He’s been flying for 32 years with more than 10,000 flying hours.
He’s a former corporate and airline pilot.
He was inspired to take up flying after seeing a performance by the US Navy Blue Angels.
The man we are talking about is Mr. Ken Rieder.
Ken spoke with us about his career in aviation.
Q - Is it safer to perform in an experimental aircraft as you do as opposed to a plane that’s been refurbished or rebuilt?
A - Wow! That’s a question I’ve never received before.
Q -What’s the advantage of doing it your way?
A - Let’s see, how do I answer that? First of all there’s T-6’s that are considered experimental, but, experimental is kind of a vague term. So, a home built airplane would probably be a better directed question for a purpose built. So, the RV-8 that I fly, I built. I’ve built four of them. So, I know the airplane inside and out. I know the weak spots on the airplane. I feel better about knowing that rather than sending out an airplane that was factory built or still experimental but built by somebody else. From that side of it that’s my advantage personally. I can also because it’s an experimental airplane that I built I can modify it for our fireworks night shows. These airplanes let’s just say are reasonably modified for a firing system and the delivery system for that. Safer? I can’t define safer. I would have to say it’s the same as the factory built certified airplanes. Now, the MX’s are experimental. Even some of the X Trans you can buy a certified version or an experimental version which usually has some different propeller on it or different engine combination. Something like that, that would be labeled as experimental. Safer? The same would be the answer to that.
Q - You’re a former corporate and airline pilot. What airlines did you fly for?
A - I’m currently at Spirit Airlines in the A-320. Part of that I flew with DHL. I was flying a DC-8. I also flew CR-J’s for American, Eagle and PSA Airlines. I flew Kings Air on the corporate side of things. A little bit of jet time for a couple of companies, but really that was just contract work.
Q - When we talk about corporate work, you flew executives from the company around the country?
A - Really I flew for one specifically. I flew for a couple of but one specifically was Miami University out of Ohio. I flew the president of the University most of the time but it was also people in positions at the University, doctors for football games sometimes. And the development department, if I saw it listed it meant it was for fundraising. (Laughs). So, we were flying somewhere for them to raise some money.
Q - Are you talking about Miami University out of Oxford, Ohio?
A - It is. I used to live in Oxford. I actually was hired there as a flight instructor and use to teach when they had a flight department or when they had a flight program for students. So, I did some instruction there. That immediately turned into one of the guys teaching one of the physics courses left the University and so I was hired to teach basic aerodynamics 101 through the physics department there in a night class. And, that’s what I did. I went into airline flying soon thereafter. I had to stop teaching there. Two of my kids went there. And, they sold their airplane about a year and a half ago and that’s was kind of the end of the job.
Q - You’re telling me the University is out of flying?
A - Yup. The University got completely out of flying. I think right now they’re even selling the airport. They own the airport and I think they’re looking to sell that. Bean counters. Why they do things I don’t know. (Laughs). They did change University presidents about two years ago (2017), maybe three years ago (2016) now. But, when the new president came in he didn’t fly nearly as much and didn’t like the King Air. He felt it was too small. He felt better in a big airline jet type of thing. I did hear that they contract out some business jets now and then.
Q - Your interest in flying came about because you saw the Blue Angels. Is that right?
A - Yeah.
Q - The Blue Angels do those shows in part as a recruitment tool. But, you didn’t join the Navy did you?
A - I tried to back in the 80s. They didn't take in any new classes of pilots for a number of years because of defense cutbacks of the era. And, for me there was a little bit too much risk in my career. At the time I was a new pilot. I had my pilot’s license; I was in the Air Force ROTC. There was a chance I could get a flight slot in there. They canceled all their flight slots also. The Army was the only one taking helicopter pilots but not very many. So, I just said all right I’m just going to do it the private way. But, my mom and dad used to take me to the airshow. I don’t have anybody in the family who’s a pilot other than the ones I’ve taught to fly. At the time I was completely out in left field that I wanted to fly. (Laughs). But, my mom and dad were all about getting me toy airplanes, taking me to the Blue Angels watching them fly F-4’s. So, this is back in the early 70s. I still very much remember the impression they made on my world at the time going I want to do something like that. I never at the time thought I’d fly airshows. All though my growing up I learned how to fly at Marine airport just south of Dayton. Harold Johnson, Daryl Montgomery and Billy Brown and Billy Brunz were flying shows. A lot of those guys would team up for a two ship. Every night. All summer long. So, just getting my license there and getting my first aerobatic flight the day I soloed in an airplane, I just rode a long, but I was hooked. Even at that time I never thought I’d end up flying airshows till later on when somebody asked me to do it. I was given a lot of aerobatic flight instruction to guys in the early 2000’s. Then somebody said you ought to think about airshow flying. I’d go I’d love to do it, but, I’m not qualified. I never thought I was ready.
Q - Well, what were you doing before you were a pilot?
A - UPS driver. Can you believe that?
Q - Hard to believe. The career moves people make. How long were you a UPS driver?
A - 14 years
Q - That’s a long time!
A - I got the job when I was in college. So, 18 years old. I turned down doing a UPS driver a couple of times until I finished college. Then it was like I can do this. I don’t know where the military flying is taking me and I need money to go fly. I bought a Cessna 172. So, I started driving at UPS and had my family. I got my first interview for a job. I was going to fly freight in a DC-3 and I found out I had a brain tumor. Can you believe that? I was 30 years old. Three kids. I built my own house. Me literally swinging the hammer. I thought I’m finally going to leave UPS and I found out I had a brain tumor and I had to have surgery, but, I couldn’t get a first-class medical for five years. So, I didn’t actually get into professional flying until really I was 35.
Q - After you got the all clear could you have started flying the UPS cargo planes?
A - I could have and actually when I first left UPS they told me it’s very competitive but you should go to a regional airline and fly with them for a while and come back. So, I did just that. I left directly from UPS and went to fly CRJ’s and thinking I might have a window in and every time I try to do something with UPS it just didn’t work out for me. I never got a reply. To this day I’ve never gotten a reply. UPS kind of dropped off my radar many, many years ago. That was my plan to leave and come back as a pilot. So, I went and flew regional for a while. I was applying at UPS and not getting a reply and DHL did reply to me. And, at the time DHL pilots were paid better than UPS pilots. So, I said all right I’m on it and took a job with DHL until the airline closed for me because it turned into an airline that was a subcontractor for DHL and eventually they went out of business. When they went out of business I kind of got out of flying for the airlines. I was still flying the King Air for the University but I let the airlines go for a few years and then went back to PSA. They were initially going to hire me to help with contracting with the airshows side of things. Then that disappeared. Then here I am going through training at Spirit.
Q - How much work is there for your show?
A - There is a lot of work. A whole lot. The daytime airshow is just training. The nighttime airshows are just work. For me to get prepared for a day show with my wing man in the beginning of the season we need to run through the practice maybe a dozen times just to get our timing back down. Every winter my personal desk changes. When the season ends my timing is right on. I feel very comfortable coming all the way down to the surface and pulling right up into a maneuver five or 10 feet off the ground. But in the spring that comfort level kind of goes away. You’re looking straight at the ground at 600 feet, pulling out of a maneuver that perspective is different. You kind of have to work your mental deck down to where you’re comfortable again, and get year G tolerance back up again to. Because your kind of getting away from it. You’re pulling 4, 5, 6 G’s the first time and it doesn’t feel the same the way it did in the fall.
Q - Do you perform strictly in the United States?
A - No. We do fly the Caribbean, Canada and down in Central America. We’ve done all of those.
Q - Most of the airshow performers I’ve spoken to notice a decline in winter bookings.
A - This year were doing one show in the Dominican Republic on February 2 (2020). If I wasn’t in training I probably would have done another show in Tampa Bay, Florida. They asked me to do a show there. Every other year I and up with the show in the middle of winter. We did coaster Rica a few years back and Acapulco and then will do a show in very, very South Texas, down in Colorado. We did that. It was Valentine’s Day when we did that show.
Q - Are airshows increasing in popularity as you see it?
A - I would have to say they are not. I would say they did increase after sequestration disappeared. So, they did come up. I’d say they’ve probably leveled off now or may be decreasing in popularity a little bit. The crowds at a number of shows are very good, but the number of shows that are actually being performed is less each year. I just don’t think there’s is many shows. Small shows out there seem to be disappearing. The number of small shows that use to call me in need me to come by and fly has really dropped off. When I say small show I’m talking about 5000 or less attendees. It’s just the expense. Airshows are expensive to put on. With the new 8900 rules that are in place I think there’s more requirements and more expenses involved. Everything from fire and rescue to air boss requirements and security requirements. They try to get volunteers to do some of that stuff. The new performers coming in are not finding it as easy to find a smaller show. I had two shows this year (2019) canceled because they couldn’t meet the new FAA rules and I don’t think those two shows will ever come back
Q - And it always helps when the Blue Angels or Air Force Thunderbirds are part of the airshow.
A - To have a good crowd you got to have some name acts in there. Redline is fairly popular but we can’t hold a candle to the advertising machine that the Navy puts on. So, got to have the big-airshow teams to make a dent in it which is why sequestration crushed the airshow industry back eight years ago (2011). It was really hard. A lot of people left the airshow business forever because it didn’t make sense. Were any shows hiring. A lot of shows canceled. We think the most of those teams. Their advertising just boosts everything. Until your flying airshows with the Blue, the Thunderbirds, the Snowbirds and the like, until you get into that level of flying, you know you’ve reached that up or tear, that upper-level to be invited to fly at the same shows.
Q - You call your airshow Redline. What does that mean?
A - Okay so my partner passed away a year ago (2018), a little over a year ago. He and I kind of built the Redline brand. He was an airshow pilot and actually got me a job at DHL back in the day. That’s before we were flying airshows. I was teaching him how to fly formation aerobatics and tight formation. He was a natural at it. Long story short, we were with another team flying together and he went to that team before I did. He kind of recruited me to come over to that team. That’s when I got into the airshow world and started flying. Him and I immediately kind of split off because the team was based out of South Carolina and were in Cincinnati just the two of us so we were practicing together a lot. It was like maybe we could do a couple shows five ourselves and it’ll help the big team and we started getting hired more and more as just Redline. The name redline came from Jon flying and airline jet descending into Miami with the jump seat or two pilots in the front. A jump cedar is a guy riding along trying to get to work or go home from work. He was sitting in the seat behind us riding along. He might not even be employed by the airline. So, he had a jump seater in their descending into Miami and John got the airplane up real fast. When you get to redline there’s a clacker that will go off to let you know that you’re there. Click, click, click, click, click. You turn off the clicker and pull the thrust levers back just a pinch just to get it below that but you’re still going really fast, going as fast as you can to get to where you’re going. John reached over and pulled the thrust levers back as the clicker was going off and he pulled it back quite a bit. So he starts slowing down by 10, 20 knots. The jump seater was asleep but after the clicker went off he woke up. He leans forward and says, John, John remember redline is the goal. It’s not the limit. He wanted to get to Miami as fast as he could. (Laughs). Anyway, it’s stuck in John’s head so basically redline is flying right to the edge of what you can do but not going past it, flying to the best ability that you and your airplane can do in getting the most out of your performance.
Q - You own a property management company and the construction business. Well now, that’s about as far away from aviation as you can get isn’t it?
A - Yeah It kind it is.
Q - That’s a separate skill. How did you get involved in that business?
A - When I was a young guy my uncle was in the construction business and I needed a job right out of high school to help pay for college. So, I worked there. It started out I was just going to work there for summer and I worked there for a couple years when I was in college. I worked there and I worked at UPS. It just was the way life had to be back then. I had college to pay for. So, I was working two jobs as much as I could. And, I learned the business from him. I never walked away from the business. My cousins are involved in it. Through all of us staying together we took turns building each other’s house. Plus I was working doing everything from building decks to kitchen remodels on the side while I was at UPS. I used that money to put the cash together to build my first RV-8. That kind of fueled that. When I left UPS to go to the airlines it was a huge paycheck. I used the construction business to supplement that income. My reputation started going up. So, I got more and more work. At one point when DHL decided they were going to close and go out of business and I had about a two-year notice that that was going to happen I decided to ramp up the construction business and start buying a lot of rental property and started managing all the rental property. Then it just kept growing. I still have both companies my sons are taking over the construction company with a partner of mine and that’s kind of running more and more on its own. I’m still kind of the lead salesman but I don’t go out in the field very much if at all anymore. The property management my sons are doing all the maintenance on the property so I can go fly, (laughs), is what it amounts to.
Q - Full circle.
A - Yeah, full circle.
Q - A man of many talents.
A - The difference between construction which I really enjoy; every time I do a job it’s a different thing. The general construction roles apply but everything you do on the job is very custom. I don’t build homes. I do high end remodeling for kitchens and room additions are our mainstay but we do bathrooms now and then. Generally higher end work. That is super satisfying and then you walk away from there and you go fly an airshow it’s a totally different mindset, but I love the two of them. I don’t know which one I should focus on.
Q - If you can keep on doing both then keep on doing both.
A - That’s it! That’s the plan for now.
