Page 17 - World Airshow News Q3 2024

Left: Ken Rieder in Redline One leads his son Austin In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic shut
in the skies over central Florida. For their airshow down the airshow industry (and most ev-
performance, they switch airplanes because Redline erything else). Unfortunately, during the
One has superior performance for flying in the wing COVID hiatus, Werth was seriously in-
position (photo by The Aviation PhotoCrew). jured in a non-airshow accident, so Ken
again began working on how to move
Below: For the 2021 and 2022 seasons, while Redline forward once airshows resumed
Austin was gaining experience, Ken flew a two-ship in 2021.
performance alongside Adam Baker in his Extra 330 For several years, Ken had envisioned
(photo by Jim Froneberger). his son Austin as his future Redline wing-
man. They had been flying formation to-
gether since not long after Austin earned
exciting wingtip-mounted pyrotechnics. his private pilot license at age 18, but since
Sadly, in the fall of 2018, tragedy struck Austin was still a relatively low time pilot,
when Jon was lost in an accident during Ken knew his son needed time to build
the team’s night performance at an air- the experience to fly formation airshow
show in Culpeper, Virginia. Ken wanted aerobatics.
Redline to continue, so he finished out For the 2021 season, Ken partnered
the season with his solo performance and with aerobatic pilot Adam Baker to fly
began working on finding a new wing- two-ship airshows under the Redline
man for the 2019 season. brand, with Adam flying his Extra 330
Over the offseason, Ken began train- alongside Ken’s RV-8. Ken also offered
ing with former U.S. Navy Super Hornet both daytime and nighttime solo rou-
demo pilot Shaun “Buzz” Roessner, who tines. At the same time, Austin was work-
flew a few shows with Redline in 2019 ing hard under his dad’s tutelage to get the
before a new job prevented Buzz from experience and training he needed to be-
finishing the season. Ken had also done come his dad’s full-time partner.
some off-season training with airshow
performer Billy Werth, so Billy was able LEARNING HIS CRAFt
to jump in and help Ken finish out the Austin had been flying in the back seat
season. of his dad’s RV-8 for as long as he could
We all know what happened next. remember, so it was only natural that,

RV-based formation aerobatic team. Ken
and Jon were natural teammates, as they
had been flying together for over 15 years
from the same small airport in Hamilton,
Ohio near Cincinnati.
Ken and Jon built a fast-paced two-ship
formation aerobatic act and rapidly be-
came one of the most popular formation
teams in North America. By 2015, they
were performing at major airshows like
SUN ‘n FUN and EAA AirVenture. They
also added a full night formation airshow
routine to their offerings, complete with

World Airshow News 17 Quarter 3, 2024