Pioneering Woman Pilot Performs her Thrilling Low-Level Aerobatics at Air Show in Punta Gorda

The story behind the Air Show in Punta Gorda is one of larger than life people -- pilots, daredevils we might call them, but really daring, adventurous people who have dedicated their lives to a dream that man has had almost since the beginning of his existence -- flying.

Patty Wagstaff had that dream early. She grew up surrounded by airplanes and was accustomed from an early age to travel to places far from her US birthplace. At nine she moved to Japan where her father was a Captain for Japan Air Lines. She notes on her website that her earliest memories were sitting with her father at the controls of an airplane, at 10 taking the control of his DC-6. Her future in the air was set.

She earned her pilot's certificate and went to become a 6- time member of the US Aerobatic Team, winning gold, silver and bronze medals in Olympic-level competition. She was the first woman US National Aerobatic champion. In 1994, recognizing her as a pioneering woman pilot, the Smithsonian awarded her airplane, the Extra 260, in the s National Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC. Patty's airplane is between those of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart's and beneath that of General James "Jimmy" Doolittle.

For the past ten years, Patty has traveled to East Africa to give bush, recurrency and aerobatic training to the pilots of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) who protect Kenya’s elephants, rhino and other natural resources from poachers. In 2010, she started flying for Cal Fire as an Air Attack pilot to keep California safe from fires and support firefighters fighting them on the ground.

The Mark Twain quote on her website tells you a lot about this woman who continues to reach for the sky in many ways, "She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot." -Mark Twain

You can experience an exhilarating sample of Patty's low-level aerobatics -- described as one of the most thrilling demonstrations of this in the world" at the Air Show this Saturday, March 26 and Sunday March 27 at Punta Gorda Airport.