2025 Rutan Fly-in celebrates major anniversary with all-weekend event in Kanab

On Labor Day week­end 2025, aviation enthusiasts gathered at the Kanab Mu­nicipal Airport for the annual Rutan Fly-in. However, this year’s fly-in celebrated a bit more than just the pas­sion for the craft, and it hosted some extra festivities in honor of a major milestone for the hobby: 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the VariEze, one of the first homebuilt canard air­craft and the predeces­sor to today’s modern canard-style Rutans. VariEze canards are still flying, with mul­tiple homebuilt models present at the 2025 Fly-in.

Left to right:

• Photo by Ty Gant.

• Photo via Kane County.

This year’s Fly-in in­cluded a whole host of events and activities, including a display by the Rutan Aircraft Flying Experience, celebrating their own 10th anniversary. Fol­lowing the early arriv­als - and some forma­tion flying practice - on Wednesday, the event hosted dinners and storytelling Thursday and Friday. On Sat­urday, the event held its public event, with a barbecue, social and Q&A session, allow­ing the public to meet with and talk to the pilots, as well as see the unique aircraft up close. Some of the Rutans put on a show on Saturday, but most of the fancy flying was done the next morning.

Sunday marked the main event in earnest: the flying time trials. The pilots put their home-built aircraft to the test, flying a set course toward Big Wa­ter and back, setting times and comparing records with previous bests. Dozens of air­craft flew the course - never against each other at the same time, for safety’s sake - test­ing their speed, power and fuel efficiency, and often trying to beat their own past times from previous years. “We build the things ourselves,” said one pilot, “so when we do something like a time trial, we’re not just testing our pilot­ing skills, we’re test­ing our engineering.” Another pilot added, “It’s an excuse to get together. Sure, some of us get competitive and want to see who has the best builds, but the competition isn’t what the Fly-in is about, it’s more a social event than anything.” While the public was welcome to come for pictures and to watch the time trial flights and takeoffs, this time they were asked to stay outside the airport fence for the most part to avoid obstructing the fast-paced land­ings and takeoffs.

After the Sunday morning flights, the event’s farewell be­gan - after one more casual meetup and story swap at Giff’s Barbecue - the Ru­tan pilots began their series of scheduled departures. “Pretty convenient,” said one of the event organizers, “when you’re a person­al plane convention. Everybody brings their own transportation.”