Ares Games

Ramblings Over the Front

Dawn Patrol Rendezvous Recap

Rating: 3 votes, 5.00 average.
There are a SLEW of pictures found in this album: http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/album.php?albumid=3126



I believe I have recovered sufficiently enough to put together a bit of a summary of my experiences of the recent Dawn Patrol, held at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Overall, it was a great weekend. The weather cooperated with cool morning temps and wispy clouds that changed into warm temps and good breezes in the afternoon. This made for some great flying conditions.


While I only live an hour from the museum, I decided to stay at a local hotel (so local I could see the museum grounds) on both Friday and Saturday evenings. This made it super convenient and took away two hours of driving each day. On Friday evening a few of us enjoyed World of Tanks (the boardgame version ) and Command and Colors at The Game Haven, which is also within sight of the museum grounds, before calling it an evening.

The alarm clock seemed to arrive early Saturday morning, but I lifted my carcass out of bed, threw on my running clothes, and took a two mile jog into Eastwood MetroPark and back. There is a bike trail that runs directly behind the hotel, again making an easy situation for me to take advantage of. After a shower I jumped in the car, grabbed some breakfast, and headed to the rendezvous. There were a decent amount of cars already parked in the large field west of the show area. Walking in to the show area, the first displays encountered of those of the various reenactment groups present. Americans, Brits, French, and Germans were there with their tents, displays of equipment and weapons, and other related period items.

The opening ceremonies took place at 9:00 with a flyover by the Wright Flyer and a car show of vintage vehicles.




Moving further into the show area to the left were the aircraft, both full scale and reduced scale works of art that were built after hours of hard work. I will not try to name all the types present, but the Sopwith Pup, Nieuport 11/17, and Fokker Dr.I and D.VII are the popular airframes that most of the owners choose to build. My personal faves were probably the not-yet ready to fly Nieuport 28 (that was for sale) and an S.E.5.a, along with a sweet Eindecker. The Curtiss Jenny also made it into the air.


To the right were the vendors, and a good variety were present. Book dealers, aviation art, clothes, and even models and toys gave the buyer plenty to choose from. I scored some excellent deals on some books, and the gents from Over the Front were selling back issues of their excellent publication for a measly $5.00 per copy. In the middle of the vendor row was the speaker tent, and the lineup was amazing. Jack Herris, **** Bennett, Greg Van Wyngarden, Jon Guttman, and others, gave hour long talks on a variety of subjects ranging from naval aviation to Oswald Boelcke to the 1918 German fighter competition to post war German aviation during the Freikorps period. Alas, the speakers were also in the same tent as the boisterous Wings of War crowd, which made it difficult to hear the speaker at times, but Cappy Tom and crew were engaging an entire new world of non-gamers to the Wings of War genre, and their tables were always busy with fresh faces.


At the far end of the show are were the food trucks and then the RC planes, and there were some amazing models in all sorts of scales present. I think I saw three or four scales of aircraft, up to a monster Gotha with a twelve foot wingspan!

The show itself was a mix of full scale aircraft flying in two hour blocks interspersed with RC flying. The entire show was MCd by Stephen Sinner, who wrote the definitive account of Frank Luke's final flight in his book The Stand. Mr. Skinner has an excellent speaking voice and added greatly to the atmosphere. I picked up his supplemental work on Luke and DVD.

Saturday evening was spent at The Game Haven where six of us played two games of Wings of War. In the second game we allowed the monsters to come out, so there was a Gotha and a Caproni on the table at the same time. Well, that didn't last long as the Gotha, on what I think was its first damage card, drew the dreaded BOOM!

On Sunday I arrived again at 8:30, but the crowd was far smaller and I was able to park in the first row. By the way, based on how they have the show area laid out, one never really feels like it was crowded as there is plenty of open space between the flight line and the vendors area. Anyway, I stayed until a bit after noon, and headed home.

All in all, a great weekend, and the Wings of War boys did an excellent job representing the game. I hope to see an increased presence in 2016!

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Comments

  1. kduke42's Avatar
    The Buckeye/WoW group did indeed do a fine job. I took some pix and will post this week. The best part was seeing how many young people, both boys and girls, they managed to involve.
    Future gamers!

    If anyone knows Stephan Skinner, nudge him that the the "FE" in FE2 does not stand for "fighter experimental."
  2. Skullduggery's Avatar
    This was my first trip to Dawn patrol and the museum. Wow so much to see and do in only 2 days.
  3. Smitch's Avatar
    Great summary and photos, Darryl. This year's event was indeed splendid and the weather was very nice, although I got a bit sunburned. The evening gaming was icing on the cake! I'm already looking forward to the next rendezvous in 2016.
  4. milcoll73's Avatar
    awesome blog daryl! really shows what fun event it was. i really had fun at the game haven as well (even with the big boom).
  5. Blackronin's Avatar
    Awesome, Daryl! Lovely all around. Thanks!
  6. RickMartin's Avatar
    Nice recap! Well done!
  7. 7eat51's Avatar
    Thanks for sharing.

    Sue and I had a wonderful time with everyone.