
Story County aviation pioneer (?!?) Carl R. Rhiner was featured on the front page of the 10 May 1973 Saturday morning edition of the Ames Daily Tribune.
Tribune contributor Jerry Dickinson wrote a short, entertaining story about Mr. Rhiner and his stubby, speedy Cassutt Mk. III racer and how it was built in his garage and flown from the Ames airport.

A little later, his sister-in-law did a painting of the Cassutt and presented to Mr. Rhiner. It was proudly displayed in his basement "Command Center" along with other interesting Aviation and Harley-Davidson related items.

In August of 1998, quite by mistake, I opened and airbrushed my first bottle of acrylic paint. Model Master French Blue for the nose of a P-51D Mustang. The subject was Col. John C. Meyer's "Petie 2nd" 352nd Fighter Squadron P-51D as a gift to Mr. Rhiner as the Mustang was his all-time favorite airplane. I didn't intend to spray acrylic paint. The blue was just right for the model. Accidentally it came out almost pretty good.
Friday, 4 June 2021 was the one year anniversary of the mishap that unexpectedly ended my Dad's days on Earth.
We went to what is now Claudia's house to fix her disposal on Saturday. She bestowed many of my Dad's momentos from his life upon me and told us some stories of their life together. It was a nice visit. Petie 2nd returned to her original "Base" after our Ames adventure with Don.
Here in the peace of rural Iowa, you can bet a Blue-nose Mustang and a wolf-headed Tomcat will fly together to bring swift death and destruction to enemies of Liberty for some time to come.
Expect more progress on the 1/32 Mustang model in the near future.
Thanks for looking in!