Hauksbee 103 Posted October 4, 2016 (edited) The Dawn Patrol Rendezvous at Wright-Patterson A.F.B. All-in-all, it was a little smaller, a little thinner than I expected, but the trade-off was that there was no admission charged. Just drive in. It was nearly impossible to find. Signage was next to nil. But I'd rented a car, and Wright-Patt was huge, so I figured that I'd just drive east 'til I hit it, then look for something official (like a guard shack, or a manned gate) and ask directions. Luck brought me to the entrance of the U.S.A.F. Flight Museum. As I approached the building, I saw a hand-made sign on a stick saying "WWI Fly-In". It had to be close. (Luck had patted me on the head again). That, and others like it, led me around the building and through various parking lots, until I came to the end of the paved area and found myself facing a huge grass field with runways. 'Way-the-hell-and-gone across that, and up against the tree line was what appeared to be a mass of parked cars and white tents. I turned around to search out a way to get there and noticed a double line of florescent road cones marking a lane across the grass with lots of fresh tire tracks. This put me on a beat-to-hell tarmac road which led to another double line of cones across more grass and suddenly I was driving down a runway. Which made me a tad nervous. I would not have been surprised to see a Jeep with MP's appear and ask what I was doing, but just then a guy with a red flag stepped out and directed me in among the cars. I had arrived. I walked in and checked it out. Not much was going on. It was Saturday morning and there was a wicked cross-wind which discouraged flying. (Rain was threatening, but never arrived and Sunday was gorgeous) The first thing I noticed was all these little-bitty airplanes. They were, for the most part, 3/4 scale home-builts tricked out to look like something historical. I knew I was not going to see real, WWI airplanes, but I did expect full-sized modern replicas. No such luck. This was a gathering of garage-builders. Later it turned out that there was a SPAD (tho' re-engined which disguised it) a Sopwith Pup, and (I think) a Nieuport) These did not fly. The photos don't convey the sizes well, standing next to the cockpits, one wondered how a full-grown man could possibly shoe-horn himself into one. I'd expect to see the sides of the fuselage flex in-and-out every time the pilot took a deep breath. . . . . . . . . . . The WOFF Flight Simulator corner . Edited October 6, 2016 by Hauksbee 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JFM 18 Posted October 4, 2016 Somehow during it all I missed you, Hauksbee! Lighter attendance this year, maybe because of the doom-and-gloom weather forecasts that began the week before. (To be sure, Wed/Thurs/Fri in Dayton were frigid and miserable.) They had some nice full-scale Fokker Dr.I replicas last time that were absent, and I know one full-scale Nieuport left before the show began because the pilot's father died and he flew home. But even though those planes are cool to see flying, it's nothing like seeing an F4U Corsair or something going by. Stache outdid himself dragging all that stuff there and setting it up. I think that was a successful effort, as far as exposure is concerned, because every time I went there there were people around, flying or watching other people flying. Hopefully folks were hooked enough to go home and order the sim for themselves, or put it on their Christmas lists for Santa. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hauksbee 103 Posted October 6, 2016 Jim: Don't quite know how that happened, but we were all milling about. Something about Brownian Movement amonst WOFF pilots... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
