Writing this as basketball season is in full swing gives fuel to the analogy that Patty Wagstaff is the Michael Jordan of aerobatic flight, the Kobe Bryant of the skies. Patty was the first woman to win the title of U.S. National Aerobatic Champion and—like the sports figures above—won the award three years in a row. That’s right: back-to-back-to-back championships. To this day, she remains the only woman to have won the award three times.
Patty’s résumé reads like the hall-of-fame athlete that she is. In 1997, this female aviator was inducted into the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame and the International Women’s Aviation Hall of Fame. In 2004, she was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, arguably the most prestigious in aviation solidifying an already stellar list of aviation-related accomplishments. In addition to her “threepeat” as U.S. National Aerobatic Champion and multiple hall of fame inductions, Patty won the Betty Skelton First Lady of Aerobatics award six times in a row. Yes, six.
[ulp id=’xkA7bnsbSMSAnwAm’]
Her father, who was a pilot for Japan Airlines, was the first inspiration for her hall of fame career. When she was 10, he let her take the controls of his DC-6, and her lifelong love affair with airplanes began. Patty first learned to fly in a Cessna 185 floatplane, learning from her friend, Bob, who later became her husband. Patty has since earned her Commercial, Instrument, Seaplane and Commercial Helicopter ratings. She is a Certified Flight and Instrument Instructor, and is rated and qualified for many types of airplanes, from World War II fighters to jets.
In 1985, at age 34, she first qualified for the US Aerobatic Team, continuing to compete through 1996. She was the top U.S. medal winner during that time, winning a combination of gold, silver and bronze medals in international competition for several years. From 1999 to 2006, Patty was Raytheon’s (now Hawker Beechcraft) demo pilot for the T6A/B Texan II military trainer and light attack aircraft, performing in international airshows all over the world.
In 2010, Patty took a different route, flying for Cal Fire as an Air Attack Pilot in the OV-10 Bronco, which she did for three years, helping to keep California safe from the massive fires that wreak havoc on the west coast so often during dry seasons. She now runs her own school, the Patty Wagstaff Aerobatic School in St. Augustine, Florida, igniting pilots’ passions in the art of aerobatic flight.
Check out this short film on Patty and her love for aerobatics:
