Thought you might enjoy this story. Paul Weaver is married to a friend of mine from HS; she said she'd send me some digital pictures of the event, but I haven't received them yet. (Paul was at Osh Kosh this year, btw; his daughter was Miss Osh Kosh -- or whatever they name the title -- in 1989 or so; sorry, but I don't recall exactly what year.) A picture of Paul and his plane accompanied this story, which ran on the front page of Sunday's newspaper:
WWI Rendezvous glimpse of past
Modern look-alikes transform museum grounds
By Timothy R. Gaffney
tgaffney@DaytonDailyNews.com WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE | Replicas of World War I-era airplanes, antique cars and people in uniforms of the Great War turned the Air Force Museum’s front lawn on Friday into a scene from the early years of flight.
A sparkling blue sky and mild temperatures greeted the fourth Dawn Patrol Rendezvous at the museum, a free exhibition of flying and static displays that runs through Sunday. The last one was in 2000.
Pilots flying look-alikes of German or allied airplanes circled the museum’s grounds, taking turns with giant-scale radio-controlled model planes in the air over a temporary airfield on the grass along Springfield Street.
The airplanes aren’t actual antiques. They’re built to modern standards, some full-scale but many at a slightly smaller scale. Most use modern two-stroke engines that give the planes a distinctive lawnmower sound, but some are powered by small aircraft engines, and a few sport antique rotary engines that give the sound — and the scent, with castor oil fumes in the exhaust — of the real thing.
Paul Weaver’s 3/4-scale S.E. 5 looked the part of the original British fighter, its tail scarred with a row of bullet holes.
"That happened somewhere between Lima and Van Wert," joked Weaver, an electrical supply salesman from Lima. The “holes” were vinyl stick-ons, which several other planes also sported.Dressed in a generic World War I-era Army uniform, Weaver, a civilian pilot who served in the Air Force from 1968 to 1972, said flying the plane and wearing the uniform help keep alive memories of the veterans who fought in World War I.
Many, if not all, of the airplanes at the fly-in are built of metal or wood from modern kits.
Robert Baslee Jr. of Airdrome Aeroplanes in Holden, Mo., showed off the aluminum skeleton of a German Fokker DVII biplane.
"You can purchase a kit, take it home and build it with basic hand tools," Baslee said of the line of German and French replicas he sells. Prices range from $5,000 to $10,000, not including engine, propeller and instruments, he said.
A typical kit-builder paints the finished plane to resemble a specific one from World War I. Some even replicate the uniform of the original plane’s pilot.
"They get very detailed," he said.
Re-enactors mingled with visitors at a camp display that included tents, machine guns, medical equipment and motorcycles.
Sue Fisher of South Orange, N.J., coordinating the re-enactors, was dressed as a Salvation Army worker. But that’s just one of her impersonations, she said.
"Tomorrow I’ll probably be a German nurse," she said.
[From the Dayton Daily News: 09.13.2003]
http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/0913dawnpatrol.html?urac=n&urvf=10636722311860.7605191553095733Thanks Fawnn, for sending me that article. I never get enough airplane stuff.