Rutan Aircraft Flying Experience had game changing year in 2024. We grew, we flew and we helped EAA create a great experience for Burt Rutan’s visit to AirVenture and the 50th anniversary of the Varieze. Twice now, in 2019 and 2024, we’ve put together a flying demonstration of Burt Rutan’s homebuilt designs that’s only ever been seen at the worlds biggest airshow! We can do that every year, and we can do that at other venues too. Do us a favor, tell EAA you want to see this EVERY YEAR at AirVenture! RAFE is the largest fleet operator of Rutan homebuilt designs in the world and we’re dedicated to keep preserving and promoting these great designs through our airshow presentation.
The airplanes are great, but the most important and biggest component of this organization is our volunteers. Without people to help gather up all the resources needed to make our contribution to Burts AirVenture experience it would’ve never happened. I could write a book about it. Flying the airplanes to OSH was simple. Getting the airplanes ready, not just RAFE’s airplanes but the ones belonging to those volunteering to bring their own particular model needed to complete the presentation, that's a whole chapter in the book.
Riley Remars journey through bringing her Varieze to RAFE and the Jetguys shop in Covington, Tn and spending a month and a half sleeping on a couch while working 14 hours days to get not just her Vareize ready but her too! Riley had never flown a Varieze before this, another chapter of the Rutan Reunion book. RAFE helped Riley get checked out in the Speed Canard and build experience flying borrowed Varieze. She got to experience formation flying and displayed her Varieze on the best spot on EZ Street. Her father, Chuck Remar became a RAFE aircraft Sponsor so he could fly with his daughter in the AirVenture airshow. All those would be chapters in the book. Refresh your memory of all the people it took to make this happen by looking back at our "Meet the Planes and Pilots" series on RAFE's website.
Though AirVenture is where we shine, there’s way more to RAFE though than AirVenture. We have a dozen flying airplanes based in locations scattered across the country not because we don’t have a big enough hangar to keep them all in one place, but because we want these airplanes to reach the largest audience possible. The volunteers of RAFE are what make this little non-profit work. Volunteerism and donations IS what keeps RAFE going. Hangar rents need to be paid. Parts need to be purchased. Fuel is bought to fly the planes and all of that comes from donations, mostly internally from the RAFE Volunteers themselves and a little from outside sources. We have no big corporate sponsor, (though we could really use one!) The most valuable thing the volunteers donated though is their TIME.
An undeniable truth is if you don’t have a fun place to hang around, Volunteers won’t hang around. The airplanes might be cool, but if the hangar is hot, or cold, if it’s just uncomfortable to work in, no ones going to come work. The Ellington Canard Base volunteers in Houston, Texas know this too well. Summer heat in Houston can make the RAFE EFD hangar over 100 degrees in almost 100 % humidity. With the workload of keeping the fleet flying, restoring airplanes and just simple things like having a meeting, the RAFE EFD members rolled up their sleeves and did something never done before in the t-hangars at Ellington Spaceport. They made an airconditioned workshop and office/meeting room. Watch the video below and see RAFE Volunteers in action!
This has become a game changer! Since it’s “EZ” to remove the wings and canard, in less that 30 minutes RAFE EFD Volunteers can move an EZ fuselage into the airconditioned workshop and do a condition inspection, engine work, avionics or whatever is needed in air-conditioned comfort. Upstairs is an air-conditioned room where people can relax, meet, read books from our Rutan library and admire what few artifacts we have of Rutan airplane history. We hope to keep acquiring more so the EFD Canard Base has become our first step towards a true Rutan museum.
The project started on October 1 and finished about mid-November. Everyone helped in some fashion. This was a true grass roots effort. RAFE Volunteers built this and since no one wants to take it down, it seems RAFE is here to stay at Ellington Spaceport, Houston Texas. Come visit! Come Volunteer! Come Fly with us!
Ryszard Zadow
Founder and President, RAFE