‘The museum was her passion’

There are few experiences for a child that makes their eye twinkle in wonder more than an airplane ride. It’s for that reason that the Iowa Aviation Museum was so eager to host rides for children last Saturday morning.

More than 10 children were able to go up in an airplane operated by longtime Iowa pilot and flight instructor Tim Busch, who helped build up Iowa Lakes Community College’s aviation program, other college programs around the state and has owned his own flight training school. He is also an aviation museum board member.

This event was planned by Iowa Aviation Museum President Greg Schildberg’s wife Kris, who passed away Sept. 2.

“Kris tried to do anything for kids that she could,” Greg said.

The Schildbergs have become accustom to Young Eagles plane rides by the Experimental Aviation Association at air shows around the Midwest.

“Young Eagles is a program that gives kids between the ages of 8 and 17 rides for free. It gives the kids an introduction to aviation,” Greg said. “Hopefully it instills in some of them the thought of being in a position one day where they’ll actually work for an aviation company, whether it be a controller, a mechanic, pilot, or whatever.”

Greg and Kris shared a love for flying so much that the story of how they got to know each other has to do with it.

Greg met Kris at a bank in Bedford one day after he attended a board of supervisors meeting selling rock. On one of their first dates, they went flying with Kris at the controls. They flew into the Bedford airport at night — it’s a modest, grass airfield outside of town — and some of the lighting marking the airstrip went out.

Kris knew her surroundings and the airplane well enough that she landed it with no problem.

“I told her, ‘I’ll read the instruments, you just fly the airplane.’ She brought it around and brought it down in between big, tall trees on both sides,” Greg said. “She greased it in, smooth as all get out, like it was no big deal at all. So, I learned to trust her.”

A mechanical failure occurred Saturday between flights to where the airplane wouldn’t start. About half of the children weren’t able to have their flight. Their flights will be rescheduled.

Both the airplane rides for children and planned expansions at the Iowa Aviation Museum fit into Kris’ heart for the museum and its overall mission, Greg said.

The museum has secured federal grant funding to build a 100 by 80 feet hangar, planned for just east of the current museum, that the museum has obtained a 50-year management agreement for with the city of Greenfield.

“Our intent is to get mechanics on the field and to also start flight instruction,” Greg said.

There are other plans also in the works and the museum also recently extended its lease for property with the city.

“It’s all turning out to be a great thing. A lot of people thought we should be building and operating in Ankeny, or somewhere close to Des Moines with a lot bigger base, but this is perfect,” Greg said. “The one thing we wish is that we could have more bus trips from the schools out here from around the area.

“We’re going to miss Kris a lot. I don’t know what else to say about that,” Greg said. “The museum was her passion. She worked seven days a week out here. She breathed it all the time.”