2008 Cole and Rita Palen FF meet, Sat. 6/14

[SL DIII]

Hi all,
This Saturday, June 14 will be the Fourth-Annual Cole and Rita Palen Memorial Free-Flight Meet at the Red Hook High School, just a few miles from the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in NY. We will be there all day from morning until early evening, so if you are in the neighborhood, feel free to drop by. This year’s theme is World War I aircraft in celebration of the 90-year anniversary of the Armistice, and we will have a special Fokker D.VII Mass launch event , as well as a mass launch for Hannan type Boxy bipes. Participants have been encouraged to modify and decorate their Boxy Bipes to represent WWI aircraft. We expect a good turnout of modelers, so it should be fun.

Map to school: Map of Red Hook, NY by MapQuest

We will also be awarding several perpetual memorial awards in honor of some of the people who are no longer with us, who played big roles at Rhinebeck in earlier days such as Dick King, Gordon and Kay Bainbridge, Dave Fox, Dick Day, Judy Meyers-Ulfik, Bob Love, Larry Potter and of course Cole and Rita.

Here’s a photo of two of the models that will be participating and some of the prizes to be awarded. The “backdrop” is the Dave Fox memorial “Regal Eagle” award for the best Fokker D.VII-mass launch event. We are expecting between 10 and 15 D.VII models.


(Note: Leo Opdycke in cockpit of Bristol!)

We will have our usual categories too including Pioneer era, WWI, Golden Age, Mixed Category, Proxy, Taxi event and probably a few others too.

For info on past events, and news updates on this year’s event, visit: Events

Hope to see you there,
Best regards,
Tom Polapink

[Trackpad]

Hello, Tom,

A short note to wish you and your team all the best for a super event. I was only able to visit the Old Rhinebeck Aeodrome once, in 1974, and I still have my souvenir pennant autographed by Cole Palen himself. As well, almost a full tray of 35mm colour slides attest to a super afternoon.

[AAC Cadet Leader]

tom,
wish i could be there for the big dr-1 launch and the peanut butter sandwiches. best of luck to all the modelers towards winning some of those terrific memorial plaques.

[SL DIII]

Last weekend we held the 4th annual Cole and Rita Palen Free-Flight Memorial Meet at Red Hook High School. The weather cooperated and we had a great time. Calm winds helped us to log some super flights. There were many excellent entries this year and the event is growing nicely each time we have it. Hope to see you there participating next year with a model. Our theme next year will focus on the Pioneer era in celebration of the centenary of Reims and Bleriot’s Cross-Channel flight.
Here are some pictures from last weekend:



Memorial Awards – Each featured a full-sized Fokker Triplane lower wing rib with photos of those being remembered framed in the lightening holes of each rib. From top to Bottom:
1) Dick King, Sir Percy Goodfellow” Sportsmanship Award
2) Bob Love, Technical Achievement Award
3) Cole Palen, Best Multi-Winged entry Award
4) Dick Day, Concours d’elegance Award
5) Gordon Bainbridge/Andy Keefe/ Larry Potter Craftsmanship Award
6) Best two-seater Award
7) Rita Palen/Kay Bainbridge/ Judy Ulfik-Meyers, Best Female Performance Award
8) Dave Fox, Best Fokker D.VII – Mass Launch event



Fokker D.VII Mass Launch Entries; we had eleven D.VIIs flying in the mass launch, and another two that were built, but not quite ready to fly for the event.



Some of the WWI Entries



More WWI Entries

More to come...
Best,
Tom P.

[AAC Cadet Leader]

tom,
nice looking models and awards! glad you're event continues to grow. cole & rita would be very proud. hope you'll show us some people pics, too.

[Jasta 5 Von Muller]

WOWOW!!!!! I wish we had extreme interest like that down here in Louisiana!!!