He loved the aviation community, too, Kristy Morton said, adding that many of those aviation friends let him fly their planes. On Saturday he was flying a plane owned by Donald Hockaday of Woodford.

"It's been a great hobby for him," she said of flying. "It was a good stress reliever hanging out with the guys."

Her son, an eighth-grader at Dixon-Smith Middle School, was a good kid with a big heart who loved sports cars, his mother said. In fact, at a recent car show with his dad, Kyle got to sit in a Ferrari. "He loved that."

Kyle enjoyed going to Shannon and flying, she said, but mostly "because he wanted to spend time with his dad."

She said a private funeral will be held at the Fredericksburg Expo Center Friday at 10 a.m. The family also has set up the Morton Family Memorial Fund through PNC Bank.

Scott Shenk: 540/374-5436
Email: sshenk@freelancestar.com