OLD RHINEBECK Artist and Photographer’s WEEKEND
We had an interesting Saturday, with very good attendance for our Artists’-Authors’-Photographers’ weekend. We displayed the AVRO in the courtyard for special photos, Gilles Auliard conducted a session on how to take great aviation shots, Bill Gordon flew some spectacular photo smoke runs in the Fokker D-VII, and we had several vendors displaying their work. All agreed we should expand this into a major event for our 50th anniversary next year. Thanks to all of you who made this such an enjoyable day for all.
Sunday started off looking great, but a major storm appeared just before show time. We think a new record was set as you all helped get our aircraft under cover in their hangars in an astounding 22 minutes. We gave rain-checks to all, but most still stuck around to chat with us about our fleet. Of course, the skies cleared about the time the last patron left.
Be careful if you see me lurking with my camera around my neck, as you may be next!
Come see Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome’s
LeRhone Rotary Powered Avro 504
Starting June 14th, Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome opens its 49th air show season. This year brings back an old favorite, the recently finished complete airframe rebuild and engine restoration of its British built Avro 504, powered with an original Le Rhone rotary engine of 110 hp. The Avro is a large, double bay biplane, used by the British during World War One and afterward as a “barnstorming” airplane, much as the famed Curtiss Jenny was used in America. It has two cockpits in tandem, solo generally being from the front seat. Repainted in its bright yellow checkerboard pattern, the Aerodrome’s Avro is a true eyecatcher.
Designed by A.V. Roe in February of 1913 as an enlarged and more powerful version of the successful Type 500, the new 504 was an incredibly long lived design. It was a successful racer and long distance flyer before the war, notably winning races against supposedly faster monoplanes. It had large impact as a reconnaissance and bomber airplane in the early part of WW1 and as a trainer through 1918.
The Avro performed the first organized bombing mission only 3 months after the war began in 1914 when 2 ships flew 100 miles to successfully drop bombs on the great Zeppelin hangars in Friedrichshaven in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Carrying only four 20 pound bombs, to the astonishment of the Germans they damaged one of the huge Zeps and destroyed the hydrogen generating plant.
So well liked that it remained in production with various modern radial engines until the 1930’s, it was the only prewar airplane design anywhere in the world to do so. Mr. Alliot Verdon Roe originally hoped to sell “a dozen or so,” but instead production reached over 8300 during the war alone and so many more afterward that Avro had to build a new factory to handle production. It served as a test bed for every kind of rotary and fixed engine, as a machine gun trainer, a seaplane, and stripped of its wings as the test bed for the world’s first successful gyroplane designed by Juan de la Cierva. Its success was largely due to its wonderful handling characteristics;
“The AVRO 504 had an intangible charm. It felt right. This subtle question of feel made or marred an airplane of those days, and the controls of the Avro seemed ideally suited to its purpose -- takeoff was simplicity itself. In an amazingly short distance the Avro became airborne, and climbing at 65 mph could get out of quite small fields with a feeling of complete security. In level flight it flew with docile steadiness. In retrospect its behavior seemed perfect.” Harald Penrose, Chief Test Pilot, Westland Aircraft.
The Aerodrome’s Avro was flown at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome for many years by famed aerobatic air show performer Stan Segalla, who still flies his aerobatic Piper PA-11 “Cub” as the flying farmer in air shows every weekend. Stan was billed as “One Shot Gatling” when he was terrorizing the skies, or more often trying to escape being shot down by the blood red Fokker Triplane flown by “The Evil Black Baron of Rhinebeck.” All in good fun, of course, the machine guns are fakes, but the smell of castor oil and an entire 400 pound engine that spins around its own crankshaft is very real. The Aerodrome is one of the few places in the world where these early airplanes and engines can be seen and heard in flight.
It’s well worth a drive to the beautiful Hudson River Valley to step back in time, enjoying the fleet of old vehicles and airplanes in action. To complete your day with unforgettable experiences, take an antique car ride, and an open cockpit biplane ride in one of the New Standard biplanes. Just as it did in 1913, the gaily painted Avro 504 can be seen defying gravity at the air shows every Saturday and Sunday afternoon (mid June through mid October). See www.oldrhinebeck.org or call 845-752-3200.