Patey Aviation DRACO X. (KRTX) Reno / Stead Airport, Washoe County, Nevada.

Draco was the handiwork of visionary aviator, entrepreneur, and innovator Mike Patey. As an entrepreneur, Mike started young alongside his twin brother Mark. Despite, or perhaps because of, being labeled with dyslexia and ADHD in school, they realized that they had a unique capability for achieving greatness through problem-solving. In just over 1 year of life, a custom-built Draco became the stuff of legend. Garmin called it a bush plane reaching new extremes. Plane&Pilot suggested that this “beast of a bush plane” is “the coolest airplane in the world.” They even referred to Draco as the ultimate fixed-wing helicopter. The impetus for the Draco design was a problem that Mike just had to solve. When speaking about his inspiration, Mike said, “I’ve always wanted to be able to take my family into the backcountry at a really high elevation. I live in a high mountain desert; we have mountain elevations that are over 14,000 feet. And I just couldn’t find a plane that could go up to 14,000 feet with a density altitude of nearly 17,000 and land with camping gear and four people, so Draco was an idea from owning a Wilga 10 years earlier. I wanted to take a plane I loved with great visibility and a lot of neat characteristics and make it exactly what I wanted for a backcountry extreme bush plane.”

Start-up, taxi, and depart from (KRTS) Reno / Stead Airport. It is a large public and military general aviation airport located in the North Valleys area, 10 nautical miles (19 km) northwest of the central business district of Reno, in Washoe County, Nevada, United States A former military installation until 1966, when it was known as Stead Air Force Base, in honor of 1st Lt. Croston Stead who died there during a training exercise in 1949. The airport's sole remaining military presence consists of an Army Aviation Support Facility and the 189th General Support Aviation Battalion of the Nevada Army National Guard, flying CH-47 Chinook helicopters. The airport is owned by the Reno Tahoe Airport Authority. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a general aviation reliever airport.

Fly "around-about" the airport, practicing stunts like "rolls, circles, and speeds just above the audience's heads." "Although I spent quite a bit of time flying upside-down, I finally decided it was time to land, taxi, and park for arrival right back at (KRTS).


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