Sarah meets Dick…Kyle builds an unusual airplane…and mountain fliers in the South 40

Barney and Sarah Rahal

Earlier in the week we met Barney Rahal and his daughter, Sarah. Sarah, now a college senior, has some vivid memories from her earliest visits to the fly-in, when she was less than 10 years old.

"I remember it was a pretty cool experience. We came with my grandpa’s Pietenpol. And he had just finished rebuilding it, so I remember we went and looked at the others. His was the only one I’d ever seen, so he went and showed me the rest of them.

"I remember Sean Tucker; that was pretty neat. I was amazed by what he could do.

"And, I thought the showers were pretty cool. Now I’m not so sure."

One year when Sarah was 9, she and her dad were at the Authors Corner.

"So right as we walked up," says Sarah, "Dick Rutan walked up. I knew who Dick Rutan was from talking to my dad. So Dad goes, ‘Sarah, this is Dick Rutan’ and I say ‘No, that’s not him.’

"And Dick says, ‘You don’t believe I’m Dick Rutan? Who do you think I am?’

"I don’t know, but you’re not Dick Rutan," she says.

They chatted with Rutan for a while, and Sarah finally became convinced her dad was telling the truth.

Sarah’s dad completes the memory. "And then when we parted Rutan said, ‘All right, Sarah, so who am I?’

"And then she stood up straight and she said, ‘You’re Dick Rutan, and you flew nonstop around the world, without refueling, when I was in diapers.’"

Kyle Bitterfield proudly displays his original aircraft design, prototyped in balsa wood at EAA’s KidVenture.

Kyle Bitterfield may well be the next Burt Rutan. On Thursday he was taking advantage of the activities at KidVenture. Not satisfied with simply practicing the basic skills of airplane building, he’s taken the balsa-wood materials and fashioned a radical design that could be right out of science fiction.

"It’s a ship, and the front part is like a tie-fighter. It’s my own design. I didn’t use, like, someone else’s design."

Kyle is a fourth-grader from Atlanta, Georgia; he’s visiting KidVenture with his mom. His family is camping out in the North 40.

When we asked if he had test-flown his plane, he immediately volunteered to test it and sent it sailing across the tent. His evaluation of this first flight: "Perfect!"

Earlier he’d been experimenting with the remote-control aircraft simulators. "That was really fun. You go up slowly. And if you come down too fast, and too low, you will get a flat pancake. I’m not talking diagonal like this, I’m talking flat! The wind actually pushes it down like that…"

Kyle has apparently mastered some aeronautical concepts I’m not familiar with. But his enthusiasm is infectious.

Kyle’s family flies. "In a Mooney, B model," he says with assurance.

"I was asking my dad how much his plane was worth. I was thinking about buying it myself."

Is Kyle planning to be a pilot some day? "I’ve flown since I was 3," he replies. Is he good at it? "Perfect."

Each year, as the crowd of airplanes grows, they are parked further and further down to the south end of the field.

This year parking reached Row 150, well beyond the honorary "Fond du Lac City Limits."

One of the planes way down south is Steve Herrick’s kit-built Northstar.

Steve arrived at the fly-in this year on Tuesday. He, in his Northstar, and his friend Tom, in a Cub, took two days to make the trip from their homes in Kiowa, Colorado. They enjoy taking their time, visiting places off-the-beaten-path on their way here.

This year’s trip was pleasant but uneventful. "Nothing exceptional this year. Just beautiful country and a nice trip. Good weather. All that good stuff."

Steve’s been coming to the fly-in since 1982. What changes has he seen over all those years?

"Looks great to me. It’s different, but hey, there just isn’t anything in the world like it. Nothing stays the same. The main changes I don’t like are right here," he says, patting his belly.

Steve actually likes being parked way down south.

"We usually choose to come down here. It’s quieter. If you’re camping out, you don’t have all the noise."

His Northstar is a Canadian kit-built airplane. "It’s a copy of the Super Cub with a few modifications here and there."

Steve built the plane, finishing it back in 1999. Since then he has "just under a thousand hours" on it.

He has it rigged with very fat balloon tires. That’s to help with the terrain at his private strip back home.

"The grass is not like this grass. It’s eastern Colorado grass. It comes in clumps and bumps, and it’s a whole lot rougher."

Why does he return to AirVenture year after year? "Where in the world can you see all this in one place? For example, I think the little warbird show…that’s just something we’re not going to be able to see much longer."

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