The Original Old Farts Club

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Don’t screw around with Walt or you’re going to find a bouncing Betty or a Claymore in your front yard. He’s been there and done that so I don’t think there would be much hesitation on his side.
I got a package from great lakes genetics yesterday where I ordered bunch more girl crush and train wreck. Those folks gave me 12 packages of freebies along with a color catalog which was off the chain. It took a week from when I sent my money order to when I got my merchandise. Safe secure and on time, who could ask for more
Careful Boo she'll BOOP one of your eyes out
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Walt! Whadya think about that 1917 Curtiss jn4-d “jenny” biplane? Supposed to be one of ten left in the world. It can be yours for a paltry $975,000.
I knew the guy that rebuilt that. He found the wrecked pieces in an old abandoned Long Island WWII (yes, WW Two) hangar (Floyd Bennet Field) along with a half-dozen others that wound up in the Smithsonian. He was allowed to take the shattered pieces of two wrecks as a sorta consolation finders fee. He rebuilt them both, and flew them at his Rhinebeck Aerodrome.

His name was Cole, and he had three planes in flying condition and a tweeny two-man tank when I knew him. He'd put on shows for a dozen or so folks that would show up. You got onto his place by a short dirt road. The planes were kept in a
big old beat up barn along with an ancient wooden-wheeled fire engine he was rebuilding. All I remember was this humongous yellow sign on the barn announcing "Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome".

I actually helped his presentation a tad. I told him his bad guy flier should be named Baron Nasty von Nasty in the loudspeaker running commentary. He adopted that. He also used my idea of a cherry bomb wrapped in some solder to make "Archie" explosions up by the planes as they flew over.

But this was more than half a fargin century ago. I haven't heard anything since I moved away, so I dunno how his Jenny wound up in Texas. He prolly isn't even there anymore.
 
I knew the guy that rebuilt that. He found the wrecked pieces in an old abandoned Long Island WWII (yes, WW Two) hangar (Floyd Bennet Field) along with a half-dozen others that wound up in the Smithsonian. He was allowed to take the shattered pieces of two wrecks as a sorta consolation finders fee. He rebuilt them both, and flew them at his Rhinebeck Aerodrome.

His name was Cole, and he had three planes in flying condition and a tweeny two-man tank when I knew him. He'd put on shows for a dozen or so folks that would show up. You got onto his place by a short dirt road. The planes were kept in a
big old beat up barn along with an ancient wooden-wheeled fire engine he was rebuilding. All I remember was this humongous yellow sign on the barn announcing "Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome".

I actually helped his presentation a tad. I told him his bad guy flier should be named Baron Nasty von Nasty in the loudspeaker running commentary. He adopted that. He also used my idea of a cherry bomb wrapped in some solder to make "Archie" explosions up by the planes as they flew over.

But this was more than half a fargin century ago. I haven't heard anything since I moved away, so I dunno how his Jenny wound up in Texas. He prolly isn't even there anymore.
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Holy Shit! Cole was still eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches (his words) back In The Day. I see he has graveled his dirt road. I cannot believe he is still there. It has been more than half a century, and he was 20 years older than me. Quite a huge operation now.

That giant building did not exist back then... Just his old barn, which I do not see in the photos you have found.

The German crate he had Baron Nasty von Nasty flying was an Eindeker <-- single wing monoplane. It was essentially just a fargin chair mounted behind a lawnmower engine. didn't even have a windscreen. But it did score kills in action at first...
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IIRC, Cole showed me how the seat belt would NOT work, so he had promised his lady that he would never fly it upside down (wouldn't work that way anyway).
 
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