Dee Ann Ediger (Oklahoma)

Ken & I with our Kitfox

After flying with my husband for 23 years I finally asked him if maybe taking ground school would help me understand more of what was going on in the cockpit.  He got me a weekend  groundschool course for Christmas shortly after that.  After studying, I decided it would be interesting to see if I could pass the written test — and scored well enough that it gave me the confidence to take flying lessons.  Started lessons in May 2006, soloed in June, and passed the checkride in July.  Been having a blast ever since.  Ken, hubby, though complains now that his flying time has gone down because now he has to share time with me on the cross country flights.

In addition to the Kitfox (ours), we have a 1972 Cessna Skylane (his), and my 1968 Cessna Cardinal. We’re based out of our 2600′ grass farm strip 6 miles east of Woodring, Enid, Oklahoma, but maintain a hangar at KWDG so that we have one plane on hard surface in case the weather has our grass soggy.

The panel of the Kitfox is stuffed with every instrument Ken could fit in

An advantage of flying the Kitfox off the home strip is that there is hardly any field condition that it can’t handle because it’s so light.  Takeoff roll is 300-400 feet, it’s extremely light on the controls, and Ken says if you can keep the Kitfox straight and level you can fly anything.  He laughs at accomplished pilots who get in and have the plane all over the place because of how light the controls are.

The grass strip contrasts with the ripened corn or wheat during mid-summer.

Last year we mentored a friend’s 18-yr-old daughter through her pilot training process and saw her pass her checkride last summer.  She’s hoping to make aviation a career.  That was an extremely rewarding experience that everyone who loves flying should strive to have!

Kitfox in front of our home hangar

We have an annual EAA fly-in here at our grass strip in September and it’s the perfect place for taildraggers.  Everything from light twins to helicopters have been known to attend.