KERMIT WEEKS

Kermit Weeks has always enjoyed flipping and flying through the air. As a teenager, air was certainly his medium as he soared through the competitions on his high school gymnastic team. At the same time, he was also flying and, yes, flipping through the air as a young pilot and aerobatics enthusiast. Spurred on by audacity and youthful optimism, he learned most of his aerial maneuvers by studying the aerobatic moves in Duane Cole’s book, “Roll Around a Point” and then practiced and honed them in the skies. His aerobatics career earned him three silver medals and a bronze at the FAI World Aerobatic championship in 1979 and, over a dozen years, a total of 20 medals and five top three placements. He also designed and built two aircraft that he used in his competitions.

Weeks bought the plans for building a Der Jager D-1X, a home-built aircraft fashioned after a German WWI airplane with lawn mowing money, finishing it at the age of 21. He began collecting and restoring vintage airplanes, turning his zeal for antiquated aircraft in 1979 into the Weeks Air Museum. When Hurricane Andrew struck Miami and damaged most of his collection, he relocated it to his site in central Florida where he had developed his aviation-themed attraction, Fantasy of Flight. For the nineteen years of its existence, Fantasy of Flight was fueled by Weeks passion to share his love of aeronautics with others. Although Fantasy of flight was an unforgettable experience for visitors, it was perceived to be off the normal tourist grid. Profits earned by the attraction were nonexistent, leading Weeks to turn it into an air museum in 2015. He currently has the largest collection of flight-worthy aircraft in the world.

Among many other honors, Weeks has been distinguished by being the recipient of the “Bob Hoover Freedom of Flight Award” and inducted as a Legend into the “Living Legends of Aviation.” The well-rounded Weeks also displayed his literary talents by writing two children’s books and winning a bronze Independent Publish- er’s Award in 2009 for “All of Life is a School.”

Despite his many passions and successes, the #1 focus for Kermit Weeks is his family: his wife Teresa, whom he married in 2000 and his beloved daughter Katie. He experiences his amazing life as a kind of fairy tale where “Everyday I’m surprised as a ‘Yellow Brick Road’ continues to unfold before me.”

Weeks recently authored his third book, Ostynn For America, which focuses on the election process: “You need the left, and the right. Because it takes two wings to fly.” See www.OstynnforAmerica.com for more information.