What a fun, busy week so far at AirVenture 2023!
Today RAFE was at the airport at sunrise for a dawn patrol formation flight. One way of supporting our mission to preserve and promote Rutan homebuilt designs is to keep them out in front of the public. Being the “wake up call” for all our friends camping at OSH is a great way to do that!
RAFE Vice President Brian McKinney and I hosted a Homebuilts in Review session about Canard aircraft. The talk spanned subjects from mold-less composite construction, to buying a used canard, performance and all the different types of canards.
This year OSH is hot, literally. Temps have been reaching into the 90’s. That hasn’t deterred RAFE volunteers to stand duty beside our airplanes and interact with Pilots and the Public about Rutan design. The Speed Canard has been a big hit especially when Pilots find out they can come to RAFE to get a chance to get some experience flying a tandem seat Canard in a safe, dual control training environment. RAFE’s Canard Flight Academy is about to get busier than it's ever been! We really need more CFI’s with Canard experience!
RAFE's has become a huge success but ironically, that creates an interesting problem, RAFE has become a huge success! The purpose for every aircraft that gets donated to us is to support our mission, but every aircraft we get donated to us also needs a hangar, needs parts, needs maintenance, insurance and fuel no different than any other airplane out there. And when they break, they need repairs. Like all 501c3 non-profits we exist on volunteerism and donations. Please get involved, volunteer and donate to our G0FundMe to help get the VarViggen fixed .
Thank you for your continued support.
Ryszard Zadow
Founder and President,
Rutan Aircraft Flying Experience