RK’s Pfalzhood

The Conquerer Revisits the Conquered

There she is. I hadn’t seen her in over a year, but she looked well fed and happy. She said she’s being treated very well. I’m glad even though she did cause me pains and travails!

full o' beef and beans

One more Antique Aero Bar-b-q has come and gone. The invitation arrived weeks ago, but I see-sawed, hemmed and hawed and generally fretted and vacillated about how to answer the RSVP. The wider economy and our personal budget considerations had us waffling. Then a couple of original paintings sold! Hurray! It looked good. We missed last year’s event because a plumbing disaster required a (gasp!) professional and that ate the trip budget. I was depressed for weeks- this is THE air event for lovers of ancient flying machines. So this year we were determined to make it. And we did!
We headed out of north Orange County on the 250mile+ trip Friday about 12:30. We successfully slogged through the greater Los Angeles snake pit, then out through the Valley, whizzing toward the coast. We cast a glancing eye over at the Camarillo Airport and took note of C-46 “China Doll” sunning herself. We finally reached the big, bad Pacific, zoomed through Santa Barbara, floated through the misty coastal mountains, then made the inland cut. After four hours and nineteen minutes it was engine off at the Adelaide Inn in Paso Robles. It had been the smoothest trip ever, and in record time. We’ve never made this jaunt in under five hours. We checked in, went to our room, opened the door and said “Allright!!!”. A very nice room!
The next morning we got up bright and early and headed out to the Paso Robles airport where the party was going to be. But alas, we were not early enough. Nor apparently bright enough either……One highlight of this event is that they fly some of the antique airplanes when the weather allows. This year, the “star” flyer was going to be a Bleriot monoplane in honor of the 100th anniversary of the first flight across the English Channel- made by…Louis Bleriot….in a Bleriot monoplane! Well, earlier that morning I had stuck my head out the door of our room and thought “hmmm…. it doesn’t look too good for flying right now- too breezy”. So we dawdled. It was nearly 10:30 when we pulled up to the airport. Arggghhhh!!!! As we were checking into the party and successfully passing the dreaded “Let’s see if you’re on the list” hurdle, we heard the absolutely unmistakable sound of a snarly belching Gnome rotary engine. A most beautiful cacophony, an aural time machine speaking from 1918. Look up! There’s a Nieuport 28 zipping around, its Gnome engine like a dragon with heartburn. BUT- Oh NO! That means they’re doing the flying early and we’re barely out of the car and getting ourselves organized. The Nieuport landed as we headed into the party, the smell of bbq wafting all around. We claimed our nifty name buttons, took a look around and let the bedazzlement of it all soak in for a minute. A short time later, I saw Chuck Wentworth, the magician of Antique Aero, and the host of the goings on. He told me we had missed the Big Deal! The Bleriot is a skittish thing and he said they had flown it earlier when the breeze was more calm. So, as I said previoisly, we were neither early enough nor bright enough. BUT- the rest of the day was still ahead…..
Much of the southern end of California was socked in so this year many of the regulars couldn’t fly up to Paso Robles so the warbird attendance was down. Nevermind- there was still enough to do and see, and folks to talk to. One hangar was stabling a herd of various Nieuport fighters. There was pretty little 11 done up Imperial Russian style, a 17 and a 24bis. Antique cars and motorcycles were scattered all over. Among the good folks to visit with were the guys from Antique Aero- always a hoot to talk to.
About “noonish” the lunch call went out. We got in line and loaded up on great Central Coast bbq’ed bovine (or chicken should one prefer…), and all the good things that go with such a feast. The food was so good (as always)that it was almost worth the trip just for that.
That Wentworth guy…man, he knows how to do things right!
While still fighting off the post-lunch sleepies, WW I collector, pilot and all around good guy Javier Arango came over and invited us to what I’ll call “Magic Land”. A caravan would be forming in a little bit so I said a few goodbyes at the party and away we went. In the next few minutes our rental car turned into a time machine. Heading out through a rip in all known dimensions we emerged onto a plateau from another era.
( for more information about this magic place, see AOPA Pilot magazine
from either March or April 2009….. I’ve lost the exact issue citation!)A large grass field, and hangars full of WW I airplanes. I won’t say much about what we saw, only that to see what we saw, get your hands on a copy of Ghosts of the War by Phil Makanna. It’s a beautiful book of Phil’s photographs of this marvelous collection.See
www.ghosts.com
One airplane not in that book is the collection’s newest baby- a brand new, immaculate SPAD XIII French fighter. It seemingly walked through the same time hole we did…. I’m trying to convince myself that I actually know it was really built in Texas by Roger Freeman and his crew. Bits and peeks popped up on the web as it was being born, and it’s even more breath taking face to face, or rather face to radiator. It’s strange aluminized paint pulls the same optical tricks similar paint did in 1918.
BUT- the “time” had come, ahead of us we still had what we thought would be a five hour drive home. Sadly exiting back to the “real” world and emerging from the other end of the time hole, we caught the road home, happily still full of good bbq, but sad at leaving all the magic in Paso Robles and surrounding territory.
A last note……five hours? Hah! Some of that time travel stuff must’ve clung to the car…engine off in our driveway after 3 hours and 49 minutes!
And as always…the hard sell- check into our big “gotta go, dump’em now” sale on originals- yep originals. Genuine real harboard panels that I’ve personally bespattered with pigment. E-mail and ask about any “two-fer” deals I might spontaneously erupt with. Help keep another “starving artist’ and his loony wife in their house! Make her happy with less clutter on the walls (and floors)! Make it possible for us to go to “Magic Land” again!

It’s been a bit since the last rant. This time- no real rant, just good stuff.

First off, for anybody and everybody on the East Coast of the USA, head out this weekend, May 16 &17 to the Warbirds Over the Beach air show in Virginia Beach, Virginia. While there, check out the Great War Aerodrome display. Aside from all sorts of fine, fine things there to pique your interest in antique aviation, you can see a little display of my work, courtesy of the good folks of the Aerodrome.

The appropriate sites for more information:

Meanwhile, keep your eyes peeled on my site. I’m not sure what she’s up to, but 3 feet away, my wife is mysteriously clacking and typing away. I’m not sure what she has in store- literally. She’s mumbling something about a “fire sale”. I’m not sure what that might amount to- we’ve not had a fire. Maybe she’s refering to the backlog of old work that’s built up and needs to be gotten rid of. I don’t know, maybe she’s threatening to burn it. Could be she’s only planning some…..uh….more “normal” type of offer. She runs the site and (usually) has better ideas about how to flog this stuff than I do.

On other fronts, I’m still slogging, plodding, sometimes hopping and dancing along on the Williams Brothers Golden Age race plane series of box tops for their 1/32 kits. AND speaking of Williams Brothers- I’ll mention it again…..the originals I’ve done for the company so far are available. S0 step right up and buy a piece of model airplane history- here’s your chance to own an original acrylic-on-hardboard painting that’s appeared all over the world on box tops and in ads and who knows what other venues…….

Yessir Ladies and Gents- ORIGINAL paintings of the C-46, Seversky P-35 and F9C Sparrowhawk. Be the envy of your neighbors. Force small children to look at them and be scared( and challenge them to find the Yeti in the C-46 painting). The next time your strange cousin brings up his collection of  fish bones snagged from celebrity garbage cans, you can point to your airplane-infested wall and say “OH YEAH?- check THESE out!!!!”

Head over to the site and give them a look. If you have ANY questions at all, shoot me an e-mail.

Well, I’m heading to off to eat potato chips and drink more coffee

Robert

bulletin! This just in- a couple of hours after I wrote the above, she whipped up a page explaining and demonstrating the Willimas Brothers original acrylics….click that little “new” box at the top!