The Skies over Rhinebeck: A Pilot's Story [Hardcover]

Richard A. King (Editor), Stephan Wilkinson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0966133501 | ISBN-13: 978-0966133509 | Publication Date: June 1997 | Edition: 1

Author's personal accounts of flying at one of the world's unique aviation attractions, including anecdotes of Cole Palen, the internationally renowned curator, collector and pilot of his vintage aircraft collection.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... dozens of action photographs of the striking aircraft that have rolled down the runway at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome for four decades. Readers will be turning the pages for hours long after they devour the rich and informative text." -- Peter Jakabs, Air & Space magazine, National Air and Space Museum

...a collection of stories about a very special place in the annals of aviation history. The book recalls a glorious time and place where aviation history is re-lived, remembered and re-created. -- Review excerpt

From the Inside Flap

The Skies Over Rhinebeck recalls a glorious time and place where aviation history was relived, remembered and at the same time created. It is a collection of stories about a very special place in the annals of aviation history. A fascinating place where you can actually see the sights, hem the sounds, and even smell the aromas that made the early days of aviation such a rich part of our American heritage. Over 260 pages of the triumphs, obstacles and near tragedies, that Cole Palen and his merry band of enthusiasts had to overcome to bring new energy and dignity to these wonderful old warriors of wood, wire and fabric.

Richard King, a noted artist, aviator and teacher who spent most of his adult life at The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, shares with us in vivid detail verbally and photographically Cole Palen and the events that only someone that was there everyday could know and describe. The pilots and personalities, the veteran and vintage and sometimes dangerous aeroplanes, the Sopwith Camels, Dolphin, Pup, Spad, Fokker Triplanes, DVIIs, DVIIIs, Albatros, Avros, Bleriots, Curtiss Pushers, Hanriot, Nieuport 28, 11, 10, 2N, Curtiss Jenny, New Standards, Wacos, Monocoupes and all the other performers in Palen's aerial circus. They were all there, and most of them are still there, doing their thing every weekend from May to October.

Richard King has thousands of hours in these ancient aircraft (more than 20,000 landings at the Aerodrome alone) and was one of the original corps of stalwarts who were to befriend Palen and become members of the Rhinebeck escadrille of rock-pickers, weed-wackers, airplane pushers, mechanics, and eventually pilots of these antique flying machines. In one spectacular volume he has distilled the flavor of the years that Cole Palen spent in creating and developing the living museum that we today know as the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome.

"When the airshow actually began, you knew you were no longer looking at just a museum piece. To see it, to touch it, hear the engine run, smell the castor oil and then finally see it in the element in which it was designed to perform was like talking to someone who actually fought in World War I or who lived through the 1920s or '30s. I would walk through the quiet hangars in the evening and feel that I was sharing memories with old friends.

When the show was over and the spectators had all departed the aeroplanes were all moved carefully to their hangars. Put to rest for another week, the engines grew cool and though the stresses of flight were still within them, they would quietly groan and creak as the weary structures and fabric released their tensions and gradually relaxed for the evening. Though seemingly mortal enemies, they were gathered together as if at home around the kitchen table. In truth they had become comrades."

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 275 pages
• Publisher: Rhinebeck Aviators Guide; 1 edition (June 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966133501
• ISBN-13: 978-0966133509
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,298,211 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)