RAFE, How it all began part 2...
- jeniferebibee
- Jul 3
- 5 min read
We follow up on Part 1, where we left off with the official announcement of Rutan Aircraft Flying Experience in at AirVenture 2015...
What happened after you announced RAFE at AirVenture 2015? Did anyone donate an airplane?
"A few months later we got a call from Terry Schubert. His friend Jim Madsen was selling his home on an airpark and didn’t have time to do anything with the LongEZ he built but hadn’t flown in many years. There was no way we couldn't just drop everything and run up to Detroit so I tapped into the network of canard people I’d gotten to know over all these years asking if anyone could help. One thing about canard people, they are a tight group, and it didn’t’ take long before Defiant builder Harry Manvel put together a team, retrieved the LongEZ and stored it in his hangar. A week or so later I picked up a trip that had a Detroit layover and met with everyone on Harry's team and took them out to dinner. It was the first airplane RAFE ever had donated and was a big deal. It made me realize that transportation was always going to be one of our biggest challenges because now we had an airplane a long way from home and were dependent on the hospitality of people to help store it. Thats never changed. We have stuff stashed all over the country even today. A fledgling 501c3 with no real income streams can’t hire shipping companies. We depend on the generosity of others to help and it amazes me still today. "
How does RAFE pay its bills?
"We’ve always struggled to pay our bills but somehow, usually through some miracle, things have worked out. In the Voyager story, Dick Rutan talked about the “magic door”, which sounds like a fairly tail but I’ve learned it’s true. Just when things looked bleak something appeared out of nowhere. A good example was our training airplane, the Speed Canard, it took a FOD hit on its three-bladed MT prop. As all EZ drivers know, anything that comes off your plane goes through the prop. MT props are great, but they’re really expensive to buy and repair. Our Speed Canard is the world’s only FAA Standard Category one in the world. It’s a vital part of our flight school, the Canard Flight Academy. That big ding on the prop shut us down. We shopped around the MT repair stations and the best thing we could find was repair and overhaul for about $5000, which we didn’t have. "
"We could’ve got on social media or GoFundMe or something and asked for help, but we were depressed about the whole thing and the holidays were coming up. During the holidays people get inundated with ads asking to donate to non-profits and we didn’t’ want to be like that so we decided to wait and we’d figure something out. Sometime in December a Christmas card came addressed to RAFE, we've never gotten a Christmas card before. It was from a very good friend and supporter of RAFE. When I opened it there was a check for $5000. Like Dick said, the magic door had opened. How do you thank that person? What’s the appropriate gratitude for something that comes out of nowhere at a time when you think the end is near? A thank you is not enough; a free T-shirt is not enough. It finally dawned on me that the right gratitude is do what you said you’d do; put the donation to use and make the donor proud to have contributed by following through. "
That’s quite a story. Do things like that happen very often?
"This whole journey has been one magic door after another. Our first donated airplane needed work and was still in Michigan so it looked like we'd have nothing new to fly up to AirVenture 2016, nothing really to show for all the hype about RAFE. Then, about a month before Oshkosh I got a call from Mike Brown. He was looking for some way to preserve the legacy of his uncle David Brown and Davids journey building a LongEZ. Someone suggested RAFE. Just when I thought we'd be going to Oshokosh without a flying airplane we had one, and it was in increbilby well done one! "
"I met with Mike Brown, Mrs. Brown and the rest of Davids family and friends, accepted Davids LongEZ into RAFE, got in it flew it direct to AirVenture, with Davids’s ashes in the back. It was his first trip to OSH in the LongEZ he built. 30 years of never giving up on his dreams. "
What do you think the true mission of RAFE is?
"RAFE is about Burt Rutan and the airplanes he designed, but after a while I started to realize those are just the mechanisms we use for the real underlying theme and that's ‘Never give up on your dreams”. The David Brown LongEZ is when I got that epiphany. It took David Brown 30 years to build his. It doesn’t take 30 years to build one, but it took HIM 30 years and what made that possible was he never gave up. Life gets in the way. Jobs, family, finances, all those hurdles have to be overcome and way too often they become the end of that dream. David Brown overcame them and achieved his dream. Burt inspired people with his unique designs. RAFE inspires by sharing the stories of the people that built Burts
unique designs and never gave up on their dreams. People that hear these stories might realize they too could do what David Brown did if they just never give on to their dreams!
Knowing there might be someone out there that simply by crossing paths with RAFE achieved their dream is the ultimate reward for RAFE."
How’s that working?
"Someone must think we're doing things right. Today, we’ve had 12 flying airplanes donated to us. We have more that need restoration. We have unfinished projects, shelves full of parts and materials. None of that compares though to seeing the people that show up with smiles on their faces, energy in their souls and the desire to help. Volunteers are the key to every non-profit. As long as we stay focused on our mission, as long as we keep inspiring people I see a bright future for RAFE."
In Part 3 we'll cover how RAFE has grown and the people that are making it such a success! Thanks for reading!
Jenifer Bibee,
RAFE Social Media Director
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