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Although they both shared a love of airplanes, Kuhl flew model airplanes from the ground, while Conrad flew all over the world setting small aircraft aviation records.
It wasn't until Kuhl moved to Winona and read the book "Into the Wind," a Conrad biography, that he knew he needed to keep the memory of this local flying legend alive.
Conrad died in 1979, but his memory lives on at www.maxconrad.
com, a Web site created and maintained by Kuhl.
Kuhl's father had heard of Conrad, but had not known that much about him, except that he was a daredevil — a reputation Conrad had earned from his early days of barnstorming. While Conrad spent his early aviation days impressing fair crowds and landing in cornfields, he also trained a generation of young pilots. By World War II, he'd taught 2,100 pilots, 1,000 of which saw combat.
That's not even half the story, though.
Conrad went on to log 50,000 hours in the air, or the equivalent of six years. He was the second pilot to fly from New York to Paris, after another Minnesota aviation legend, Charles Lindbergh. Conrad shattered most records held by light plane aviators, including traveling around the globe in just eight days.
"He must have had no fear," Kuhl said.
Indeed.
Max Conrad told the Winona Daily News in 1959: "I know nothing can happen to me up there. And when I think about my problems, I realize how insignificant I am, and the problems don't seem as serious.
"When you reach my age, you have some doubts and it's good to get up among the stars to think things out."
That spirit and that courage drove Kuhl to create a Web site dedicated to Conrad, whose name might be lost on younger generations.
"It was the drive he had and that he never gave up," Kuhl said. "He could have made money, but instead he followed his passion."
The Web site chronicles Conrad's passions in a year-by-year timeline. It also features the music of Max Conrad. Even though the "Eagle of the Air" loved to sit in the cockpit, he also spent some time in the recording studio as he cut a record of music inspired by flight.
In his song "Let's Fly," he belted out: "Let's fly like eagles do/High in the sky so blue/Let's fly, it's lot of fun/ flying has a thrill for everyone."
Conrad also played the guitar, harmonical, banjo, mandolin, violin, clarinet and saxophone.
"Songs were made into sheet music and records to help finance his long-distance flights," the Web site says.
The site also has 10 Conrad songs available for listening.
Kuhl hopes that if Conrad were living today, he'd like the site.
"I would hope he'd be touched," Kuhl said.
Max Conrad's daughter believes her father would be honored.
"He would like the site very much," said Judy Conrad De Ryan, Spokane, Wash. "I think that the Max Conrad Web site is great. Through the Web site I learned things about my father that I hadn't known previously."
Kuhl's next project is to collect information about Conrad's barnstorming days for the site.
