Our 2025 Cherokee Lead is Kent Dornink

In 1979, five years after convincing the prettiest woman in Nebraska to marry me, I thought it would be a lot nicer to spend 2 ½ hours flying to see her family instead of 6 ½ hours driving. However, after only 3 lessons the reality of the cost lessons, buying a farm, expecting our first child and just plain needing to buy groceries, we knew flying would have to wait. It took almost another decade before I held my private pilot ticket in September 1990 flying with Jud as my copilot became legal. In March of 1993 I added an instrument ticket. Other endorsements were added as time went on; tail wheel, high performance, complex and in May 1998 I passed my multi-engine exam. 

In those years leading up to 1998 we belonged to a flying club, owned our own plane for a few years but then sold it because of an expansion to the farm business and a much needed addition to the house. Being part of a flying club again after owning our own plane really hurt my interest in flying so for a few years we didn’t fly more than 10 hours a year. In 2009 we came across the Cherokee 180 we fly today. It had only one owner and he lived just a few miles from us and coincidently was owned by the first ME to give me a physical. In June 2010 we saw the ads for Cherokees to Oshkosh mass arrival and would have joined it but while visiting Jud’s sister in Bay City, MI someone taxied into our 180! We didn’t get N7144W back till fall! In the spring of 2011 we flew to Jefferson City for our first mini-clinic. I remember feeling anxious before the first flight but after that I knew I had a new addiction that I still haven’t kicked! 

We added an RV8 in 2013 and fell in love with what it can do. I still like the 180 but they are such different platforms you can’t compare them. That has led to building the RV14 currently at KFKA.