In Patty’s acceptance of her new post, she stated, “I would be honored to be a part of your organization as a member of your Board of Advisors. I read the information on your website, and think what you are doing is wonderful!“

To Patty Wagstaff the sky represents adventure, freedom and challenge. A six-time member of the US Aerobatic Team, Patty has won the gold, silver and bronze medals in Olympic-level international aerobatic competition and is the first woman to win the title of US National Aerobatic champion – and one of the few people to win it three times.

Click on the shot at left of Patty inverted to see a short 7 minute video of her in action.

Patty, one of the world’s top air show pilots, flies thrilling, low-level aerobatic demonstrations before millions of people each year. Her breathtaking performances give air show spectators a front-row seat view of the precision and complexity of modern, unlimited hard-core aerobatics. Her smooth aggressive style sets the standard for performers the world over.

Patty’s skill is based on years of training and experience. She is a six-time recipient of the “First Lady of Aerobatics” Betty Skelton Award. In July 2004, Patty was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame and was the recipient of the National Air and Space Museum’s Award for Current Achievement in 1994. Having received many awards for her flying, she is particularly proud of receiving the Airshow industry’s most prestigious award, the “Sword of Excellence”, and the “Bill Barber Award for Showmanship”. Recently she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Air Force Association.

In March, 1994, her airplane, the Goodyear Extra 260, went on display in the national Smithsonian in Washington DC. You can see Patty’s airplane and exhibit in the Pioneers of Flight Gallery.

For over ten years (above – near famed lake Victoria), 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.   

Patty (above – inverted in upper black “Extra 300” aircraft near Duluth, Minnesota) has trained with the Russian Aerobatic Team and has flown Airshows and competitions in such exotic places as South America, Russia, Europe, Mexico and Iceland. She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, Motion Picture Pilots Association, United Stuntwoman’s Association, working as a stunt pilot and aerial coordinator for the film and television industry.

From 1999-2006 Patty was Raytheon’s (above – now Hawker Beechcraft Aviation) demo pilot for their newT6A/B/C “Texan” II military trainer and light attack aircraft, performing in international airshows such as Paris, Singapore and Farnborough, in Great Britain.  Today she continues to coach their Demo Team.

Patty (above) is also an accomplished horsewoman who loves to use her mount for hunter-jumper exercise and fun.

Some of Patty’s more significant accomplishments in her career:

• 2013, Wings Club, Outstanding Aviator Award
• 2007 Inductee, International Aerospace Hall of Fame
• 2006 Inductee, Air Show Hall of Fame
• 2006 Aviation Week & Space Technology Laureate,
Philip J. Klass Award for Lifetime Achievement
• 2005 Recipient, Air Force Association Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2005 Inductee, International Aerobatic Club Hall of Fame
• 2005 Katherine Wright Award
• 2002 Katherine and Marjorie Stinson Award
• 1998 Bill Barber Award for Showmanship
• 1997 Recipient, NAA Paul Tissiander Diploma
• 1997 Inductee, Women in Aviation International Hall of Fame
• 1997 Inductee, Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame
• 1996 Recipient, Charlie Hillard Trophy
• 1996 GAN & Flyers Readers Choice Award, Favorite Female Performer
• 1996 Top Scoring US Pilot at World Aerobatic Championships
• 1985-1996 Member, U.S. Aerobatic Team
• 1995 Recipient, ICAS Sword of Excellence Award
• 1988-1994 Winner Betty Skelton “First Lady of Aerobatics” Trophy
• 1994 National Air and Space Museum Award for Current Achievement
• 1994 NAA Certificate of Honor
• 1993 International Aerobatic Club Champion
• Us National Aerobatic Champion
1991, 1992, 1993 US National Aerobatic Championships
• 1990/1992/1994 Top US Medal Winner, World Aerobatic Championships
• 1991 Voted Western Flyer Reader’s Choice Favorite Airshow Performer
• 1987 Rolly Cole Memorial Award for Contributions to Sport Aerobatics

The FASF heartily welcomes Patty aboard and hopes she will be the featured aerobatic performer in the upcoming 2016 First Aero Squadron Centennial Celebration.  Patty is the first professional aerobatic artist to grace the ranks of the FASF!

Jim Davis and Steve Kelly jointly buy an acre in memory of Captain Benny Foulois, the FAS’s Commanding Officer in 1916’s Punitive Expedition.

Jim Davis (left) is well known to FASF members as one of its founders, and also throughout the General Aviation Community at large.  A retired FAA Executive, FASF Officer and Trustee and forever a “QB” (Quiet Birdman), Jim established the FAA Administrator’s Command Post, the quick response team which immediately investigates all major air disasters within it’s jurisdiction. Jim remains very active in the FASF as a member of its Board of Advisors.

Jim spends his time between his home in Alexandria, Virginia, or at his Airpark home in Columbus, NM. His 2012 video, archived under our “New Videos” section on this site, describes the re-opening of the old 1916 Aerodrome from which the FAS launched it first operations.  He and his good friend and fellow “QB”, Steve Kelly, a corporate jet pilot for General Dynamics, (pictured at right and now flying both Gulfstream G200’s and the Beech 1900, is seen at Dulles International Jetport in Washington, DC during preflight of his General Dynamic’s Gulfstream), just called your webmaster from Washington, DC to report that they were going to once again join the “Buy an Acre” campaign by sending in $250 to specifically buy an acre in memory of Benjamin Delahauf Foulois.

“Benny” Foulois (below in 1916 by his “Jenny” at our Columbus Aerodrome) was the Captain who commanded the First Aero Squadron back in 1916 and directed both its military operation and the simultaneous Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Car Company’s aircraft test program out of Columbus, an enterprise which gave birth to the most mass produced single airplane model, the ubiquitous JN-4 “Jenny,” ever manufactured – anywhere.  Over 8,000 of these airplanes were produced.  After  WWI ended, Foulois went on to become the commanding General of the U.S. Army Air Forces, while the “Jenny” went on to become not just the most popular barnstorming show plane of all time, but the one in which notables such as Charles Lindbergh made their first solo flight.  Among many other “Jenny” firsts was the inaugural carrying of the first U.S. Airmail.

Jim and Steve invite you to join the “Buy and Acre” campaign with them so that the entire FAS airfield from which American Air Power was born will be entirely protected, recreated and preserved for posterity by the FASF.  Don’t miss this opportunity to help restore the Aerodrome. Hurry and join the fray – in only a matter of months, we are already more than half way (over 80 acres of the total 160 acre parcel) there! 

You, too, can join the “Buy an Acre” campaign. Simply send your tax-deductible contribution in any increment of $250 for each acre you’d like to “buy” in your own or anyone else’s name, to:

FASF – Buy an Acre Campaign; PO Box 1516; Columbus, NM 88029.

Please state the name of the person or persons to whom the acre(s) are to be memorialized, either your own – or anyone else’s.  You’ll receive an official tax-deduction reply thank you letter confirming your donation to the memorial.                    Thank you!