Aerobatic

I recently got the chance to go up in a T-6 Texan at a Breitling event in Pompano Beach, Florida, with Thom Richards, chief pilot and president of Warbird Adventures. This would be my first flight in a warbird and my first time flying aerobatics; I was jittery with nervous excitement. But while we taxied […]

Extra Aircraft unveiled a wild aerobatic testbed for Siemens’ new SP260D electric propulsion system at AERO Friedrichshafen in Germany that could be a harbinger of the future of emission-free airshow performances. The 330LE is based on the German-built Walter Extra 300L tandem two-seater. Siemens intends to use the 330LE for flight test and optimization of […]

It’s a crisp December morning in Las Vegas, and hundreds of the world’s top aerobatic pilots gather. None of them are flying, despite clear weather. Instead they pack the Rio Hotel and Casino’s Brasilia ballroom to listen to a motivational speaker. “Live lives of adventure and purpose,” the speaker encourages them. “Stretch yourself beyond your […]

Once in a while we run videos that fit in the “don’t try this at home” category. This one definitely belongs there. Red Bull Air Race pilot Hannes Arch recently flew a slalom course around a line of windmills at the Tauern Wind Park in Oberzeiring, Austria — Arch’s birth country. The result is the […]

For the 42nd year, the gates at the Lakeland Linder Airport opened today for the Sun ‘n Fun International Fly-in and Expo. The usual compote of airplanes, avionics, and flight-gear are on display through Sunday, mixed up with an array of educational forums and workshops, and impressive afternoon and evening airshows. This year’s airshow adds […]

(function(d, s, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) return; var js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = ‘//cdn4.wibbitz.com/static.js’; d.getElementsByTagName(‘body’)[0].appendChild(js); }(document, ‘script’, ‘wibbitz-static-embed’)); Aerobatic pilot Spencer Suderman is probably still a little dizzy after his recent stunt of completing 98 inverted spins (no, that’s not a typo) in his Sunbird S1X biplane, easily breaking his own previous […]

See photos of these historic warbirds in flight at the 39th TICO Warbird Airshow at Florida’s Space Coast Regional Airport.

Dear me, I must be a glutton for punishment. Hot on the heels of declaring that “Taildraggers Suck” (not everyone got the tongue-in-cheek humor behind the column’s title or necessarily read any further), I’m about to reach out and grab the third rail of aviation opinion: warbirds. As I recall, Martha Lunken took some serious […]

“Everybody should learn how to fly aerobatics, because it makes you a better pilot, a more disciplined pilot,” Oracle Aerobatic Pilot Sean D. Tucker believes. Tucker’s own fear of flying inspired him to become an aerobatic pilot.

Having invested the requisite years of considerable sweat, some blood and, yes, a few moist-eye moments building a single-seat Pitts Special, the project was trailered to an FBO’s hangar at Buttonville Airport, northeast of Toronto, Ontario. Here, tucked away in a corner, final assembly took place: installing and rigging the wings and controls, tensioning the […]