Becoming an aerobatic or airshow pilot is a dream for many, but there are many steps to go through to achieve that goal.

Start With Primary Pilot Training

As with becoming any type of specialized pilot, the first step to becoming an airshow pilot is to become a private pilot. Such training teaches the basics of aircraft control, energy management, and aeronautical decision making.

Many airshow pilots also consider getting a commercial pilot certificate, regardless of whether they plan to fly in the events for a living. The additional training provides more expertise and aircraft control, and it builds upon the concepts learned during private pilot training to make an aviator more complete and well-rounded.

Specialized Aerobatic Training

After primary training, aerobatic pilots then need to go through aerobatic pilot training to hone their stunt skills.

A number of flight schools around the country provide acrobatic training in aircraft such as the Cessna Aerobat, Pitts Special, or American Champion Decathlon.

In addition to special training, aerobatic flight schools employ instructors with significant experience flying acrobatics. Real-world experience is a great benefit to help newer pilots learn the trade of aerobatic aviation.

To become a stunt pilot, one must complete at least 10 hours with an aerobatic instructor on top of the requirements to achieve an FAA pilot certificate. It is recommended that aerobatic training not be completed until a pilot receives their primary training and certification to make the process of becoming a stunt pilot easier.

It is important to note that one can become a stunt pilot with only an endorsement. This means that they fly with an instructor until it’s determined they are proficient to act as an aerobatic pilot by themselves. No additional FAA exam is required.

Maintaining proficiency as a stunt pilot is no easy feat.

After receiving their endorsement, a pilot should practice regularly to make sure their skills, decision making, and reaction times stay sharp. This is especially important for pilots performing at airshows or flying in formation with other aerobatic aircraft.

Career Opportunities for Aerobatic Pilots

Some stunt pilots are happy to fly only for themselves. They may enjoy the adrenaline of flying aerobatics or want access to a unique sector of aviation not available to all.

However, some decide to continue into a career as an aerobatic pilot. Many go on to fly as instructors or in fields such as aerial photography or film. Still others become test pilots, flying new or modified aircraft to ensure their performance and safety.

Again, flying in airshows is a top attraction for many stunt pilots. Some airshows are operated by volunteers flying antique or unique aircraft, while others are professional pilots who tour the country—or world—as part of an act. Major airshows across the country attract hundreds or thousands of paying viewers excited to witness a special facet of aviation.

Some stunt pilots are even sponsored by companies or branches of the military. Acrobatic flying can be such a spectacle that planes painted in certain colors can bring significant visibility in key demographics.

In addition, large companies and the military are among the few who have the resources to fund and maintain fleets of aerobatic aircraft, often jets, as they tour.

Resources to Start Training

There are a number of organizations that help pilots work toward acrobatic training and maintain proficiency as stunt pilots.

The International Aerobatic Club (IAC), for example, sponsors events and educational programs to help pilots attain and maintain their aerobatic proficiency. The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) is also a great place to make connections with pilots who have the knowledge and skills to help with aerobatic training.

Local pilots will know the best places to start aerobatic training. Participating in local IAC and EAA chapters, or stopping in at the local FBO, could help prospective pilots learn more about how and where to get started.

A great way to test out aerobatic flying is to visit a flight school with planes that can perform basic spins.

Every flight instructor in the U.S. is required to complete spins during their instructor training and thus have experience with the maneuver. Getting flight time practicing spins can help pilots decide whether acrobatic flight is a path they would like to pursue more in depth. If not, simply practicing spins can provide an adrenaline rush and help pilots hone their basic airmanship.

Ultimately, acrobatic flying is an exciting path to take. Whether you want to pursue acrobatics as a career or simply want to learn to improve your flying skills, there are resources across the country to help you pursue your passions.

Acrobatics help you learn energy management in new ways usually not accessible to standard category airplanes and can help you apply a wider variety of principles to your day-to-day flying.

The post How to Become an Aerobatic or Airshow Pilot appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

That’s the question I asked myself when I saw the 1988 made-for-TV movie “The Pancho Barnes Story” starring Valerie Bertenelli. I was a fledgling aviator at the time and just stumbled across this movie. I was transfixed.

Who was this woman who evolved from a tomboy to a southern California debutante, entered into an arranged marriage with a minister, ran away to sea disguised as a man, ended up in Mexico with revolutionaries, raced horses, raised dogs, learned to fly airplanes, become a movie stunt pilot, competed in the 1929 Women’s Air Derby, set up a dude ranch next to an airbase and taught ground school to aviators as World War II approached?

This had to be all fiction, I thought. 

A day later I was in the school library doing research. Although Hollywood did take liberties with the TV movie, they really didn’t have too. Florence Lowe “Pancho” Barnes was more colorful than a bag of Skittles—so much so that when you read about her, you will find so many stories, you may wonder how much is fiction amid the facts.

Born into Privilege and Opportunity

Florence Lowe “Pancho” Barnes was born July 22, 1901, to Thaddeus Lowe and Florence Dobbins. Her grandfather, Thaddeus S.C. Lowe established the Army of the Potomac’s balloon corps during the American Civil War, creating America’s first military aviation unit. He is credited with taking his then 10-year-old granddaughter to an aviation meet. 

In those days, air meets were little more than demonstrations of airplanes flying around pylons set up at fairgrounds. As powered flight was still an emerging technology, these events drew a crowd similar to the way NASCAR does today.

In those days, women—especially those of privilege—were expected to marry early, often for convenience or to improve the family social position. At 18, Barnes married Reverend C. Ranklin Barnes. The marriage has been described by some biographers as loveless and passionless. It did, however, produce a son, William E. Barnes.

• READ MORE: The Women of Vintage Air

According to her contemporaries, Florence Barnes did not take well to either marriage or motherhood. After a few years as a minister’s wife, she disguised herself as a man and headed to sea. Eventually she ended up in Mexico, where she rode horses and spent time with revolutionaries. It was here that she picked up the nickname “Pancho,” which was a corruption of Sancho, the name of the sidekick of fictional Don Quixote.

She returned to the U.S. in 1928 after the death of her father. His death left Barnes with a large inheritance, and—intrigued by the idea of learning to fly—Barnes used the money to buy a Travel Air biplane. She then found an instructor to teach her. Six hours of instruction later, she soloed. 

In those days, once a pilot was soloed, their training was pretty complete, as this was decades before the FAA was created and experience requirements and rules for private pilots were established.

Flying was more than a bucket list item for Barnes. She traveled around the country performing impromptu aerial demonstrations and barnstorming. By 1929 she had enough flight time to enter the first Women’s Air Derby, a cross-country race from Santa Monica, California, to Cleveland, Ohio. In order to participate, the women had to have at least 25 hours of cross-country flying and 100 hours of solo flight. These were the same experience requirements for men competing in the National Air Races.

• READ MORE: Mentoring Programs Aim To Boost Ranks of Women in Aviation

The idea of women performing in an air race was an oddity and to some, a joke. In fact, humorist Will Rogers referred to it as the Powder Puff Derby.

Despite the derision thrown their way, several of the 20 women in the race were accomplished aviators. Among them was  Amelia Earhart, who had already set several records and was the most well-known aviatrix of the day. Also competing were record setters Louise Thaden, Ruth Nichols, Blanche W. Noyes, Phoebe Omlie, and Evelyn “Bobbi” Trout. 

In the news reels, newspapers, and magazines of the day, the women were photographed wearing dresses and peek-a-boo hats. The exception, however, was Barnes, who stood on the end of the photo in her boots, jodhpurs, and jacket. She looked like she had just landed, or was ready to hike out if her airplane went down in rough terrain.

During the first Air Derby, Barnes was in the lead in the second leg of the race, but collided with a motor vehicle that pulled onto the runway during landing. Forced to drop out, Barnes came back the next year, flying a Travel Air Type R Mystery Ship sponsored by Union Oil Company.

Earhart came in third during the first derby. According to several historians, Barnes and Earhart did not get along well. They were opposites in personality and temperament. Earhart was slim and from a modest background. She was trying to work her way into the upper rungs of society, often helped by her husband, publisher George Putnam. She knew she was very much in the public eye, and good publicity would lead to sponsorships.

Barnes, on the other hand, was described as the most unlady-like aviatrix of her day, as she often wore pants and boots and a beret and smoked cigars. Both women competed for aviation sponsors and were allegedly skeptical of each other’s abilities as a pilot. Barnes often referred to Earhart as a “puppet” or “windup toy,” operating at the whim of her husband or her sponsors.

Pancho Goes to Hollywood

After her contract with Union Oil expired, Barnes moved to Hollywood to work as a stunt pilot for movies. The movie industry began in 1903—the same year of the Wright brothers’ first flight. The two industries were linked, as many people saw their first airplane on the silver screen. During the silent film era, stunt pilots routinely crashed airplanes into barns, buildings and towers for the delight of the movie going audience. Sometimes the pilots emerged unscathed. Other times they were killed or seriously injured—all to make a few bucks.

Barnes flew in several action adventure movies, including Howard Hughes’ “Hell’s Angels.” She is credited with organizing the Associated Motion Picture Pilots union which gave the pilots bargaining power to set a standard for pay and gave the pilots more control over the stunts to make them safer. The union also acquired medical insurance for pilots and, in addition to a weekly paycheck, made sure there were bonuses for performing riskier stunts.

The Great Depression hit Barnes hard, and in 1933 she used the remainder of her inheritance to buy a ranch in the Mojave Desert next to an army base. That base would later become Edwards Air Force Base.

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Barnes and her then 12-year-old son William raised chickens and cows, and sold the eggs and milk to the servicemen stationed at the army base.

Barnes’ ranch was located on the Muroc Dry Lake bed. The hardpan was a perfect runway, so Barnes put in a small airport.

As the winds of war began to blow again, the number of men at the base began to increase. Barnes, seeing an opportunity, expanded her property to build a resort where the men could spend their off-duty hours. She offered horseback riding, and also added a large round swimming pool. It was one of the first pools in the county equipped with a ramp, which she used to ride her horse into the water to cool off after a ride.

The airport Barnes built on her property was expanded. When it was first constructed, her pilot friends landed there when they visited. When the Civilian Pilot Training Program began, Barnes taught ground school to persons who wanted to learn to fly. There were stories about her being goaded into providing the training after clumsy army pilot trainees crashed on her property or accidentally dropped a fake bomb that damaged a livestock pen.

The ‘Right Stuff’ Era

At the end of the war, the base evolved into Edwards Air Force Base, where Uncle Sam developed its most secretive airframes. The pilots who flew out of there were best of the best, with egos proportional to their skill. They often met their match in Barnes, who teased and taunted them in a friendly manner, offering a steak dinner to the first man to break the sound barrier.

The Barnes ranch had blossomed into a fly-in resort and dude ranch. In addition to the airport it had a motel, a bar, dance hall, restaurant, space for a rodeo and more than 60 horses for riding. In 1947 Barnes decided to limit the visitors to the ranch, making it a club for her closest friends—most of them famous aviators. It was said that none other than famed aviation pioneer and WWII commander Gen. Jimmy Doolittle came up with the name “The Happy Bottom Riding Club.’’

Barnes’ life was one of parties, flying, and relationships—she married four times. In the 1950s, a change of command at the base put her sideways with the U.S. military, which wanted to take the land for a runway extension. There were allegations that she ran a brothel—an allegation she vehemently denied, saying the women who worked for her danced with the men who visited and that was it.

A mysterious fire destroyed Barnes ranch in the 1950s, forcing her to move. Today, the property that was her ranch is part of Edwards AFB. The remains of her famous round swimming pool and the airport can be seen with Google Earth.

In her later years, Barnes’ health began to fail. She survived breast cancer and lived a simple existence in Hollywood, surviving by giving talks about her experiences and doing horseback stunts for the movies.

In March 1975, after failing to show up for a speaking engagement, a friend went to check on her and made a sad discovery. Barnes, who was living alone at the time, had been dead for several days. Her remains were cremated and her son, a pilot himself, received special permission from the USAF to scatter her ashes over the land that had once been her ranch.

Learn More about Pancho Barnes

• “Pancho: The biography of Florence Lowe Barnes” by Barbara H. Schultz
• “The Happy Bottom Riding Club: The Life and Times of Pancho Barnes” by Lauren Kessle
• “The Legend of Pancho Barnes the Happy Bottom Riding Club” available from Amazon

The post The Legendary Life of Pancho Barnes, Aviatrix appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

But this aviation-fueled audience has waited since 1986—and there’s good reason for that. FLYING learned the secrets during an interview with top Hollywood aerial coordinator Kevin “K2” LaRosa II. He’s vice president of aerial film production for Helinet Aviation Services, and he produced the dynamic and compelling aerial ballet that comprises the heart and soul of Top Gun: Maverick.

The Backstory

LaRosa learned the art of aerial movie coordination and the professional craft of being a stunt pilot from watching and working with his father, Kevin LaRosa, Sr. K2’s a third-generation pilot, in fact. “My grandfather flew in the New Jersey National Guard,” he said. “He flew C-97s, he flew P-51 Mustangs, among other aircraft—and that is what sparked my dad’s interest in flying.”

Kevin LaRosa, Sr., ended up becoming a highly successful motion picture and television stunt pilot and aerial coordinator, and he worked on hundreds of motion pictures and TV shows. “One thing about my father that I truly love and idolize is that he flies multiple platforms, P-51 Mustangs, T-28s, T-6s, into jets and helicopters. He just was this very well-rounded aviator. I feel fortunate that I was able to be exposed to so many things at a young age.”

“I knew from when I was a little boy exactly what I wanted to do.”

But LaRosa, Sr., didn’t give his son an immediate leg up into the industry. 

“You can’t just become an aerial coordinator by being somebody’s son,” said K2. “Nobody will ever trust you. When I was a young teenager, I was already working in the film business with my dad, not in a pilot capacity, but in a supporting role.” And his father delivered some rock solid advice: “I needed to leave the industry that I truly loved, and go become my own aviator. Go become my own pilot and my own person.” It was also the hardest advice he ever had to receive.

K2’s had other aviation heroes, including Chuck Yeager and Bob Hoover, “mainly because of their true airmanship, and because of being just aviators to the core, and I always loved and was interested in how many different platforms they could fly…get out of one aircraft and hop in a jet, or get out of a jet and hop in this airplane. And that aircraft was literally an extension of their body.”

One pilot in particular served as a mentor to K2, and that’s Thomas C. McMurtry, who passed away January 2015. “That gentleman is an American hero,” said LaRosa. “ He was a mechanical engineer, he was a naval aviator, he was a test pilot for NASA’s flight research center, and he was a consultant for Lockheed Corporation.

“When I first started flying camera jets at the young age of 21, Tom took me under his wing flying a Lear 25 camera jet, which was from a company called Wolf Air Aviation, and taught me everything about military-style flying. So, as a civilian I ended up with this background and knowledge base about the military, how to fly with the military, how to brief with the military, formation techniques, dogfighting techniques—every kind of formation you could think of, with dissimilar platforms. Night formation, IMC formation—stuff that civilians typically are not introduced to.” 

That skill set that McMurtry gave to K2 is irreplaceable for the professionals who fly photo missions—particularly the flying of dissimilar aircraft in photo work, which is arguably the most objectively hazardous thing civilian pilots will do. Add in the high speed of dissimilar jets, and the hazard factor multiplies.

To do this well, a pilot must be an aviator, according to LaRosa. An aviator doesn’t just have natural talent, or is someone who knows every rivet by the book—but someone who feels the aircraft, who straps it on. “I was taught from a young age to listen to the aircraft,” he said. “It talks to you, and you can feel things that it likes and doesn’t like. And that goes from a C-130 to a Cessna 150.”

The Secret? The L-39 Cinejet

The filming for the sequel to Top Gun had to represent the height of the craft. The Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatros formed an excellent airframe to build upon in order for LaRosa to create the Cinejet—an optimized aerial camera platform with a camera mounted on its nose. But this is no GoPro Hero hanging out in the breeze. “We spent a great deal of time and energy developing the jet…making it what it needed to be for Top Gun: Maverick.” 

• READ MORE: U.S. Navy, Air Force Banking On Top Gun: Maverick Recruitment Boost

“Early in 2016, I knew we needed a jet-based platform to fly the newest technology to meet the demands of helping to tell this great story. At that time, the technology did not exist, or had not been applied, so I designed and helped develop the L-39 Cinejet.” LaRosa partnered with the Patriot Jet Aerobatic Team as well as Helinet Aviation and Shotover to create the Cinejet. 

The Cinejet gives the team the ability to maneuver the camera in ways they had never done before. “The older technology, including the technology used on the original 1986 film required the camera pilots to essentially fly very smoothly, because those systems were only partially stabilized.”

“When we watch footage from past movies that showed aerials, we would typically see some instability come through. Furthermore, we would see lack of clarity or sort of a diminished image. What we needed for Top Gun: Maverick was the clearest, sharpest, best technology and best camera payload possible.” 

So What’s on Board? 

The Cinejet carries a Shotover F1 Rush, which is a six-axis stabilized mounting system, and for Top Gun: Maverick it housed a Sony Venice camera with Fujinon lenses. “It allowed me to maneuver that aircraft through canyons at high rates of speed pulling up to 3Gs, without making our image shaky or unstable,” said LaRosa.

“In the back of the L-39 [in an ejection seat] is an aerial director of photography, we had two of them on the movie, David Nowell and Michael FitzMaurice. These gentlemen are in charge of framing and composing the shots that we see.”

All of the helicopter and jet aerials were shot by Nowell and FitzMaurice, flown in the Cinejet, an Embraer Phenom 300 camera jet, or an Airbus AStar/H125 helicopter. “It’s my job to put the camera in the right spot, and it’s their job to compose the shot,” said LaRosa. 

“The L-39 allowed us that flexibility, agility, and maneuverability to really get into the fight and give the audience a bit of a thrill ride. That wasn’t possible before this time.”

The L-39’s long nose and strong airframe allowed LaRosa to mount the camera a great distance forward of the wings. “This gives the L-39 a really good field of view. We can look beneath our jet, behind, above our wing, and behind us, before we see our own aircraft in the shot. This is something different and new that wasn’t possible before.” The team also cleaned up the airframe even further, moving comm and GPS antennas, wiring, and other elements.

• READ MORE: Before Top Gun, Other Aviation Movies Inspired Us

A new piece of technology entered service in the midst of filming for Top Gun: Maverick: the Phenom 300 camera jet. It can carry two F1 Rushes, one mounted on the nose and the other on the tail. “This aircraft was used in the movie whenever I wanted to go long distance out over the water,” said K2. “It gave us two-engine reliability and safety. And it also gave us longer sortie times. The Phenom carried more fuel and was able to stay on station longer. The back of the aircraft was configured with two operating stations, at which both [Michael and David] operated from.” Each camera was fitted with a different lens, one wide angle and one very long lens.

It was not the platform for dog-fighting or canyon sequences, however. That other platform? The Airbus H125 AStar (formerly Eurocopter AS 350), which carries a Airfilm AF200 bracket holding a Shotover K1 camera gimbal capable of holding a larger camera body or a long lens. It conveys a sense of speed and agility, showing jets ripping past the lens.

A Special Moment On Set

It turns out that K2 isn’t the only one who knows the Cinejet made the high degree of realism possible in Top Gun: Maverick—actor Tom Cruise made this known from the beginning.

“When we started filming Top Gun: Maverick, there was a meeting that took place, in which Tom Cruise did an exceptional job setting the scene and helping the crew understand the monumental task ahead of us,” LaRosa remembered. 

“What he told us was, we’re almost at a disadvantage. We’re making a sequel to a very iconic movie. And we needed to wait this long so there was a story worth being told. And we needed to wait this long so there was technology available to help us tell the story. And he knew, and inspired everybody who was going to work on this movie that the movie needed to obtain a level of perfection that had not been seen.

“What [Cruise] did for me on that day was truly inspire me to set the bar higher than it had ever been set in regards to aerial cinematography.”

One of the most special days on set for LaRosa was a normal day, on a Navy base: “Briefing’s complete, and we’re standing on the ramp next to an F-18 and here comes Tom out of the PR shop, which is the room where they get outfitted with their helmets and their parachutes. And as he’s walking past me and out to this F-18, he’s in his full wardrobe and naval aviator get-up, and I thought, ‘That’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, literally walking by me.’ That’s where it became very real…an instant goosebump moment.”

What Does It Take?

Getting to those moments takes a lot of effort, skill, and dedication to achieve, as LaRosa knows well.

“I put a big emphasis on training,” he said. “I personally try to fly every aircraft that I fly at least every 12 months. That goes for the large jets, and the small airplanes, and the helicopters. When I’m hired by the studios as an aerial coordinator, my job is not necessarily to always be the pilot on camera. My job is to put the best person, most experienced person, and the safest person in the right seat.”

He went on to emphasize the point. “My job is first and foremost to ensure that everyone is safe. Second, I want the aircraft to return to service, and third is that we make incredible, dynamic, amazing pictures that meet or exceed the requests of our customers.”

The job responsibilities of an aerial coordinator run the full gamut, and include: 

• Scripting
• Set construction and breakdown
• Budgets
• Preplanning with ATC and FAA
• Briefing
• Actual flight sorties
• Debriefing
• Finalizing the mission

“My true passion is being behind the controls and flying,” said LaRosa, “but sometimes I am best served sitting next to the director and holding an air-to-ground radio and helping him to direct the aerial sequences and watching the shot.”

“You’re 50 percent pilot and 50 percent filmmaker.” A person needs a good understanding of lighting, composition, plus cameras, lenses, and their movement, and the tools of the cinematographer’s trade—along with a deep skill set as a pilot on a variety of aircraft.

K2 took on all kinds of aviation jobs to build his resume, from Cessna 172s flying traffic to flying as a corporate pilot and flying helicopters—and that’s what he recommends to those who would want to pursue this career. “You need to have a very strong background in aviation to do this job.” While you’re moving in that direction, study cinematography and how movies are made. That’s the 50/50 split that a person needs to master to join this rewarding and unique industry.

The post Pilots Will Love <i>Top Gun: Maverick</i>—It’s a Lot More Real appeared first on FLYING Magazine.