Giving Flight To Dreams

When I called Rusty Bliss to ask him if he’d be willing to have me interview him for all of Fayette County to read about, he chuckled then said, “I’m not that interesting. I just cut the grass and stuff.” If you know Rusty, nothing could be further from the truth.

Rusty’s story started in Oklahoma where he was born and returned often because this was his family’s permanent residence. He was raised all over the world as an Army brat; from Japan to Germany and Iceland but spending most of his formative years in the Southeast. He moved 23 times before he was 18 years old!

His great-grandparents were Vaudeville actors, but after many years of acting his great-grandfather decided to attend medical school to become a doctor. After graduating, he struggled to find work as people questioned why he was a doctor so late in life. It wasn’t normal, then, for people to attend medical school at an age when they should have already had a successful career. After some time, he decided he’d create a solution to his problem. He built a hospital. His three sons, one of whom was Rusty’s grandfather, all became doctors and worked in Hubbard Hospital. The hospital remains today but is now a rehabilitation hospital in Oklahoma City. You can read Dr. Hubbard’s story in a book titled “Oklahoma Rebel”. Rusty comes from a long line of military service; his grandfather and two great-uncles served in World War II and his dad was an Army pilot. His life was built around flying from an early age.

At the tender age of 5 he already knew how he wanted to spend the rest of his life: flying airplanes. While doing his basic flight training, he was flying a night solo cross-country and listening to Roberta Flack crooning “Killing me softly with his song”.  He said to himself in that moment, “Please God let me do this (flying) for a living.” (Ironically almost 40 years later he had the opportunity to fly Ms. Flack as the Captain on a Delta B747-400 from New York’s JFK airport to Tokyo, Japan and penned a letter to her expressing how influential she was in his career path and hand-delivered it!)  He obtained his pilot’s license at 17 and at 24 he was hired by North Central Airlines which would merge with Southern, later becoming Republic Airlines. Republic merged with Northwest Airlines in 1986 and then Northwest merged with Delta Air Lines in 2008. He would fly with them (Delta Airlines) until 2019 when they fired him. Or at least that’s how Rusty’s version of the story goes. “They took my ID card, locked me out of the computer and said I didn’t work there anymore.” He told me this with the most serious of looks. I sat shocked knowing the character of the man in front of me. Then he gave me a sideways grin. “They called it retirement, since I was 65, but I didn’t ask to retire. As a matter of fact, I wrote my congressman.” All to no avail, as you might expect, but it sure does make the story more interesting told from his angle!

For the majority of Rusty’s years as a pilot his route took him to Asia on 12-day tours. It might seem odd to some, but that schedule allowed him to spend the most time possible with his 4 kids and his wife, Kris. After 41 years of flying, they accompanied him on his last official flight which was from Beijing, China. After being fired, I mean, retired, Rusty wasn’t sure what was next for this stage of life. Initially he and Kris thought they would do the Great American Loop. Its courses are somewhat varied, but the general gist is taking a boat south to the Gulf, then winding around Florida, up the East Coast, into the Great Lakes and then home again. In 2019 they set out to complete the Loop. What they didn’t anticipate was a pandemic. As the docks and ports began to close, they realized they had no option but to turn around and make their attempt another time.

God works things in strange ways. It wasn’t long after their dreams had been put on hold that the Fayette County Airport called. Rusty was more than qualified to run the airport and truth be told it needed a little reinvigoration. He was the man for the job. Soon after taking the position as director of the airport, he began hosting once-a-month luncheons. People from all over fly in to eat whatever Kris & Rusty are cooking. It was through one of these lunches that Rusty coordinated a plan with a long-time friend and fellow college roommate who is a pilot for the Titan Formation Team, an aerobatics team. The director, Jimmy Fordham, told Rusty he needed to have an airshow so that’s just what he did. In 2021 the Fayette County Airport hosted their first airshow. Last year they had nine performances and hosted over 5000 people. This year there will be ten performances on September 28, 2024. Tickets start at $5 for General Parking, $11.25 a child and $22.50 an adult. You can also purchase a Family 4 Pack for $60 which includes general parking. Tickets are available online at https://fayettecountytnairport.com/airshow/  This airshow, which takes place in the afternoon, evening and night, is truly unlike any other. Attendees are able to get right up to the performers and be one on one. You won’t find that at the big airshows. In case you think the only place to see world class performers is at one of those big shows, think again. Fayette County is hosting some of the best performers in the world!

I asked Rusty why he does all that he does. He told me he wants to share his passion for aviation, “maybe you plant a seed in a kid”. That happens through instruction, hosting an annual Aviation camp for 10–14 year olds, the airshow and sharing his stories of flying with the next generation. Ever humble, he’s quick to say he doesn’t do this all on his own. He has a great team who help spread the passion for aviation to younger folks by hiring them to help with the day-to-day activities. I asked Rusty if our airport has room to grow. “Growth is mandatory, it’s good for business, good in case of a crisis and good to support our community.” he told me. Many small aircraft and jets pass over the busy Memphis airport in favor of our friendly airport, which I might add is designed and decorated like you would expect to find in the high-end private airports of the Northeast coast. This year so far there have been 16,572 take offs and landings. 40 private jets have used our airport as well. Small town airports are vital to keeping a town going. If ever there were a disaster in Memphis and airports were affected, our airport could step up and help with air traffic flow for both private and crisis aircraft. It’s important that our airport continues to grow as our county grows.

If you have ever thought of being a pilot, or just want to see all that our airport is doing, take a drive out to the Fayette County airport. Rusty and his team would be glad to show you all that they are doing and will help you get set up with an instructor to begin your own aviation hobby or career. Don’t forget to grab your tickets for the airshow, it is an event you don’t want to miss. In the meantime, don’t forget to shop local and shop Fayette first!

~Written By Karri Buck~

Published in Fayette Falcon

September 17, 2024