Ken Rieder and his son Austin Rieder, of Redline Airshows, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about this weekend’s show.
The NAS Key West Southernmost Air Spectacular will be this weekend.
Ken said, “We’re just a few miles north here in Florida, so we should be down there later on today. Really looking forward to the show. We’re based in Cincinnati. Took off yesterday and flew most of the way down here. Right now we’re in Lakeland, Florida, but we’ll be leaving here in the next couple hours, and beautiful weather down there. We are really looking forward to the show.”
Redline Airshows is one of the featured performers at the air show this weekend.
Ken said, “We’re both flying what’s called the Van’s aircraft RV8. It is an aircraft that we built. I’ve built a few of them. They’re a kit airplane. They fly around 200 knots, which is about 230 miles an hour. For our air show, we go everywhere from 230 mile an hour all the way down to, quite honestly, zero. It takes about three years to build this kit, but they’re two seats, all aluminum airplanes. They have a conventional aircraft engine in them. It took us about four hours to get to where we’re at today, and it’ll be about one hour to get to you guys here in the next couple hours. It carries about four and a half, five hours of fuel, depending on how you manage and how fast you want to go. They’re very nice airplanes. We fly them all over this part of the world.”
Why did the Rieders pick that airplane?
Ken said, “It’s a very reliable airplane. The way it’s designed, it’s very strong. It has a large bubble canopy which gives us excellent visibility for all the formation maneuvers we do and it’s an all around great airplane. It’s not the ultimate aerobatic airplane and it’s also not a homeowner, small little, put around airplane. So it kind of matches everything really good for traveling because, the show we flew last week was all the way out in Arizona. So we go very far distances for the shows.”
Austin is known as the wing pilot.
He said, “I would say it’s exactly like a wing man. I’m there to make him look good in any way. My dad created this routine 15 odd years ago, and we’ve been flying it ever since. So this will be my fourth season in the air show industry, and his other wingman prior to that, they ran the same routine, so it was really good for me to see it fly the same way before and then pick it up and teach it to me.”
Ken said, “We modified the show a little bit. Austin, he’s just got a little extra talent for it. I taught him how to fly, and I taught him to show and everything, but it’s really something that a pilot has to kind of have in their back pocket, their talents, to actually perform like this. This isn’t something that just every pilot could go I had the right training. I could do it. There’s something extra to it.”
How old was Austin when he first got interested in flying?
Ken said, “We did an interview a couple of years ago, and they asked him, Austin, when was the first time you did a loop or a roll? And he looked at the interviewer and said, I don’t know. I don’t remember when I did it. I’ve been doing it for so long, I was so little when I started.”
Austin said, “I started flying gliders when I was 12, and then transitioned to powered airplanes when I was 16. I’ve been riding in the back seat of the RV8, specifically, since I can remember, barely remember, honestly, and then as soon as I soloed, and probably a year later, my dad put me in the front of the RV8, and it kind of began the training, the aerobatic lessons, the little bit of formation, maybe coming a little bit closer up, get us to a formation loop now and then turn into what it is today.”
What will the show be like this weekend?
Ken said, “We are a close formation Aerobatic Team. We’re kind of more of a, I’m going to call it a ballet in the sky. So we’re doing opposing and inverted maneuvers. It is tight formation. He is looking at me the whole time while we’re doing the maneuvers. My job is to kind of set up the pace of the show, the placement of the show, and his job is to match everything I do. Everybody’s going to really enjoy it. It’s different than a solo maneuver, because we do have to work very closely as a team and kind of be in each other’s heads to understand what’s coming next and the small, minute adjustments that have to be made while we’re flying.”
Is any of it improvised?
Ken said, “As Austin mentioned a little bit earlier, we developed this routine and we fly it strictly the same way every time. So before we actually fly, if you’re anywhere near us, you’ll see us do what we call a walk through or dirt dance. So we walk the whole routine. It’s just like the Blue Angels do. Every maneuver is choreographed, thought through. We have to know what to expect, wind conditions and weather conditions are going to change for us, but we have to know how we’re going to compensate for all of that. So there is no improvisation in the show whatsoever. It is all set in stone. We practice this before the season starts, and then during the year. This year, we’re flying 24 shows all over the country and if there is any gap in time, we go practice it again. Because, well, quite honestly, we kind of look at it that to keep sharp for it, we have to do a lot of repetitive practice with this. So, yeah, no improvisation whatsoever in it. Everything you’re going to see, you’ll be able to compare it to another show, only we’re going to do it better down there.”
What inspired Ken to start flying?
He said, “My parents aren’t pilots. They have nothing to do with aviation, but they used to take me to the air shows, and the first air show I remember very well. I was probably five years old, and it was the Blue Angel flying in Cincinnati, flying F4’s, that’s back in the early 70s. After watching them fly, I couldn’t put the thought away, model airplanes, bigger airplanes, learning to fly. I joined the Civil Air Patrol as a young kid. Then as soon as I was able to start flight lessons, I jumped on it. Oddly enough, I didn’t know that I was going to be, I didn’t have plans to be an air show pilot. I just had plans to fly. Somewhere in there, early on, I flew with a friend doing aerobatics, and that was it. I said, that’s the direction I want to go, now, how do I get to the air shows? It’s a long track, but I really love it.”
Austin said, “Back in Cincinnati, we own a contracting company together, and he’s my dad and my flight lead, so sometimes I’ve got to ask him which hat he’s wearing when we’re having conversations. But it is a very special bond. When you say your dad can be your best friend, it is a huge possibility with how much time we spend together. I mean, I spend more time with him than I do with my fiancée and him with me than my mom.”
Have they talked with the Blue Angels pilots?
Ken said, “I definitely have. Over the years we’ve actually got the chance to fly with them in formation. What an honor. Those guys, the training they go through and the spark in their eyes when you’re talking to them about the flying and techniques, and we can kind of talk the same language, formation language. I hope everybody enjoys the show, and please come by and say hi if you see us walking around there. I can’t wait.”
For more information, click here: https://www.redlineairshows.com/