By Angela Satterlee
Rylie Remar is making waves for all young women involved in aviation. She is a 21-year-old woman from Poplar Grove, Illinois, who decided that simply buying a new airplane wasn’t enough — she had to rebuild a 1990 Burt Rutan VariEze (N64HL) and made sure it came to AirVenture with her this year! Her VariEze can be spotted near the Homebuilders Hangar amongst other amazing Rutan aircraft.
Rylie was originally scheduled to fly with the Burt Rutan portion of the air show on Monday, but with AirVenture fast approaching and too many complications, she wasn’t able to get it finished in time. As a last-minute decision, she was made the announcer for the show instead!
At just 2 years old, Rylie went on her first flight with her dad and has been invested in aviation ever since, actively starting flight training back in 2020.
“I’ve just been around aviation my whole life,” she explained. “Both my parents were in the Air Force, and my dad’s been flying for as long as I can remember. And he was the motivating factor for me to get into it, but I didn’t know that I could do it as a career, even though he did.
“When I was applying for colleges, [I thought] ‘I want to do this for the rest of my life.’ I don’t want to be doing math or sitting in a classroom for the rest of my life. I want to be flying.” She started training with her dad in his 1967 Cessna 150G (N8475J) but finished getting her certificate at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where she also got her instrument rating. After graduation, she earned her CFI back home.
After getting used to many trainer airplanes, Rylie realized her airplane needed to be something experimental. “I wanted to buy a plane because I wanted something to work on,” she said. “I love the flying part of aviation, but I also wanted to get involved into the maintenance side.”
She found the perfect aircraft in Michigan less than a year later. Her dad used to own VariEzes before, so she was familiar enough with the design. “I knew it needed work, and I wanted to work on it,” Rylie said. “That was the whole point. I didn’t want to buy a flying airplane.”
Rylie had to overcome many small issues throughout the process, but it was always fun. “You fix one thing, and then you want to fix 10 more things that go along with that one thing, but that’s the whole reason that I bought it, right, is to learn about that and get my hands dirty.
“I’ve learned more in the last three months than I have in an entire lifetime. … I’m just learning how much time and effort and knowledge this takes to get it to where it needs to be safe,” Rylie said. “I’ve been enjoying every single step of the process, and I have learned so much that I’ll probably carry with me for the rest of my life, which I’m very grateful for.”
Most of the restoration process has been undergone in Covington, Tennessee, under the supervision of Jet Guys, owned by Robert Harris. “They have guided me and taught me how to work on my airplane and taught me what I needed to do to get it where it needs to be.”
The Rutan Aircraft Flying Experience (RAFE) also played a major role in assisting Rylie with the rebuild. “The president of RAFE was the one who got me down here and who has just been encouraging me along the way and supporting me. … I couldn’t have done this all on my own. RAFE has taught me how important it is to make sure that people are involved in these aircraft so, that way, the Rutan legacy can stay alive.”
Rylie fell in love with the Rutan design and wants to inspire young women everywhere to get involved in aviation!