, you will end up in Red Hook, but that's OK.
    Take a left at the traffic light, onto Rt 9 south..
    A couple of miles out of town, there is a small church on the rt.
    Take a left right across the street.  Can't miss it!
    
    I will check tonight to see if I still have the flyer..  If so,
    I will be happy to make copies and send them to people...
    
    Cheers,
    jeff
      
260.14Rhinebeck, here we come!MURPHY::ANKERAnker Berg-SonneTue Aug 25 1987 23:0229
		This notes  file seems to like rambling topics, so here's
	one!
	
		Bill Clark (MAX::BCLARK)  and I are planning to drive out
	to Rhinebeck this year.  It's smack in the middel of DECworld, so
	couldn't have been timed better.   I have to spend all week (both
	of them) in a "very secret  area",  so  this  will be the perfect
	interlude.
	
		Bill has a Mark's Models SE-5 so he  and  I  had the idea
	that if I build a Fokker D-7 we could enter the scale competition
	with the usual events but add a Brit-German dogfight!
	
		I  had Tower Hobbies ship the D-7 overnight express (hope
	my  wife  doesn't study the charge) and am amazed at how  quickly
	this  kit  comes  together.    The first day, saturday, I had the
	wings glued  together,  the  ailerons  installed, the fuse almost
	together, the engine mounted and rthe  servos  and  control  rods
	installed.  What a change from my  Aeromaster, where it took me a
	week to build the cowl!
	
		Tomorrow I'll take my receiver (Tower hobbies again) down
	to Bill's Hobby Barn II on Sudbury to have  it  tuned.  The range
	is down to about 7 paces, God knows why.   I'll  relate  how well
	that has worked when I get it back.
	
	Keep you updated!
	
	Anker
260.15Rhinebeck Wrap-UpWRASSE::FRIEDRICHSJeff Friedrichs 381-1116Mon Sep 14 1987 10:1548
    Well, here it is...  A wrap up of the Rhinebeck WWI show...
    
    
    It was a very wet weekend indeed.  Saturday was cloudy with occasional
    mist, but the front moved in well just before the combat front.
    It started to rain pretty steadily then.  They cancelled the full
    scale show as the rain let up.  The visability was still not good
    enough for full scale ships.  RC flying was resumed in the mist
    and light rain that followed.  flying ended at 6:00.  Sunday was
    cancelled all together, as it was just pouring all morning.  All
    in all, a disappointment, weather-wise...
    
    How did I do, you ask...  Well, somehow I ended up on flight line
    6, which is the farthest one away from anything.  It's not the end
    of the world, but you can see it from there..  Flying went well
    in the morning.  I got many 100 point bomb drops, had one hit of
    the stick but no breaking of that darn baloon.  Landing left a little
    to be desired, but it is really hard at that circle as the runway
    is sloped...
    
    I signed up for combat and stood in the pouring rain waiting for
    my turn.  Got my engine started but my partner could not get his
    going.  Oh well.
    
    Started flying missions again.  First flight went fine.  But then
    trouble...  On my downwind leg after my bomb drop, I switched to
    low rate elevator for my baloon passes.  I was out beyond the trees
    when my plane went into a dive.  (For anyone that has not been there,
    there is a line of trees on the other side of the runway.  But behind
    those trees are some fields).  I pulled up and sure enough, my plane
    appeared again; only to go into another dive.  Again I was able
    to salvage it and finish the downwind leg.  I switched back to full
    rate elevator and started my approaching, hoping to get the plane
    down in one piece.  No such luck.  On my approach the plane again
    dove for the ground but I was not able to recover.  (I am having
    Futaba replace the bent transmitter stick!! :-))  It broke up pretty
    badly.  No chance of repairs.  The ground was soft enough that the
    engine looks in good shape and the radio still works (but I'm sending
    it back to be checked anyways...).
    
    Ah well, this plane survived 2-1/2 years at Rhinebeck, that's not
    too bad, I guess.
    
    Since this is getting long, I will continue as a reply....
    
    cheers,
    jeff
    
260.16Other results...WRASSE::FRIEDRICHSJeff Friedrichs 381-1116Mon Sep 14 1987 10:2636
    As for the rest of the competition....
    
    My friend with the 1/3 scale Eindecker finished a disappointing
    5th in giant scale.  His was the only bird that did not even use
    commercial plans.  His flying was really good (especially the landings
    and take-offs) but he could not score higher than a 163.  His was
    also about the only properly engined giant plane there..  
    
    There were 2 1/3 Sopwith Pups, one of them won, the other got 3rd
    I believe.  Scale planes in general were pretty disappointing this
    year, as there were very few entries.  Perhaps the weather affected
    that turnout though...
    
    In Mission, there were only 3 perfect scores. As hard as Walt Moocha
    (the owner of Balsa USA) worked, he could not get one...  He must have
    had 12 flights after the combat event..  He too lost control of
    his plane and it went behind the trees.  As he was putting his
    transmitter down, people started yelling at him because his plane
    suddenly emerged from the trees.  His plane survived the weekend...
    One of the perfect scores was made by Bob, a guy I have seen there
    the last 4 years.  He is an excellant pattern flyer but this was
    the first 300 he had gotten in 7 years!!
    
    Combat was wet and un-eventful.  Many contestents dropped out becuase
    of the rain.  
    
    The usual array of crashes occured, although there were no mid-airs
    this year.  Walt came very close to taking the tail off of one of
    the 1/3 scale pups though...
    
    The turnout was lower than in the past, but that is understandable
    because of the weather...
    
    Cheers,
    jeff
    
260.17NOT a flying error, I just should'v stayed groundedWRASSE::FRIEDRICHSJeff Friedrichs 381-1116Mon Sep 14 1987 10:5518
    Getting back to my problem...
    
    I would say that the crash was definitively caused by a radio failure,
    although I do not blame it for going bad.  The transmitter did get
    wet.
    
    Has anyone else experienced this type of problem in high humidity??
    (I guess that leaves Al out of that question, eh??)
    
    Well, I now have even more motivation to get going on my Nieuport.
    I also picked up a Balsa USA Bristol M1C kit, just in case I don't
    finish my Nieuport in time...
    
    Who else went out there??  Any comments??  Are you dry yet??
    
    Cheers,
    jeff
    
260.18MAX::BCLARKMon Sep 14 1987 14:2535
    Anker and I went also. This was our first contest, we are both still
    novice flyers, but this seemed like a real fun contest anyone could
    enter, and the other models and full-scale show would make the trip
    well worthwhile.
    
    My plane is a Mark's Models SE5 which has about 60 flights on it.
    It flys real well, but is a bear to take off. Anker has a MM Fokker
    D7 which he built the week before DECworld especially for the contest.
    We ended up with no mission practice because of the DECworld overhead.
    
    I was on flight line 5, Anker on 3. My first attempt at mission
    I was as scared as ever in my life! The SE5 buzzed all over the
    field without ever taking off! Finally I gave up and shut off. What
    an embarrassment! Jeff was flying next to me at the time, I hope
    he didn't notice!
    
    Anker's first try was just as bad. He made a 180 turn during taxiing,
    and tried to take off down wind. Nosed over, brode off landing gear.
    
    My second try, I got off good and was flying around trying to settle
    my nerves when the judge told me to "hurry up and do something!
    Thus pushed, I made what I thought was an A1 pass at the balloon.
    Maybe my depth perception was faulty, because just before the SE5
    got to the balloon it slammed into a tree 30' behind the balloon.
    Turns out that Anker climbs a mean tree, because my plane was about
    30' in the air, right in the top of the tree. 
    
    Anker's second try was less spectacular and destructive, but perhaps
    no less embarrassing. He never attained control after a shakey takeoff,
    fluttered around a bit and crashed at his feet.
    
    All in all, we had a great time! We left plenty of room for improvement
    next year!
    
    Bill 
260.19More...WRASSE::FRIEDRICHSJeff Friedrichs 381-1116Mon Sep 14 1987 15:0024
    So you guys DID show up...  Why didn't stop me and say HI??  Oh
    well, it sounds like you will be there again next year...
    
    Actually, I remember the D7 trying to take off down-wind and I remember
    seeing people go out and climb that tree.  
    
    
    For you chopper fans out there.....
    
    After the mission was stopped for combat, some guy went out and
    gave a helicopter demo.  He was a pretty good pilot, doing stall
    turns and all sorts of crazy stuff.  I had heard him talking about
    doing the autorotation part of the demo.  Apparently he had an 
    "autorotation switch" on his transmitter.  Well, Its a good thing...
    
    As this guy is flying around, suddenly these pieces fall off and
    down he comes... to a very acceptable, no damage landing.  It turns
    out that he lost one of the tail fins and one of the two tail rotar
    blades!!  Although I am not a chpper enthusiast, it was fun to see
    him bail himself out...
    
    Cheers,
    jeff
    
260.622nd Annual ContestWRASSE::FRIEDRICHSPlanned InsanityWed Aug 10 1988 10:0411
    Well, one month from now, I will be on my way back to Rhinebeck
    for the 22nd annual WWI Jamboree.  September 10&11 are the dates..
    
    If you are interested, please read 260.0 for a description of the
    contest.  It is a lot of fun.  If you plan on going, let me know
    and we can try to meet out there!!
    
    cheers,
    jeff
    
260.7Dej� Vu!!DRUID::TRUEBLOODWhen Zen is outlawed, only outlaws will practice Zen"Wed Aug 10 1988 15:279
    Jeff,
          Took your advice and re-read .0 and realized the place 
    sounded very familliar. Turns out some show on TV ( NatGeo??)
    recently did a bit on a place near Albany that had WWI vintage 
    aircraft doing air shows; dropping `bombs' and other silliness.
    Saw it twice, but didn't catch the name of the place. Looked
    like a lot of fun.
  
      DougT
260.8WRASSE::FRIEDRICHSPlanned InsanityMon Sep 12 1988 16:4578
Hi All,

Well, the 22nd Annual WWI Jamboree is now history...  Quite a wild weekend.

I'll start off with my event, the mission event....  There were some 70
contestants registered for the Mission event.  This is the bomb drop, balloon
burst and spot landing.  Most contestants used Eindeckers, Saulniers, or
Taubes, although there were a few biplanes of assorted types also flying.

I had my best flight of the weekend first thing Saturday morning.  I scored
a 250 out of 300.  It was one of the best scores posted during the day, and
at the end of the day Saturday, I was in fourth place.  I only made 4 
flights on Saturday (flying stops at 2:15 for the full scale show) and 
one of my flights was cut short when I lost my muffler.

On Sunday, I saw myself pushed down at least 2 places.  I know of 2 people
that beat my score, but I don't know if anyone else had a last minute
score that pushed me down farther..  So I believe that I finished either
6th or 7th.  They only announced/had prizes for the top 5 places, and they
had already packed up the score sheets, so I don't know for sure just 
what place I got.  Oh well, I know it was not any better than my 6th place
finish 3 years ago...

Now, on to the general interest topics...

2 other noters also attended...  Al Ryder was my "caller".  It was his
first R/C contest.  It was a lot of fun to have him along for the trip.
Ajai also showed up with camera in hand.  I don't know how many rolls of
film he finally took.

The weekend was full of crashes which was quite surprising considering
the conditions were so perfect.  There was never more than a light breeze
blowing and the temps were in the high 70s to low 80s.

A large number of mission planes were lost due to pilot depth perception
error.  The trees are mighty close in behind the balloon burst and if you 
are out just a little too much, you are in them.  

Another factor that I believe contributed to many of the crashes was
radio problems.  The flight lines were set up according to the AMA Fun
Fly in Reno.  The interference problems seemed to be 3rd order modulation
problems (is that the right term) where 2 adjoining channels combined to 
shoot down a third.

The sad part of this weekend was the number of scale planes that were lost.
Again, I think the radio interference caused a fair number of these.  One 
Fokker triplane in particular I believe got over-powered by a radio signal.
This pilot over flew the adjoining flight circle.  There were 2 radios being
used at that circle at the time.

Al and I figure that out of the 110+ planes there, probably 15% are totally
rekitted and that perhaps another 10% will be able to be fixed.

As for planes that were there...  As I said, there was the normal assortment
of mission planes.  Scale planes that were there were Nieuport-11,-17 and -28,
5 or so Fokker DR-1 triplanes, 2 Albatrosses, a beautiful 1/4 scale Balsa
USA Sopwith Pup, and a Spad.  The pup has been there for about 4 years and 
has a great detail....  the pilot's head moves back and forth as the rudder is
moved.  There were much fewer scale planes this year.  I believe that 
this is due the number of other contests  both last weekend and next weekend.


As for the full scale air show...  It was its normal, crazy little show with
lots of neat flying mixed in.  The latest addition to the flying portion
of the show was a Nieuport-10 with a rotary engine.  No, not like a wankel
rotary.  This engine has the crankshaft bolted to the firewall and the prop
is bolted to the crankcase.  The crankcase and cylinder heads rotate around
the stationary crankshaft.

Another newly rebuilt plane is a Spad.  You could still smell the fresh dope
on it.  This plane did not fly.

It was, as always, a thrill to see all of the planes flying, especially the 
Fokker Dr-1 triplane.  

Cheers,
jeff

260.9C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S , JEFF!!!!!!XOANAN::CASEYATHE DESERT RAT (I-RC-AV8)Mon Sep 12 1988 18:0311
    JEFF,
    
    As I told you off-line, 6th out of 70 is teriffic!!  Yer' to be
    commended, both in bringing yer' ship home unscathed and for placing
    so well.    

      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

260.10a novice view of Rhinebeck 22LYMPH::RYDERAl Ryder, aquatic sanitary engineerMon Sep 12 1988 20:5670
    I see that Jeff has already entered note 260.8, and I assume that Ajai
    will give his report on the two-day event; this note is the [hopefully]
    terse view of a novice.  Other information about Rhinebeck can be found
    in notes 308.* and 284. 
    
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    At least three DECies went to the 22nd annual Rhinebeck RC event this
    year: Jeff Friedrichs, Ajai Thirumalai, and myself.  Jeff entered the
    Mission and Combat events, Ajai took pictures of everything, and I was
    crew for Jeff. I think this was my first organized modeling event since
    I went to Bethpage 38 years ago.  Son-of-a-gun!  What a pleasure!  I
    saw some damn fine piloting! 

    As Jeff might have mentioned, this is an RC contest for scale models of
    aircraft flown prior to 1919, and it is held at a private museum of
    old, mostly still flying planes.  The contest is interrupted each
    afternoon for a flying airshow of these old planes of the period.  (The
    hangers can be visited at any time during the weekend.)  Most of the
    old planes are originals, some, including the Triplane, are replicas.
    One plane that flew [but just barely] Sunday was a Caudron(?), the
    oldest-still-flying plane in the world.  The rotary engine in the
    Nieuport-10 that Jeff mentioned rotates for a good reason --- more
    efficient cooling.  However, that introduces some other design problems
    that should be discussed in another note. 

    There were five events:   AMA Scale, AMA Giant Scale, WWI Maneuvers,
    Mission, and Combat.  Except for two Combat flights, Jeff flew in only
    the Mission event.  He is good, very good, but the balloonists under
    attack didn't panic when they saw him coming.  His flying skills were
    better demonstrated on two occasions when some nasty wind shears caught
    his plane just after lift off.

    I'm hooked on Mission as an event, a challenge.  It consists of three
    sub-events: a bomb drop and a spot landing (both judged purely on
    accuracy) and a balloon attack (simulating an attack on an observation
    balloon).  This not-yet-flying novice thought the balloon burst would
    be easy.  No way!  Few balloons were broken directly, and most of those
    by only a few [including Jeff] of the 70 pilots in the event.   
    
         Hmmmn, let's calculate ...  three balloon attacks per
         typical flight, four flights per day for most contestants,
         two days, maybe 70 contestants .... That's 1680 attacks on
         balloons with less than maybe 5% succeeding in breaking the
         balloon by direct impact.  That sucker is safe!
    
    The balloon is at the top of a fragile stick about ten feet long and
    about 150 feet from the pilot.  The flight path is at right angles to
    the line from pilot to balloon, so depth perception is very critical
    and evidently very difficult.  Altitude control was also difficult for
    many pilots.  Because the tree line was not very far in back of the
    flight path, pilots tended to worry about it; some demonstrated the
    validity of that concern. 

    Crashes were common by my untrained standards.  I would guess that,
    amongst all the model planes at Rhinebeck, there were 15% totaled and
    another 10% with acceptable damage.  To my knowledge, only two were
    lost to an insufficiently fragile balloon pole; the pole suffered much
    more badly; in fact, the poles suffered more than the balloons by a
    ratio of perhaps 4:1.  There were a few planes, including some
    beautiful Scale models, that crashed after losing control for unknown
    reasons.  I didn't see or hear of any mid-air crashes.  Most of the
    victims were eaten by the trees or the shacks near the trees --- some
    because of depth misjudgement, some because of flight path redirection
    after a wing hit a pole, some because of squirrelly flying (especially
    in reactions to wind shears and gusts; the side of the runway with
    the balloons was bordered by a tree covered ridge). 
    
    I will return next year --- probably as a contestant.  Return or
    not, once I learn to fly I've got to try my hand at balloon bursts. 
260.11WRASSE::FRIEDRICHSPlanned InsanityTue Sep 13 1988 11:2524
    RE .9...
    
    "unscathed"??...  Just barely...  As on of the two last pilots flying
    on Sunday, we had a kind of a speed round....  Take off, drop the
    bomb and make 1 balloon attempt.  If missed ("when" instead of "if")
    land and reload.  I got 2 quick flights like this, the guy next
    to me had 4 or 5 in twice the amount of time...
    
    Anyways, I broke one of the first rules of flying, especially at
    this contest on my second flight...  I came in and released the
    bomb.  I watched as it dropped just outside of the higher scoring
    circle.  Damn, missed it!!  I suddenly realize that I haven't been
    watching the plane!!  I look back to see it headed right for the
    trees!!!  Full throttle, full up and some left rudder gave it just
    enough room to climb over the trees.  Ooooooh, was that close!!
    
    I again missed the balloon, and time had been called, so I set up
    for and made my best landing of the weekend...  (actually, I think
    it was the only one in which I did not nose over...  The grass was
    pretty thick and just sucked up your landing gear).
    
    cheers,
    jeff
    
260.12Rhinebeck 1988HPSRAD::AJAIMon Sep 19 1988 13:3186
My report  on  Rhinebeck  comes  in  late, much after Jeff and Al have filed
their's.  They  seem  to  have covered most things. Jeff, from a contestants
perspective, and Al, from a just-got-hooked angle. Let me give a third world
(heh! heh!  Can't  help  laughing when I hear the word...) Injun's view, and
how it contrasted with Oshkosh 1988.

This was  the  third  competition  I have attended. The previous one was the
Orange  scale  meet,  and  the one before that was waaaaaay back in 1970, in
Calcutta,  where  I  saw  the  All  India  Aeromodellers Rally (read - Injun
"Nats"),  and  saw  everything  from chuck gliders (hand launch) to tow-line
gliders  to  C/L to FF to RC, and told myself that aeromodelling had to be a
way  of  life.  Build/fly model planes, or bust. Umpteen things have come in
the way since then, but has every time put me in a better position to pursue
my hobby...

Getting back,  this  is  the largest number of RC planes I have ever seen at
any one time, on any one day. About 80% of the planes were meant for mission
runs, and  the  rest were big time scale ships - about the same number I saw
at the Orange meet.  

It was heart wrending to see so many planes hit the dirt. I can recall about
20+ planes  rekitting  over the two day period, including two gorgeous scale
models.  (One  was a Fokker triplane, but I don't remember the other). Radio
hits, 3IM, etc., do not justify the casualties I saw. As Jeff mentioned, the
transmitter impound  for  each  flight line was pretty well run. As an EE, I
know  that  radios  can  be designed to be virtually bullet proof, (PCM is a
step  in  that direction), and that knowledge only made me feel worse. About
10  planes  were lost in getting into the trees on the mission balloon-burst
runs,  due  to  mis-judging the distance. A good number just got into a spin
and disappeared into the trees behind the field.

The sticks  that held up the balloons were balsa 3/4" sq. for the top 3 or 6
feet, so  that  the  stick  would  break  should  a  model  hit  it (and not
vice-versa).  Coming from a balsa-poor country, I couldn't help noticing the
dozens of  sticks  with  balloons on top waiting to be used as a target. You
might  say,  Hey,  what  is a $100 of balsa for a contest! Back in India, it
would  be "criminal" to use balsa for anything but building planes! As one's
economic level  changes,  the means and ends also change. Next time you feel
aeromodelling  is  expensive, give me a buzz and I'll convince you why it is
"free" in America!! :-)

I also  observed  that  the  way  the balloons were fixed to the ends of the
sticks   varied   -  some  were  "tied-with-a-thread",  and  free  to  float
horizontally  with  the  wind,  while  others  were taped vertically, so the
balloons  had  no  choice  but  to  be vertical. Also, the distance from the
pilots to the balloons were different for the 3 flight lines. I should think
these two  factors  would have introduced unfairness by presenting different
levels  of difficulty to even the same participant at different times, leave
alone between different pilots.

This is also the whackiest aerodrome I have ever seen. The air field differs
in elevation by 50+ feet between the highest and lowest points, and has bits
of  downhill, level and uphill thrown in seemingly random order! Everytime a
1:1 plane wanted to come down, flying had to stop. Once, a Tigermoth circled
the  field.  Tom  Kosowski (sp? the Orange meet winner with the Fokker D-7 -
flying  a  Fokker  Triplane  at  Rhinebeck)  was flying. While the announcer
wanted him to stop flying, the judge told him to continue. The two went back
and  forth,  totally  ruining Tom's concentration, and rushing his flight in
the process. I think he got to fly again to compensate.

Only one  person  was really throwing his plane around the sky, doing spins,
flat  inverted  spins with inverted recovery, and even lomcevaks, which made
the  rest  of  the  "staid"  flying seem unexciting. About the last round of
mission  flying,  one  guy  gallantly  tried  to  burst  the  balloon flying
inverted, but failed.

Getting to  the  1:1  air show, I saw about 10 different planes over the two
days,  Sunday  being  windier than Saturday, relatively speaking. The actual
"bombing"  they  did  on  Sunday was impressive, but the dog fighting seemed
mild  after what I have seen at Oshkosh. May be I am expecting too much from
WWI  planes.  I don't know. Also, as a part of their skit, they used a dummy
wing-walker.  Again,  I  have  seen  the  real thing on more than one day at
Oshkosh.  The  level  of humour was mostly meant for 8 ~ 12 year olds, but I
would rather that than none at all! I would definitely recommend seeing both
days (Sunday being better) if you haven't seen it before. 

On the  whole,  I  had  a blast. My way of "participating" in the events was
vicarious  -  as  a photographer. I took 140 pictures, but the usable number
will  drop  as  a good number were "action" shots and therefore difficult to
predict.  

Soon, it  will  have  to be someone else taking pictures as I will be taking
part!

ajai

260.13Rhinebeck 1989WRASSE::FRIEDRICHSNever trust a premi!Thu Aug 03 1989 10:5323
    Hi All,

    Well, it is that time of year again!!

    The 23rd annual Rhinebeck WWI Jamboree will be held on September 9th
    and 10th at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in Rhinebeck, NY.

    For a complete description of the events, please see earlier replies
    in this topic.

    I encourage everyone to go, as it is a lot of fun and there are a lot
    of people flying (3 flight circles, 2 flight lines per circle = 6
    planes flying at the same time!) and a lot of beautiful planes.

    I am sorry to say that my college roommate won't change his wedding
    date, so I won't be going this year.

    If you have any questions about this event after you read the other
    replies, feel free to ask.

    cheers,
    jeff

260.20Rhinebeck 89RUNWAY::MORINTue Sep 05 1989 17:2117
    Rhinebeck weekend is sept 9th and 10th,if you dont know what
    Rhinebeck is read note 260,im going out on friday night and
    camping at the inter lake camp grounds in Rhinebeck.
     
      if your going ,sign in...maybe a group of us could get to
    gether have a bite to eat and tell war stories
    
    
    
    even you german pilots are welcome
    
    
    ,                                   paul morin
    

     
    ,
260.21I LOVE BIPLANES!NYJOPS::BOBAI'm the NRAWed Sep 06 1989 18:176
    My wife and I are going to spectate.  Don't know yet if we'll arrive
    Friday night or Saturday morning.  Since I hadn't selected a campground
    yet, I'll try to see if Interlake will still accept a reservation.
    
    BTW, are you the same Paul Morin who was programming for the PDP15
    back in the dark ages?
260.22sorry,i didnt get a chance to say goodbyeRUNWAY::MORINTue Sep 12 1989 14:263
    bob im glad you and your lovly wife droped by,next year bring
    an airplane ,you have 362 days to get your act together.
    see you there 
260.231990 trip reportWRASSE::FRIEDRICHSKamikaze Eindecker pilotMon Sep 10 1990 15:0989
Well, what a GREAT weekend at Rhinebeck....  Weather was very sunny Saturday,
but a bit breezy in the morning; Sunday started clear, but was raining by
mid afternoon, with little wind..

Highlights of the weekend included:

- My friend Bill Setzler flew his 1/3 scale Morane Saulnier Parasol, which
is modeled after the full scale plane at Rhinebeck, at the same time that
Cole Palen did, mimicking his manuevers.  I can't wait to see how my video 
tape of this came out...

- 110 contestants!

- Great weather (anyone have any Solarcain??)

- Full scale show!!  Always fun....

- Great people!  I saw a lot of old friends and met a lot of new ones.

- Paul Morin finding Bob Brodeur's plane in the swamp after it folded a wing...
and wading out to get it!

- New converts to the Rhinebeck religion, our own Joe Marrone, as well as
fellow club members Mike Stains and Ken Hanson.

- Al Ryder returning from his flight in a Swedish open cockpit biplane with
a grin from ear to ear.

- Bill Setzler performing a 3 turn "vrille" (corkscrew descent) with the
1/3 scale Saulnier.  He only had enough altitude for 2.5 turns and pulled it
out at the tree tops...  The crowd loved it.

Lowlights

- I was in Murphy's hip pocket all weekend...  My very trusty OS-40FSR that
has been running great for the last 2 months, would not run right all weekend.
It finally would not start at all...  We found that it has lost one of the 
screws that holds the carb in and was sucking air...  After finding a screw
for it, we still couldn't get it to run right....  

- Neither myself nor Mike Stains broke a balloon all weekend...  We got a few
sticks though...

- Bill Setzler had the highest flight score in the Manuevers event, but did not
even place due to a perverse static scoring problem...  

- Not having enough time to check out all of the hangars of the museum!

- I still didn't wind the raffle!!  (I have been trying since I was about 10!!)

-----

As always, there were a fair number of crashes during the weekend...  The
plane eating trees got their fill (although an entire grove of trees has been
removed since I was last there...).  For the most part though, most of the
scale ships remained intact (as opposed to prior years!).  The one sad 
scene was an AMA precision scale Handly-Page twin-engine biplane bomber with
more wires than a Curtiss Jenny crashed into the spectator area.  Luckily, 
no one was hit, but the plane was pretty bad off...

There is some disagreement over what exactly happened...  But it ended in a 
stall that broke uncontrollably towards the crowd...  Some people believe he
lost an engine, others believe he just tried to climb too fast (which isn't
very fast for this plane).  He clearly was having trouble gaining altitude
for watever reason.  Again, luckily it happened slowly enough that every 
saw it coming and got out of the way...

One other accident did result in the activities on Sunday being cut short...
A boy was hit in the leg by the wing of a Mark's Model SE-5A.  He had a
bruise, but was pretty scared/upset...  An ambulance was called and the
ambulance personnel required that all flight operations be stopped...  By the
time they were clear, there were only a few minutes left, so they didn't
bother resuming.  The pilot and others watching believe it was radio failure
as the plane was straight and level on its bombing run when it went out
of control... 

----

They are considering opening up the contest to a wider audience next year.
They might add scale classes for models up to 1939.  There was a lot of 
discussion of the pros and cons of this.  

I will be reviewing the video that I made this weekend, and if it is any good,
I will make a copy for the DECRCM library so that others can get a bit of a 
feel for the weekend...

cheers,
jeff
260.24New Rules/Events for 1991!N25480::FRIEDRICHSKeep'm straight n levelThu May 16 1991 16:0729
    Well, I was talking with Dick Easton today about Rhinebeck and realized
    that I had not told anyone about the new rules this year!
    
    This year is the 25th! Annual Rhinebeck Jamboree!  It will be held on
    September 7 & 8, at the Olde Rhinebeck Aerodrome in Rhinebeck, NY.
    
    The big change in this years rules is that they are allowing
    "barnstorming era" planes to fly as well.  This is defined as any plane
    that was produced before 1939 *and did not fly in combat in WWII*.
    That last clause I am sure will be open for interpretation.  They
    also claim that this year they are going to be tougher about allowing
    "Ugly Sticks" entered as Eindeckers.  
    
    The have decided to remove the "Combat" event, and instead will allow
    additional flying after Cole Palen's show on Saturday afternoon.
    
    There is also a new "freestyle" event that lets you put on a
    "barnstorming" display.
    
    There are a couple of other minor rule changes, but the rest is
    basically the same.  If you would like a copy of this year's rules, 
    please send me EMAIL @ APACHE::FRIEDRICHS with your mailstop and I will
    forward you a copy..
    
    Cheers,
    jeff
    
    PS - Mark your calander NOW!!
    
260.25Rhinebeck '91N25480::FRIEDRICHSKeep'm straight n levelMon Jul 01 1991 11:3256
    Well, just over 2 months till Rhinebeck '91 with it's new expanded
    format!  
    
    The official wording for acceptable planes is: (from the rules)
    
    "Models entered in any of the five events *must* be *scale models* of
    aircraft build and flown from the "beginnings of aviation" through 1939
    ("Ugly Stiks", "Elders", "Antics", etc are not eligible).
    
    	1) Prototypes of aircraft used in WWII combat situations (ie not
    only for training purposes) are *NOT* eligible.
    	2) Minor changes can be made to models to enhance performance or
    safety.  However, the general shape of the prototype aircraft must be
    maintained.
    	3) Models not meeting the letter and spirit of these "Requirements"
    shall be refused registration.
    	4) All AMA rules and regulations apply, unless otherwise stated."
    
    
    I am going to have to call and find out where cubs fit into this
    scheme.  The cub was modified to fly in combat, but had its own
    designation...
    
    
    
    As I mentioned in my previous note, there is a new event this year
    called a "Free Style Air Show", where any maneuvers consistent with 
    AMA safety guidelines is allowed..  
    
    
    The primary reason for this note is to find out who needs reservations
    for hotel stay??  At this time, it looks like the Hearthstone may be
    full (as I suspected, they would not take reservations, but some fast
    talkers convinced them to keep a priority list!  grrrr).  If I can get
    more than a couple of rooms there, I will; otherwise, I will find 
    some other place.  We stayed at the Super-8 a couple of years ago, and
    it wasn't too bad.
    
    So, if you are POSITIVE that you are going and you want a room to be
    included in my reservation, please let me know ASAP!
    
    At this time, the list looks like this..
    
    	My wife and I
    	Al Ryder
    	Joe & Carol Marrone
    	Mike and Robin Stains
    	Ken Hanson (non-deccie)
    	Bill Setzler (non-deccie)
    
    Please send mail if you want to be added to the list or if you would
    like a copy of the rules.
    
    Cheers,
    jeff
    
260.26Rhinebeck '91N25480::FRIEDRICHSKeep'm straight 'n levelMon Sep 09 1991 14:50127
    Ahhhhhhhh, the 25th annual Rhinebeck Jamboree is over..  
    
    It was a beautiful weekend weatherwise...  lots of sun and very little 
    wind..  However, on Saturday morning, the flying was delayed about an
    hour when a fog bank rolled in...  The Hudson River is just to the
    west and apparently had generated this band of fog..  It litterally
    engulfed the field!  Once it started to clear, they started us flying.. 
    The ceiling was still a bit low though..  This 1/4 scale Fokker D-VII
    disappeared into the fog.  The pilot was very luck to get it back... He
    kept looping and circling and flying by the sound of it.  
    
    About 110 contestents showed up this year, with many people bringing
    multiple planes.  As always, flying was done on 6 flight lines, so
    there was always something flying..  Even though they expanded the 
    rules to allow newer planes, there was still a definite orientation
    towards WWI.
    
    Personally, I had a really fun weekend, even though I only got in about
    9 flights.  As in the past few years, my best flight of the weekend 
    was my very first flight..  After dropping the bomb in the center
    circle, I broke the stick on the first balloon pass, then I broke the 
    balloon on the second pass..  I then proceeded to bounce the landing
    right out of the circle!!  GRRRRRR.  I broke one more stick during the 
    weekend, dropped most of the bombs in the center and continued to screw
    up the landings...  I had changed radios on Friday night so that I
    would be on a better flight circle but as a result, I couldn't get the
    radio/engine trim to work quite right, so I was coming in too hot..
    Oh well, since I didn't break the balloon, there wasn't a big need to
    dork the plane in and risk breaking it..  I came home with 2 planes 
    intact and a bit of a sunburn and a bit of a hangover...  What more 
    could I ask for....
    
    Well, I could have asked for what my buddy Mike Stains got..  On Sunday
    morning, he was the first pilot to fly on our flight line..  Only 2 
    perfect scores were posted on Saturday (300 pts).  Well, Mike flew a
    very steady flight and he got one!!  With a number of good scores to
    back it up (they take the single best score, then use the next scores as
    tie-breakers) Mike was in 1st place for much of the day..  He did
    manage to bust a motor mount on a landing though and thus he had to
    pass up one of his flights..  
    
    Late in the day, another pilot posted a score to take over first place 
    and Mike needed just 1 more good flight to beat him out again..  Mike
    and I swapped placed to move him up in the order, then he talked
    another pilot into giving up his round so that Mike could get this last
    flight in.  Mike was one of the last planes in the air, taking the
    final flight for our flight line..  After a 100pt bomb drop, Mike
    missed all of the balloon runs..  But if he could plant the landing in
    the center, he should take back the lead...  I called for Mike to come
    in on his landing, but he ended up landing in the second circle..
    
    As it turned out, the other pilot posted a very good score in his last
    flight and so Mike had needed to actually get a balloon after all, so
    his missed landing didn't hurt as much.  So Mike took second place!!!
    Actually, we all think that Mike got a better deal anyways!  The first
    place winners all got "Flair" kits and a 25th anniversary commemorative
    watch while Mike took home a Dremel Deluxe Moto-shop.  All winners
    got very nice etched glass plaques.
    
    The only other DECCIE to fly was Joe Marrone.  Joe had a bit of trouble
    durig practice on Friday due to the long grass, but we made a couple of
    minor repairs and he was ready for Saturday morning.  He, another club 
    member that was flying my backup ship Ken Hanson and their pit lizard
    Al Ryder spend the day in flight circle 1.  (Mike and I were in circle
    2).  Things went OK for them for most of the day, although Joe was 
    having some ground handling/departure problems.  I believe both Ken
    and Joe broke a stick on Saturday.
    
    Towards the end of the day Saturday, Joe decided to test the strenght
    of these club Eindeckers that we were all flying.  Across the runway
    there are a number of makeshift buildings used as props for the skits
    that are put on every weekend.  One of the is "Der Sausage Factory".
    I'll let Joe tell you what happened from his perspective, but from ours
    (Mike was just getting ready to fly) it was not good!  After takeoff he
    got into a steep turn headed right for the building.  He clipped the
    top edge of the building (but some people say he hit the "smokestack")
    The wing ejected from the plane and fluttered down..  From the next
    circle, it looked like pieces of balsa also fell to the ground.  The
    fuse continued ahead and landed behind the building.  At that point I
    basically wrote the plane off...
    
    After Mike flew, we went down to assess the damage..  1 dent in the
    leading edge of the wing (but still very flyable), 1 loose servo (the
    same one that busted out the night before), a ding in the elevator that
    didn't need repair and a broken engine mount.  That's it!  Nothing
    else!  We were truely amazed!!  We were able to replace the motor mount
    that evening and it was ready to fly on Sunday...  These wings (white
    foam covered with 1/32 balsa via vacuum bag) are incredible!
    
    Let's see...  other highlights/lowlights...
    
    Full Scale:
    - They are now flying a Nieuport-11 in the airshow.
    - They are now flying a Sopwith Pup in the airshow..  However, during
    	the show yesterday, it lost power on takeoff and had to make an
    	emergency downwind landing.
    - They are building a Fokker D-VII..  The wing is finished and awesome
    	looking..  The fuse appeared to be ready for covering.
    
    Models:
    - A Flair biplane was driven into the ground by a pilot that couldn't
    	get the balloon off his wing.
    - Nick Ziroli with his giant scale C-45 powered by two G-38 engines!
    	Nick won the freestyle event easily..  He had a smoke system,
    	retracts and flaps.  The thing really moved and he flew it well.
    - A guy with a 1/4 scale Blackburn flying mission.
    - A friend was there with his Jungmeister...  He was doing a ribbon
    	drop/cut.  He said latter that the crash was his fault.  He
    	apparently came out of a dive disoriented and drove his 60-90 size
    	plane into a truck in the parking area...  The thud was heard the
    	entire length of the field and there was an amazing dent in the
    	cab of the truck.  The plane was, of course totalled.  Luckily 
    	there were no people nearby as it is very evident that if a person 
    	had been struck with this, they would have been VERY hurt, if not
    	killed.  The truck was in a parking area for exhibitors and the
    	host club and was actually on the far side of the field so
    	luckily the crowd was never in danger.
    
    All in all, again a very enjoyable weekend.  I encourage all of you
    to mark your calendars for next year, the weekend after labor day.
    
    Cheers!
    jeff
    
    ps - I figured a note this length was OK as Ajai won't be back for 
    awhile... :-)
    
260.27RHINEBECK Jamboree -- Whooppee!!!SELL3::MARRONEFri Sep 13 1991 14:1285
    Well, Jeff gave a really comprehensive report, and it just about covers
    everything.  I won't try to expand much on what he reported, but I did
    want to give my impressions of this contest, mostly because it was my
    first real competition.
    
    First of all, since this was my first contest, I had some real simple,
    achievable goals.  They were: don't finish last, bring the plane home
    in one piece (that means still flyable), and gain some contest
    experience.  In reverse order the results were: Yes, Yes but almost
    blew it, didn't get the final scores so I don't know.  The other goal
    was to have some fun, and that happened in spades, although I can say
    there were a few frustrating moments.
    
    I really thought I was well prepared for this contest since I had put
    about 45 mission flights on the club Eindecker over the past month. 
    All this practice had me feeling pretty confident in my ability, and I
    wasn't the least bit nervous when we arrived Friday afternoon. 
    However, during my second practice flight, I had trouble getting it off
    the ground due to the tall grass, and ended up yanking it off with too
    much elevator, too soon, with the result that it flipped in and did
    some damage.  That night I repaired it in the hotel room, and although
    the plane was ready, some of my confidence had been shattered by the
    worst takeoff I'd ever done with this plane.  
    
    Saturday morning, after only 5 hours sleep, I had a real case of
    jitters on the flight line.  Most of my takeoffs were very poor, and
    several had to be aborted due to ground loops.  It was clear that my
    ground handling had gone to hell-in-a=hand-basket.  But I made it thru
    several rounds and got some points.  Late in the afternoon after the
    sun and fatigue had taken their toll, I had what I believe might be the
    most spectacular crash of the weekend.  As I said, I was having the
    darndest time getting the plane to track straight and get up enough
    speed to do a reasonable takeoff.  On this particular round, I had it
    tracking fairly straight, but it was heading diagonally across the
    runway towards a group of buildings used in the full scale air show.  I
    considered the problem, and made the split second decision to get it
    off the ground and try to fly past the buildings on the right side. 
    Well, this turned out to be a bad decision, because after getting it
    off the ground, I didn't have enough room to avoid the building, and
    sure enough, as I made a desperate attempt to give it lots of right
    rudder, the left wing clipped the roof at full throttle.  Luckily, the
    wing was held on with rubberbands, and at the impact, the wing parted
    company with the plane, sailed upwards for what seemed to be about
    50-75 feet, and then slowly flitted down to a soft landing in tall
    weeds.  Just after impact, I killed power.  However, the fuse had
    sufficient velocity that after the wing sailed off into the blue, the
    fuse javelined over the building and impalled itself in some dirt
    behind it.  It was a good thing I had killed power as the carb throat
    was filled with dirt, but luckily none got inside the engine.
    
    Damage assessment:  Wing: leading edge crumbled some where it hit the
    roof, but otherwise intact.  Fuse: bomb drop servo had pulled loose,
    and the engine mount was broken.  Other than that, everything checked
    out OK.  We were all very surprised.  As Jeff said, this club
    Eindecker is one tough bird!!!
    
    That night, a team of pilots and helpers made the necessary repairs in
    my hotel room, and by midnight it was ready for more competition. 
    However, with another 5 hours sleep, yours truly was NOT ready for more
    competition, and I just didn't have the coordination to get it off the
    ground on Sunday.  So, discretion being the better part of valor, I
    decided to hang it up and not keep trying.  I was totally burned out by
    that time, and to keep trying to fly was not a good idea.  So I just
    relaxed for the rest of the day, satisfied in the knowledge that I had
    successfully competed, got some points, and was bringing my plane home
    intact.  And, I had a great story to boot!
    
    A few complaints:  The officiating at Rhinebeck leaves a lot to be
    desired.  There was little discipline in the Mission event.  Pilots
    were allowed to take off, then turn towards the flight line!  Sorry,
    but I thought this was a NO-NO.  Other pilots would approach the baloon
    from a diagonal orientation, when you are supposed to  approach
    PARALLEL to the runway.  Nothing was done about this.  Still other
    pilots would drop their bomb from less than the required 10 feet
    altitude.  Again, no action by the officials.  Those who go to compete
    fairly and stay within the rules are penalized by this, and I for one
    intend to write to the CD and the sponsoring club about my concerns.
    
    Did I have a good time?  YOU BET!  Am I going again next year? 
    Absolutely.
    
    Time to get out of here.
    
    Bye,
    Joe   
260.28Rhinebeck 93N25480::FRIEDRICHSAPACHE::FRIEDRICHSTue Aug 24 1993 15:0411
    Just a reminder...  Rhinebeck is coming up..  Sept 11 & 12th.
    
    See a complete description in 260.0-260.last.
    
    If anyone is planning or decides to go, please let me know.  Also, it
    looks like I may have an open room.  If you want to join in the fun all
    weekend, please let me know and we can work it out!
    
    Cheers!
    jeff
    
260.29N25480::FRIEDRICHSAPACHE::FRIEDRICHSFri Sep 10 1993 10:209
    Last Call for Rhinebeck '93!!!
    
    Flying starts Saturday morning at 7:30!  A Gremlin demonstration
    is *likely* at 2:00, full scale airshow at 2:30!!
    
    It is going to be a beautiful weekend, come on down (over/up)!!
    
    jeff
    
260.30Rhinebeck 1993KAY::FISHERThe higher, the fewerMon Sep 13 1993 15:01187
If I can type this in fast enough to beat Jeff and Joe into the 
notes file then I can obligate them to fill in all the missing details.

The subject is Rhinebeck 93

This was my first year.  My wife and I went down to spectate but
I was encouraged to bring a plane - even a Gremlin would due.

So we took a vacation day Friday and drove down.  Jeff had a block
of motel rooms reserved near bye so we had very convenient accommodations.
Attending in our group was my wife Pat, Jeff and his wife Corrine(sp) and his son 
Richard, Joe Marrone, and Mike Stains(sp).  Al Ryder was suppose to come but 
he managed to hurt his "good" foot and had to stay home.

There were other guys from Jeff and Joe's neck of the woods - go ahead
Jeff finish list of locals.

Friday after we arrived we went out to the field for a Gremlin practice
flight.  I was kinda nervous because full scale planes were operating
out of this little bitty airstrip set in amongst tall trees.

So picture 3 Gremlins circling over a full scale while he is running
up to take off.  As he spends more time playing with the engine I'm
worrying more and more about running out of fuel.

But no problem...

Then I put a flight on the Mini-Challenger and although I couldn't
core a thermal I did seem to pick up a lot of ridge lift off
the tree lines and managed a 8 minute flight.

Saturday we get leave the motel at 6:00 for breakfast at a stainless
steel "Diner" uptown on the way to the "Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome".

I was Pit Lizard for Jeff - although Joe and Mike gave Pat and I the pass to 
let us in free on the condition we call for them.
Hmmmmmmm - I let them fight over me again next year too.

They were flying on 6 flight lines with two flight lines to a landing
circle.  This kept many planes in the air all day.  Mostly there were always
a lot of planes flying because of the way they do scoring.  It is to your
benefit to be quick - the more flights you get in the higher your change
of getting that perfect score - 300 just like bowling!

Anyway - randomly mixed amongst the 3 flying circles there were 3 events
being run all at the same time.  One was traditional AMA scale.
Oh yes - Tom Keziewski(sp) from CMRCM was flying a giant scale Sopwith Pup
in the scale class.

They also had a event called free style that many were flying.

And last but most popular was the event called Mission which was what
our New Hampshire crew were all flying.

Free style didn't seem to be well enough defined to prevent the pilots
from complaining when one guy was cleaning up with ground based sound
effects.  I kinda liked it.  He had a couple wooden slabs painted
up like explosive trucks and a megaphone with bomb sounds.  He would
go through a narration with the judge about how the Ace of Aces was
now dropping a bomb on his mortal enemy... and hit the button as he
released his bomb and it would whistle down and explode - at this time
his assistant would stomp on a lever on the ground and an explosives
truck would blow over with the noise from a bursting balloon and
some power mixed in.  Then he would make a strafing run and have
ratta-tat-tat sounds and wipe out another explosives truck.

Then he would drop leaflets over the enemy to intimidate them.
Lastly he would fly over his girl friends house and bail out 
and he dropped two little parachutes.  Sure it was hokey but
this guy was doing a good job of getting into the WWI spirit.

Any way he was varying his routine from round to round and at one
time came and borrowed some blue Gremlin combat ribbon from me
for something he was going to do - unfortunately I never saw
the results.

One fellow was trying to take off with an advertising banner in tow.
The first take off went over the flight line so he was told to land
immediately.  The second take off flipped on the ground and he broke
up a bit.

If you haven't gotten the idea yet - everything was suppose to be
WWI vintage.

Someone once commented that there were more Taubes(sp) flying at this
contest than were ever flying during WWI.  They were popular for
the Mission event - although I don't know why.

After 7 or so rounds they stopped RC flying for Full scale flying.
During intermission we flew a round of Gremlin combat.

We had 4 Gremlins.  Mine, Jeff's, Joe's, and a fellow from
the local club named Ray.

We did a 4 plane gaggle cut-throat match.

We flew over an open area over some skit buildings that they 
used for the full scale show - great scene.

What was fun was as we land a thousand spectators cheer!

The only cut was when someone got Rays banner.  I think Joe got it
but Joe wasn't sure.

The interesting thing was the crowd cheer when the cut occurred.
Partly just because it was a cut but Rays club was cheering because
it was Ray - apparently they fly Gremlins a bit there and Ray
has taken a few out in Mid Airs.

Skipping ahead - we did the same thing Sunday to a bigger crowd
and Joe managed to hit Rays Aileron and he went down hard - the
crowd loved it - so did Rays club!

Skipping back.  I was calling for Jeff for the Mission event.
What you do is take off and do a bomb drop - up to 3 balloon
passes and a landing.  The take off doesn't count.  You can get
up to 100 points for the accuracy of the bomb drop. 100s were
quite common and Jeff got a few.  You get 100 points if you
break the balloon on the first pass - this is very difficult!
If you miss you can earn some points if you break it on subsequent 
passes.

If you knock the balloon loose or break the balsa stick it is on
you get 25 points - this was very common.

Then if you can land in the inner circle (about 55 glider points big!)
you get 100 points.  This was very difficult because of the rule about
bouncing.  Your tires have to stick and it is where they first touch
down.  If you bound out - it's is less - frequently zero.  
Lots of guys were putting the wheels down in the inner circle but
the field was not lever and frequently it was down hill - all day
Sunday on flight circle 1 where Jeff was.

As caller it was my job to help determine the depth for the flight
path - I just said either "IN" or "OUT" for Jeff to try and line
up for the bomb drop and balloon and landing.

One time I got mixed up and thought it was a balloon pass.
I'm saying "OUT" "OUT" "OUT" "OUT" "OUT" and then I watch this
bomb drop over by the balloon!  I couldn't tell Jeff what I did
until I quit laughing.

At the end of two days the Mission winner was "Jeff Friedrichs".

Well - almost - That's what they said on the loud speaker.

The static displays of WWI planes and motor vehicles
was pretty good but the full scale flying both ways was something else.

Jeff will tell all the planes that flew - I'm not that much into
WWI so I can't remember all the types and models.  Some they said
were the only flying versions in the world.

Sunday I watched a Sopwith Camel chasing a Fokker tri-plane - awsome.

There was a flight by a brand new Fokker D something - Jeff and Joe
will tell you how new etc. - it was nice and what an opportunity for
full scale documentation.  I was personally most interested in the 
Curtis Jenny and Richard Friedrichs got to set in it!

They put on a show with ground based explosives and actors and...
It is amazing how such a little outfit can make any money with
such a good production requiring so many people.

Jeff - tell them about Cole Phalen and his opening flights!

Summary:

If you like WWI aircraft you should go to Rhinebeck - the full
scales perform every Saturday and Sunday in the summer.
The RC part is only once a year.

If you think you would like to do fun fly stuff in a WWI RC plane
think about the Mission event - if not here - do the same thing
at your local field.

There were several vendors there and some bargains - especially 
in WWI stuff.  One hobby shop had an Airtronics Adante kit for $120.
Is that cheap?

Gotta run.

Bye          --+--
Kay R. Fisher  |
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260.31APACHE::FRIEDRICHSAPACHE::FRIEDRICHSTue Sep 14 1993 12:2382
    Good, I wanted Kay to enter his note first...
    
    Bob Brodeur (from RC Buyers), Cal Crooks from Manchester, and Drew
    Davenport (pattern and Gremlin pilot) all competed.  They had
    their support folks along too.

>I was Pit Lizard for Jeff - although Joe and Mike gave Pat and I the pass to 
>let us in free on the condition we call for them.
>Hmmmmmmm - I let them fight over me again next year too.

    Actually it worked out great..  Mike and Joe were on one flight circle, 
    I was on another..  Without Kay there, I would have had a lot more
    running around.

>If you haven't gotten the idea yet - everything was suppose to be
>WWI vintage.

    Actually, any plane built and flown before 1939 (and not flown in
    combat in WWII) is fair game.
    
>Someone once commented that there were more Taubes(sp) flying at this
>contest than were ever flying during WWI.  They were popular for
>the Mission event - although I don't know why.

    The Taube has pretty good slow speed characteristics allowing more time
    to line up for the balloon or bomb.   Also, it is about the only .40 
    size *kit* still available.

    The 4 Gremlin Gaggle both days was really a lot of fun..   We all just
    kept circling and looping around each other.  I really don't know
    much about what happened..  except my streamer was intact both days!!
    
    Ray from the local club had taken some measurements off the gremlins
    last year.  He has a slightly different airfoil and also a different
    spar.  He runs a vertical fiberglass piece cut into the foam from 
    tip to tip.  He also honeycombed the foam to make it lighter.  But
    as a result, the covering distorted the trailing edge!  It still flew
    like a gremlin.  He is apparently supplying the other members with 
    cores and kits.  
    
    The other club members thought it was great seeing him lose though...
    
    Kay did a great job of calling.  I have not broken that many sticks
    ever.  One problem is that we practice with a shorter stick so all 3 of
    us were consistently low.  It was pretty funny though when Kay got
    mixed up..  I didn't want to believe him, but he had  been right so 
    many times before I was starting to convince myself to listen to him!!

>At the end of two days the Mission winner was "Jeff Friedrichs".

    Due to a scoring mix up, they thought I had 2 perfect flights and
    announce me as the winner!!  I would have loved to see Nick Ziroli, Jr.
    face as he was clearly the winner.  Somehow, they had 2 score sheets
    with my name and contestant number but with perfect scores.
    
    They rechecked and then awarded prizes for 6 places.  Since they had 
    no idea what my scores were for those last 2 rounds, they decided to
    give me the 7th place prize.  A nice little grab bag..
    

>Jeff will tell all the planes that flew - I'm not that much into
    
    They have a large variety of planes that flew..  For me the flights 
    of the Fokker D-VIII and the first public flight of the Fokker D-VII
    was the best.  I had not seen these fly before.
    
    They also flew the Nieuport 11, Curtiss Jenny, Fokker Triplane,
    Albatros, Sopwith Camel, Avro 504K, Tiger Moth, Stampf, a J-3.
    
    They also fired up a few other planes like the 1909 Bleriot, the
    Hanriot, and a couple of others..

>Jeff - tell them about Cole Phalen and his opening flights!

    The delsy dives?
    
    We sold all 4 gremlin kits we had and took orders for about 5 more!
    
    All in all a great weekend!!  Thanks again for your help Kay!
    
    jeff
    
260.32MKOTS3::MARRONETue Sep 14 1993 14:3860
    Kay and Jeff have done a great job of highlighting this year's
    Old Rhinebeck Jamboree, so there's not much left for me to tell.
    
    I'd say my flying was a tad better than last year as I achieved my
    first score of 200 ever. Seems all my 300's occur in dreams... 
    Wait till next year!
    
    But the highlight of the weekend for me was the chance to engage in an
    all-out Gremlin-fest for the crowds.  Tossing up four Gremlins and
    having a free-for-all at everyone's streamer was a BLAST!  On Saturday,
    one streamer was cut, but it was hard to tell who did the deed.  Some
    thought it was me, but it was almost impossible for me to focus on
    anything but my own plane; everything else was a blur.
    
    On Sunday, Ray's (he's from the Mid-Hudson RC Club that runs the
    Rhinebeck Jamboree) and my Gremlin decided to meet up.  He takes my
    streamer, but I get the better kill by taking out one of his ailerons. 
    I keep flying as if nothing happened, and he crashes, trashing his
    wing.  It all happened so fast, and there were so many Gremlins
    criss-crossing my field of vision, that I wasn't even sure I had hit
    anything.  Four Gremlins in a free-for-all put me in sensory overload! 
    I'll say this, seeing a gaggle of Gremlins duking it out definitely
    caused the onset of Gremlin-mania, since after both demos, our tent was
    crammed with interested people, and the four kits we brought with us
    were sold out quickly, and five more were ordered.  All the literature
    and business cards went, too.  
    
    After this and last year's demos, RC combat has certainly gotten a big
    shot in the arm.  The crowds relly loved it.
    
    Just a few observations:  Ray build his wing with a unique fiberglass
    spar about 1/16 inch thich and I don't know how wide, that appeared to
    span about 3/4 of the wing.  He also honeycombed his wing to make it 
    _very_ light. This also made it very weak.  He also did other things
    to make it as light as possible, and told me it came in at 2 lbs, 9 oz. 
    That's a very light Gremlin to put up against 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 lb
    Gremlins.  Mine is about 3 1/4 lbs so I think it was like a truck
    hitting a car.  I guess this was a real crowd-pleaser.  You know how
    crowds are, always wanting to see blood...   Well we gave it to them,
    and although I feel bad for Ray crashing his plane, that'll teach him
    to mix it up with the bad boy's from Merrimack. ;^)
    
    Getting back to the contest, Mike and I pit'd for each other and this
    worked out well.  I got in 12 rounds, which was lower than most due to
    some screw-ups on the part of the impound guys who kept rearranging the
    order just in time to kick me out of the lineup.  I'm still mad enough
    that I am going to write a letter to the CD and complain about the
    shoddy treatment I recieved.  On one occasion, I couldn't get the pin
    since it was in use by the guy two in front of me.  So they issued a
    different pin to the guy directly in front of me, and he simply gave
    his sheet to the judge before I could get my pin, and I ended up
    getting bounced from the lineup.  I complained about it and it fell on
    deaf ears.  Oh well,  time to chill out...
    
    All things considered, it was a GREAT weekend, and I had a ball!  
    
    Got to run,
    
    Joe 
                                            
260.33PBS Nova on aerobaticsGAUSS::REITHJim 3D::Reith MLO1-2/c37 223-2021Wed Feb 02 1994 08:378
I watched Nova last night and this week's show was on the origin of 
aerobatics. They had some classic footage of the "first" loop and WW1 
manuevering and discussed how we went from flying straight and level 
with NO banking to aerobatics. The development of the aileron and wing 
warping were also discussed. They ended with footage of the 1992 world 
championships (full scale)

Check your local listings for repeats this week.
260.34Cole Palen, RIP19631::FRIEDRICHSAPACHE::FRIEDRICHSWed Feb 02 1994 10:2710
    I should note in here that Cole Palen, the creator of the 
    Olde Rhinebeck Aerodrome, passed away in his sleep in late
    November.
    
    His presence will be greatly missed.  Thankfully, a foundation was set
    up to preserve the aerodrome and its planes and the plans are to
    continue in the tradition...
    
    Jeff
    
260.35VMSSG::FRIEDRICHSI'd rather be flying!Fri Aug 19 1994 15:276
    
    REMINDER:  3 Weeks till the Rhinebeck Jamboree!!  Sept 10th and 11th!!
    
    cheers,
    jeff
    
260.36WRKSYS::REITHJim WRKSYS::Reith MLO1-2/c37 223-2021Fri Aug 19 1994 15:423
What do they do out there?

8^)
260.37VMSSG::FRIEDRICHSI'd rather be flying!Fri Aug 19 1994 16:454
    
    Have fun, drink beer, eat pizza...  What more could you ask for!!
    
    
260.38VMSSG::FRIEDRICHSI'd rather be flying!Tue Sep 06 1994 10:0911
    Final Reminder: Rhinebeck is this weekend!
    
    Come on out for the day or the weekend!!  Jim Reith will be 
    competing ini his first Rhinebeck, Kay will be slithering around
    the pits and Joe will be flying his beautiful Taube!
    
    It is a great day for the whole family!
    
    cheers!
    jeff
    
260.39Quick Report on Rhinebeck Jamboree 1994MKOTS3::MARRONEMon Sep 12 1994 14:1565
    I'm sure Jeff, Jim and Kay will be posting reports in here, but I'll
    try to hit a few highlights of the great time we all had at this year's
    jamboree.
    
    Cole Pale Memorial Rubber Powered Mass Launch.  We did this both days,
    and although there were only about 15-20 pilots involved, I found it to
    be very meaningful and symbolic, a great tribute to a great aviator.
    
    Flight Lines; what a mess!!!!!  Mike Stains went ballistic over the
    lack of organization and control, but his protest got results and it
    eventually smoothed out.
    
    Weather: about as nice as you can get with lots of sunshine both days. 
    The only problem was the gusty winds both afternoons which tended to
    supress the scores.
    
    Comraderie:  Our core group of Flying Eagles plus Jim R and Kay plus
    their spouses, plus the extended group of other Rhinebeck
    freaks made for the best social time I think we've had in my five years
    of attending.  The parties were a lot of fun, but I soon depleted my
    supply of antiacids and had to resort to Tagamet.  Several of us
    suffered from an OD of rich food.
    
    Damage Central:  There were more crashes than I remember from past
    years... lot's of them were obviously due to wind conditions making it
    difficult to line up the balloon runs close to the trees, but there
    ware also a lot of straight-in dives that looked like hits or total
    loss of control.  I'll let Jim R discuss the Eindecker incident since I
    didn't see it, and Jeff can talk about coming home without a working
    plane.
    
    Gremlins:  A last minute decision by the officials cancelled the
    Gremlin demos before the full scale show, and they substituted regular
    Rhinebeck planes instead.  However, the Friday evening Gremlin "gaggle"
    war was a totally awsome experience.
    
    Newcomers:  two members of the Flying Eagles, Jim Grady and Rob
    Sylvester got absolutely hooked on Rhinebeck, and both will be back.
    
    Bragging Rights:  This was my fourth time competing at Rhinebeck, and I
    finally hit a perfect 300 score!! Ureka!  What a feeling.  If only I
    had some good scores to back it up I might have placed higher, but I
    managed to place 8th in Mission, which is a major improvement over past
    years.  The big Taube did well.
    
    Thanks to Jeff and Corrine for all the work and effort to get
    things organized.  I wouldn't have had any dinner on Friday or lunches
    on Sat and Sun it weren't for Corrine.
    
    THE BEST NEWS: It was announced at the final ceremony that the
    Rhinebeck Jamboree will continue into the future, which got an
    immediate cheer from the pilots.
    
    What a fantastic weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
    
    Can't wait till next year
    
    Regards,
    Joe
    Corrine who           
    
    
    
    
    
260.40VMSSG::FRIEDRICHSI'd rather be flying!Mon Sep 12 1994 15:0068
    Yes, it was a beautiful weekend of flying!!
    
    Considering I had been flying the Junkers for a good part of the
    summer, I did OK going to my Eindecker after my radio stupidity
    the week before.  I hit most every bomb drop and broke some sticks.
    I also hit the balloon 2 or 3 times, but they didn't break!  One 
    of the times it was dead on on my first pass.  Next year I will
    use a sharper prop!
    
    Towards the end of flying Sunday though, I managed to cartwheel on
    takeoff.  I'm still not quite sure what happened, but I had full right 
    rudder when the left wingtip touched.  I really was surprised because
    my takeoffs had been very straight all weekend.  The damage is pretty
    minor though...  Let's see, my rebuilding queue looks something like
    this:
    
    	Eindecker 1 - Wingtip and elevator repairs
    	Eindecker 2 - Lots - Jim R, care to expand??
    	Junkers - Even more
    	Cub - wing saddle damage and recover
    	Spirit - Haven't touched since Dave Lindner's crash
    
    The parties and friends were a lot of fun this year.  We had our Friday 
    night cookout in the camping area and we must have had 25 people there.
    Great Fun!  Saturday night, our usual pizza place was closed, so we 
    tried out this other place.  From the sounds of it, a lot of us liked
    the pizza, but the pizza didn't like many of us!  Oh well.
    
    This was the first year that Ken Hansen from our club flew with his
    own plane.  He flew a couple of years ago with one of my Eindeckers
    but dropped out early as he didn't feel comfortable.  He had a 
    great time this year and I doubt he will be missing any more..
    
    Jim Grady apparently had a switch failure on Saturday morning and 
    sifted his Ziroli Saulnier through the trees.  He got a ride back to
    the motel and by 2:30 had his plane basically read to go again!  Jim's
    flying really improved over the last couple of weeks.  Just goes to 
    show you that no matter what kind of contest it is, preparing for 
    a goal is much more helpful than just boring holes.
    
    The cancellation of the Gremlin demo was a major disappointment.  At
    first, we were told one reason, then they told us that they felt that
    Gremlins were not in the spirit of Rhinebeck.  Oh well, they did not
    let the guys do the helicopter or the Yankee Twister demos either, so
    we weren't singled out.
    
    We did have a great pair of Gremlin Gaggles on Friday night!  We had 6
    of them in the air at a time.   Amazingly, not one mid-air!  We did get
    numerous cuts  and certainly a lot of close calls!  Let's see, this was
    Jim R, Kay, Joe, Mike, Jim G., and myself. Amazingly, we did not have
    any radio conflicts!  Both flights were great fun and led to much
    discussion for the evening.  I almost lost my new (white) Gremlin...
    I flew by Jim R (I think) and then focused on his rather than mine.
    "Hmmm, its not doing what I want!  Oh, hey, that's not mine!  Where's 
    mine??!!  Oh, there it is!  What's it doing?  Ah, Phew!" all in about
    3-4 seconds!
    
    Congrats to Joe on his first perfect score!  Nice Job!  And thanks to
    Kay and Pat for their help!  Kay really got a workout as he was helping
    Jim Reith in Circle 1 and Jim Grady in Circle 3!  And Pat got her
    workout giving Corinne a hand with everything, including chasing 
    Richard around!
    
    Now, where did I put that new case of CA??
    
    cheers,
    jeff
    
260.41A slightly different impression30411::REITHJim WRKSYS::Reith MLO1-2/c37 223-2021Tue Sep 13 1994 09:5242
Well, I went to the Jamboree this year mostly to fly the Gremlin demo. I was
VERY disappointed when they told us we wouldn't be flying on friday night. Of
course I had already prepaid my room and preregistered for mission so what was I
to do. I must preface the following by saying that my prop interest lies
somewhere in WWII, not WWI. I'm a Spitfire/P-38 lover.

After having a GREAT gaggle session friday night with several cuts and no
mid-airs, the rest of the weekend was somewhat of a letdown. The lunches at the
diner in the morning were great and reminded me of my days in Cambridge at the
F&T diner. I did meet lots of current customers and found a few new ones in the
process. Part of the problem was when we found that the "group" was spread over
all three flightlines. I was on Flightline #1 with Mike Stains, a larger group
including Jeff and Joe was on #2 and a few on #3. Flightline choice was
determined by frequency. They tried to spread people out so the flightlines were
similar numbers (30-35) and each frequency was only at one line.

I was not impressed with the running of the contest. After 28 years you would
think they'd have it down and be able to do training BEFORE the first flights.
Having a contest with 100+ contestant is a huge job and it almost seemed like
they had TOO MUCH help initially. We had 4-5 officials arguing about how to run
our flightline saturday and finally Mike Stains went ballistic and they seemed
to get it together. I was handed my transmitter once while someone else had the
pin and transmitters in the impound were found switched on (causing at least ONE
shootdown). They turned over the impound job about every 2 hours at our line and
several times I was asked if the Tx was off and I just commented that they
shouldn't take my word for it in either case.

My first flight I did a classic fly the bomb into the runway. As a matter of
fact, I didn't take my eyes off the bomb until I heard the plane "land". The
balloon pop was the most difficult part and I only got one "stick" all weekend.
My last flight of the weekend was terminated when I snapped out of my turnaround
about 1/3rd of the way through it and didn't seem to have any control into the
trees. I was basically holding the bank when it went into the snap. We had a few
shootdowns over the weekend and Mike checked the other ch30 Tx in the impound
but it was off. Lousy way to end a weekend with a borrowed plane. Thanks Jeff
for letting me "borrow" the plane and sorry to add to the building queue.

There was a conflict with my daughter's birthday on sunday as well and
generally, my competitive urges don't rely on power. I probably won't go back
again. 

Jim
260.42More opinions35989::BLUMJWed Sep 14 1994 10:5615
    One of my club members, Dick Parshall, is a very serious WWI modeler.
    His planes have appeared in national magazines, one of his planes is
    in the Glenn Curtiss museum.  He took a deHavilland DH-2 to the big
    WWI meet in Guntersville, Alabama a couple weeks ago.
    
    When I asked him at last weeks meeting if he was going to Rhinebeck,
    he stated that he did not like the format of the meet and had no 
    plans to ever attend again.
    
    He mentioned a large scale meet in Canada that he will be attending
    soon.
    
    He felt that the caliber of planes at Rhinebeck is low and that
    too many midairs occur.  Dick's planes take over 1000 hours to build,
    so he is pretty particular.
260.43But you can't beat the atmosphere!VMSSG::FRIEDRICHSI'd rather be flying!Wed Sep 14 1994 11:3619
    Actually, this year there were no mid-airs!  However, this was a bit
    unusual as there is usually at least 1.  There is a fair amount of
    overlap between circle.  Tom K. (from Mass.) had 2 close calls.  One
    with a Fokker triplane and the other with another 1/3 scale Sopwith
    Pup.  
    
    There is no argument that the quantity of scale competitors has been
    on the decline.  The format is geared more like a fun fly where they
    try to fly as many flights as possible.  This results in more planes 
    in the air.  There has also been some dis-satisfaction with the judging
    although I heard more positive comments about it this year than I have
    in the past.
    
    I certainly don't rank it up there in terms of scale events, but there 
    are almost always at least a few outstanding scale ships.
    
    cheers,
    jeff
    
260.44Go once, then write about it.GAAS::FISHERBXB2-2/G08 DTN 293-5695Wed Sep 14 1994 14:4415
>        <<< Note 260.43 by VMSSG::FRIEDRICHS "I'd rather be flying!" >>>
>                    -< But you can't beat the atmosphere! >-
........................^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You must not forget the full scale planes there.
You don't just go to Rhinebeck to punch holes in the sky.
If you like WWI planes you will love Rhinebeck.

I'm always amazed how Trudy Truelove can survive that fall EVERY Sunday :-)

Bye          --+--
Kay R. Fisher  |
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260.45WWI resources on the WWWRANGER::REITHTue Mar 28 1995 17:216
How's that for a cryptic title 8^)

There's a World War I modeling web page available from UNH that is probably of
interest to some of the Rhinebeck people.

http://pease1.unh.edu/
260.46VMSSG::FRIEDRICHSAsk me about Young EaglesWed Aug 09 1995 12:3016
    One month to go!!
    
    If you have a chance to go, it is a blast.  It looks like there will
    be aver 15 people from Southern NH going this year!
    
    If, after reading all of the previous notes, you need info, 
    please let me know!
    
    
    Also, check the WWW page...
    
    	http://www.mainstream.com/rhinebeck.html
    
    cheers,
    jeff
    
260.47Rhinebeck '95VMSSG::FRIEDRICHSAsk me about Young EaglesTue Sep 12 1995 12:1661
    Well, another Rhinebeck is history....  Start planning now for next
    year!  Weekend after labor day!
    
    This year, the weather was quite unusual.  For the first time in about
    7-8 years, we got wet on Saturday.  But, it only rained for about
    an hour.  The rest of the day was awesome for flying as the air was
    dead calm and with the clouds, there was no early morning sun in your
    eyes!  Sunday was just the opposite!  Lots of bright sunshine and even
    more wind!  
    
    I was the first pilot off of flight line 3 this year.  Flying my 
    Ziroli-plans, Marrone-kitted, Caloway-built 88" Taube was wonderful!
    Out of 7 flights, 5 of them were solid 225 scores (perfect drops and
    landings, but I only hit the balloon without breaking it)  With my
    Enya 120 on the front, it is steady and has plenty of power when it
    needs it.  But even with the dead air, only 1 person was able to make
    a perfect score!  At the end of the day, I was in about 5th or 6th
    place!
    
    On Sunday, it was pure survival mode.  I only took the Taube up for 1
    flight before deciding I really didn't want to crunch it.  So, I
    switched to my Eindecker, which it turns out, wasn't any better.. 
    After 2 more flights, I decided to call it a day and let me previous
    scores stand.  By noon time, there were only a few people left on each 
    line, and crashes were taking their toll.  Amazingly though, one pilot
    did manage a perfect score!  At circle 3, we were a bit more protected
    and the wind seemed to let up for him just at the right times.  Plus,
    the people that were flying were making quite a few flights, so there
    were a couple of other good scores also posted.  In the end, I guess I 
    ended up in just barely the top 10 out of 70+ contestents.  I was happy
    with the way I flew and how the plane flew, and all of my planes are
    intact!
    
    Actually, all of use from the Flying Eagles came back with planes
    intact.  The highlight was Bob Brodeur from RC Buyer's winning the 
    maneuvers event.  This is, in effect, a pattern contest with WWI
    planes.  He posted some excellent scores from what I hear.  Joe
    Marrone, Mike Stains, and Jim Grady also flew Mission and all came home
    intact.  Mike flew in the wind Sunday but called it quits after he 
    cartwheeled his plane.  No damage, but he had had enough.  Bob Spear
    was having problems with his Nieuport on Friday and decided not to fly.
    
    
    The full scale show was also enjoyable.  With the dead calm winds, they
    took the pre-WWI planes up higher than they have had them before!  They
    also flew in both directions (usually they end up taxiing one way or
    the other..)  But the low clouds had prevented the flying farmer from 
    arriving and reduced some of the other flying.
    
    Sunday they did manage to fly most everything, even the Fokker DR-I.  
    This was surprising as the wind was really howling!  The Great Lakes 
    Trainer got bouncing and out of sorts and went around.  But other than
    that, it was good flying!
    
    
    It looks like we have 2 more converts this year.  Next year should be
    even more fun!
    
    Cheers,
    jeff