I was reading through the 100 Years of Aviation - Iowa Takes Flight
section on the Des Moines Register site
(http://desmoinesregister.com/extras/flight/index.html) and found this
article:
http://desmoinesregister.com/extras/...oderquist.html. It
talks about a guy that took his first solo flight in a C172 over Des Moines
after threatening his instructor at gunpoint almost 47 years ago...

If you get a chance, look through the site and see a lot of famous names
that lived, grew up, visited, were (or will be)born, etc., in Iowa aviation
including Orville and Wilbur Wright, Amelia Earhart, Clyde Cessna, Glenn
Martin, Donald Luscombe and a lot of others...