Lifelong plane passion set to land

Lifelong plane passion set to land
MAGNIFICENT MAN AND HIS FLYING MACHINES

By DEBORA VAN BRENK, The London Free Press
Last Updated: March 23, 2010 12:02am



HORNDALE -- The flying bug bit Bill Rice early, and has been nibbling at him now for most of eight decades.

"I was four-and-a-half when I had my first airplane ride, sitting on my mother's lap in a Gypsy Tiger Moth. I knew, from then on, that's what I wanted to do."

Now a few weeks shy of his 80th birthday, Rice is a bit of a legend among the tight-knit group of home-built fliers in the Recreational Aircraft Association of Canada. "First and foremost, he's a true gentleman in every sense of the word," says Tom Martin, a director of the association. "There really isn't anybody quite like Bill."

Rice flew for 53 years, earning his pilot's licence at age 22 and soon after that began building his first monoplane.

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