Each pilot has a different story for how they started flying fast, upside down and dangerously close to other aircraft, in essentially what are the compact cars of the aviation world.

"Even when my dad stopped flying I bought the plane from him and have been doing it ever since," says David Watson from the Yellow Thunder League.

The HAPO air show will be David Watson's second show in the U.S., as he flies alongside his brother in two yellow "Harvard's". The brothers are originally from Canada and they use maneuvers taught to advance the pilot’s hand and foot coordination with the airplane in World War II.

Watson is not the only rookie to the show, Brad Wursten with Power Addiction Airshows is making his first appearance as well. Wursten fly's a MXS-R aerobatic aircraft by MX Aircraft and it is built for speed, as well as, performance.

"The first time I flew arobatics was 2003, I was hooked from that point on," says Wursten.

Micheal Wiskus who flies the Lucas Oil Pits is no stranger to the area, it is his fourth year here. He flies in about 22 shows a year and Newsradio610KONA's Maecy Enger has a chance to ride in a jump plane and get up close to the Lucas Oil Pits in the skies.

"Being around people that did this, that's how I got infected, that's how I started doing this thing," says Wiskus.

Though they differ in how they first came to sit in the cockpit, they all have one thing in common, each loves creating a "roller coaster" in the skies.

The HAPO Over the River Air Show will run Friday through Sunday at 11:30 a.m. each day of the HAPO Columbia Cup hydroplane races.

 

 

 

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