It hasn't raised much interest in the national news, what with goofball college kids protesting something that most have no idea about taking up all the media time. Meanwhile, another legend of aviation has passed away and gone west, as they say.
Dick Rutan passed away on May 3rd, and I believe he was 85 years old. Dick is the brother of designer Burt Rutan and to most he is most famous for co-piloting the Voyager experimental aircraft in a non stop flight around the world with out refueling, Dick was also an accomplished test pilot and Air Force veteran.
I had the pleasure and good fortune to have met and spoken with Dick on a few occasions at the KidVenture venue at Oshkosh. he was a frequent speaker on the "Heroes Stage" and was a very good speaker and story teller. he would take questions from the kids and give long, interesting answers to the most simple questions. I remember one kid asking him about the Voyager flight, " How did you go to the bathroom ?" and dick turned that into a hilarious 35 or 40 minute story that I can't even begin to remember!! I just remember it was very funny, very kid oriented, and I remember thinking if the piloting gig didn't work out for him any more he had a future with kids books and stories!! He ended the story by actually answering the question, and that was if you go to the Smithsonian and look up at the Voyager from below, you can see a small tube protruding from the bottom and see the yellow stain streaking back from it. I wonder if anyone got that speech on tape?
Another meeting was at the C/L circles. I saw a distinguished looking elderly gentleman all decked out in country/cowboy clothing, white cowboy hat and all. He had a gray beard and mustache with aviator sunglasses on that made me think of Col. Sanders!! I did not immediately recognize that it was Dick Rutan. He watched intently for a while, so I approached him to ask if he had any questions, and he said no, that this was bringing backlots of memories of flying models as a kid. he talked about flying C/L with his brother and what engines and such that they used and I could tell he knew what he was talking about. Then I stepped back a bit and recognized him, and asked if his brother was Burt Rutan , shook his hand and said "Hello Dick!" I offered to let him take a few laps on the trainers but he refused and said the memories were quite enough. We talked about 10 or 15 minuets more and then he had to be moving on to meet some one. He really was a genuinely nice guy to me I have his and Burt's autographs on some KidVenture hats. I have read other articles in magazine about his activities as a Misty pilot, flying Fast FAC missions in F-100 fighters to mark out targets for bombing and flew over 300 missions in that capacity. I'll have to find out what those articles were in and revisit those.
R.I.P. Dick Rutan
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee
Topic: Another Legend Gone West. (Read 1185 times)
