The hat is familiar — A cream-colored baseball cap with the capital letters VAF (for “Van’s Air Force”) embroidered across the front of it. What’s eye-catching is the rest of the outfit: an immaculate black tux, with tails, worn by a smiling man cradling a Stradivarius violin in his arms. Oh, yes. And then there’s the setting: front and center stage at the famed Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Go to the website of Van’s Air Force (vansairforce.net), which is the informal pilot/builder community forum for owners of RV kit aircraft, and you can find photos of any number of VAF hat sightings, from couples vacationing at the pyramids to Air Force pilots sitting in their “day job” aircraft. But the Carnegie Hall photo speaks of something far more intriguing and unusual: a man whose heart and soul has found room for two completely different and consuming passions, either one of which could easily have occupied his time and focus for a lifetime.
