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(engine rumbling)

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- [Radio] Trans com four seven contact departure, good day.

(gentle music)

- [Woman] Aerobatics is unique, it's very special.

- [Debby] It's amazing it's,

that you can make an airplane do that.

- [Man] What impressed me the most was what the earth

looks like from upside down, straight down, straight up.

It's really spectacular.

You have such a feeling of freedom.

- [Woman] I'm fearless in general,

but I feel so great in the air that no, there's no fear.

- [Melissa] For me, being in my plane

is where I'm comfortable

and once I'm sitting in that cockpit, it's game on.

- I think we must stop discussing about women

in aerobatics and men in aerobatics.

It's just aerobatics.

And I think it make no difference if you're a woman or

man.

(upbeat music)

(drum music)

- [Woman] I think it's more or less a men's sport,

don't know why.

- [Man] Women are becoming more empowered

and they realize they can do anything as well,

if not better than the men.

So we're seeing far more women now exposing themselves

to skydiving, aerobatics, you know, extreme skiing.

And it's a great thing, you know.

Like, why wouldn't they?

- Hi, I'm Connie Baker.

I'm here with Andrew Wright.

We'll be flying in the Giles 202,

the hottest plane in the circuit today.

- When anybody experiences an aerobatics flight

for the first time, it's something you never forget.

- [Andrew] How you feel, you feel okay?

- I feel fine.

- [Andrew] Feel great?

Awesome.

Alright, we're gonna roll up on the up line

and then we're gonna roll on the down line.

This is kinda weird because you're not used

to seeing the world come around from these directions.

You're gonna pick up a little speed.

And then we're gonna come out at a pretty fast speed.

Here we go, vertical, probably seven.

Look left, look left, look left.

(laughing)

Look left, that's two.

Hammerhead coming up.

Three, two, one, pivot.

Looking straight down.

That's a quarter roll, that's a quarter roll.

Coming up.

(laughing)

- I did it!

(mumbles)

- [Andrew] You did, you're doing awesome.

How'd you feel?

- I feel great!

- [Andrew] Do you, really?

- Yes!

- [Andrew] Awesome, awesome, good.

Many people are totally done, totally get me out of here

right now done.

- First time I got in a plane,

I was, I don't know, maybe one week old or two.

- First time I flew was a long time ago now.

I was 14.

- I, in fact, didn't start flying at all until my 30s.

- I got a ride by somebody in an airplane

and started flying.

The very next day, actually.

- I started flying when I was sitting beside my husband

and I was wondering when he became ill, what happened.

- My grandmother was a pilot.

Her fun thing to do with the grandkids was

take you up in the Cessna.

I just absolutely fell in love with aviation and aerobatics

at a very young age.

- Well, I'm third generation of pilot in my family.

I've flown aerobatics for 35 years

and I've been to, this'll be my 15th world championship.

I think it's just time.

It's time to retire.

I'm Debby Rihn-Harvey from the United States.

- I'm Kathel Boulanger and aerobatic pilot

in the French team.

- My name is Aude, I'm airline pilot on (mumbles) seven.

- My name's Ann Marie Ward and I am a member

of the Canadian aerobatic team.

- I'm Dagmar Kress.

I'm on the German aerobatic team.

- My name is Heike Sauels.

I'm part of the German team.

- My name's Melissa Pemberton

and I'm a professional air show pilot and display skydiver.

- [Announcer] Here we are,

the 2013 Aerobatic Championship in Texas.

Our first female pilot is Debby Rihn-Harvey.

She has flown at the unlimited level for 31 years

and this is her last world championship.

Will she finally be able to take home the title?

(upbeat music)

- You know, I've always competed against the guys.

Now there's a little controversy.

My husband used to say that I learned aerobatics

because a man could do something that I couldn't do,

so I said "No, that wasn't true."

I really didn't know that it was strange to have a woman

as a pilot or a woman racing cars or anything else.

So I did it all.

It's in my blood.

- Debby Rihn-Harvey is somebody that I admire very much.

Of course, I have to be neutral here

because I'm on the jury.

She is an extremely talented pilot.

She has more experience than any other pilot

on this airfield at the moment.

There's nobody that has competed in more world championships

than she has.

She's flown in all the wind conditions, all the weather,

all the different temperatures,

and of course all kinds of different airfields.

And that's also an advantage for her.

And she's flown at this nationals here for over 30

years.

- My grandfather flew in the teens and 20s,

was a barn stormer.

My father flew during World War II

and taught my brothers and I how to fly

when we were in our early teens.

- We're seeing more women airline pilots than ever before,

more women in the military flying aircraft there.

And why we've not seen a girl within aerobatics?

I don't have a definitive answer for you,

but we're going our best to encourage it.

- The number of women pilots in general

is a real mystery for me.

- The women that compete at world championships

fly better than the men, quite often so.

It's not a physical barrier.

I think it's more a case of women aren't exposed to it

as much.

If more women flew airplanes,

we would have more women aerobatic pilots.

So it's pretty much as simple as that.

(engine rumbling)

- Personally, I've seen firsthand

how challenging it has been for Melissa to excel

in what is a male-dominated sport.

There's still traditional feelings, I think,

within the sport where maybe males can do this better

than females.

And kind of that stigma to it, which is not true.

A woman can fly just as good as a male.

- Rex talks about the ups and the downs in this sport

and a lot of them for me have been because I'm a woman

and because I've been doing this for 11 years

and I'll still be looked at

and "Oh, here's the up and coming"

because I'm a young girl.

This is all I've done.

So sometimes there'll be a male that comes into the sport,

will be in it a couple years,

and they're instantly viewed as being more experienced

than me because they're a man.

And that, to me, is real tough.

- You know, I see myself just as a pilot.

And being a woman is completely secondary.

It's not meaningful.

- There were obstacles along the way,

but I just worked harder to try to overcome that obstacle

and prove that I could do the same job.

(airplane revving)

- There's still battles to be fought

and I think that the women who have come before us

have fought many of those battles

and have made it come a long, long way for women.

And I hope that by doing what we do,

we can keep on making that progression.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

(door squeaking)

(engine rumbling)

- I really never thought I would be interested

in aerobatics, only because I thought those people

were crazy.

Why would anybody want to do that

in a perfectly good airplane?

- You get to fly upside down, in three dimensions.

It's another way of flying.

- You're doing loops, you're doing rolls.

It's like that thrill of a roller coaster ride.

- The first aerobatic maneuver that I ever saw

and felt was a loop.

- The first time I did spins, I was scared to death.

- I was almost afraid to go upside down for the first time.

And then there it was, it was just another maneuver

and another way to fly and it opened up a whole new world

of flying.

- [Andrew] How's your seatbelt, is that tight?

- Oh, the bottom one.

- [Andrew] Put a few more on that

until you're uncomfortable.

- Okay, I'm uncomfortable.

- [Andrew] Okay, that's good.

Here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna roll upside down and you're gonna decide

if it's too loose, okay?

- Okay.

- [Andrew] Here we go.

(laughing)

It can't be that loose.

- Oh my god!

- [Andrew] You wanna make it any tighter or is that okay?

- (laughs) Believe it or not, I think I got it!

- [Andrew] Alright, alright.

Well, here's a roll, here's a roll.

Looking straight ahead, here we go.

That's a roll.

That's the easy roll.

Alright?

- Okay.

- [Andrew] Now I'll talk to you about that basket roll.

Brace your head.

Brace your head, the elbows brace really good, right?

Here we come.

Here I go.

(laughing)

- That was awesome!

- [Andrew] Look like you're having a good time up there.

- Among the women that we have,

today we have a very, very strong playing field.

I think that everyone has spent a lot of time

preparing to be here.

Of course, Svetlana has won top-placing female

more times than I know.

(laughs) So I would probably put her right at the top

of someone who's gonna be quite tough to beat.

- Svetlana Kapanina is probably

the finest woman aerobatic pilot of all time.

She's won the world champion title I think now seven times.

We've never seen such a consistent performance.

- Before Svetlana, no woman had this quality of flight,

as high as a man had.

- For one, she's very, very talented.

She has a lot of natural ability.

And then on top of that, the Russian team has

a fantastic coaching program that they've developed

over many years to develop many world championships.

She's part of the system

and I think the combination of those two,

good airplanes, good coaching, pure talent,

and natural ability, is what put her at the very top.

- What makes the top performers in anything,

what brings them to the top?

And it's always the talent and an amount of practice,

very hard work at it.

If you only have the talent and you don't work at it,

you won't get there.

If you only work at it and you don't have the talent,

you won't get there either.

You need both.

And then you need circumstances in life

that put you in that position to take advantage of it.

And she probably has an ability to focus on it

and stay concentrated.

So I wish her the best for this year's competition again.

- Svetlana does exactly what you have to do to win

and she's consistent about it.

In other words, she comes here well-prepared,

well-practiced, she's very concentrated,

she does not make mistakes.

She flies the figures extremely precisely

and she never goes outside the box.

An aerobatic box is sort of like a tennis court,

only it's three dimensional.

The box is 1,000 meters square,

but also it's 1,000 meters high.

So it's a cube.

And the pilot must fly their competition routines,

or what we call sequences, inside that box.

And to remain inside the box in order to avoid

getting penalties.

What the judge does, they're judging figure quality only.

They're watching the pilot fly the figures

and they're marking him from zero to 10.

But we have judges also on the corners,

and they have devices out there that they sight on,

they look at, and they can tell when the pilot's out,

and then they call it in.

So what's good about this system is

it lets the judges totally concentrate

on the quality of the maneuvers and the figures themselves.

And then the other judges take care of determining

whether or not the pilot is in or outside the box.

(engine rumbling)

I can't emphasize how important it is

that they observe the limits of the box.

That's why you'll hear many discussions among pilots here

about the box.

And they don't like it too much.

- Is anybody not familiar with that?

- It's just reaction when you come to land

and you see your results.

You're thinking about the judges.

And do not well and the do not (mumbles).

- You can imagine, most of the aircraft like the one

behind me are typically flying at over 200 miles per hour

at the bottom of some of the figures

when they're at their fastest speeds.

And it doesn't take long to go

through a 1,000 meter distance at 200 miles per hour.

So it's extremely challenging for them to do those figures

in the box.

- You are taking two 90s, a positive,

and minus six, minus seven on the flight.

And you can have a huge difference

between the positive and negative in just a second.

When you are talking about positive Gs,

it means you are pulling this like vertically,

you have a feeling that you are going down.

And all your blood goes from the head to the feet.

And this is the opposite in negative Gs.

You have your blood flowing up to the head.

- [Andrew] Here we go, you're gonna look forward

and then you're gonna look left, okay?

Three, two, one, go.

(laughing)

Okay, should have warned you about that one.

Look left now, look left.

Pick your head up, look left.

Now hold your head up.

Don't let your head fall back like that again.

- Okay.

- [Andrew] Can't pick it up, can you?

- No I can't.

We're off the (mumbles) now.

That's the problem with the heavy G.

Once your head falls back, you can't pick it up.

Wherever your arms are, they're staying there

because they weigh three, four, five, six times

than they weigh normally.

- It's a large range of G, but you're only pulling it

for a couple of seconds.

So you can just resist against it by using your muscles

or the negative G by relaxing.

Which we of course, over the season,

build up our G tolerance.

If you think "I'm sitting here and I pull 10 Gs"

suddenly that's 10 times my own weight

going down on my body and on my internal organs

and everything.

So by tightening your muscles, you're able to resist

against that, you're able to help keep the blood out

to your extremities instead of being pushed in

toward your heart and your brain

and causing what we call that tunnel vision

or possible grayouts and blackouts.

- I have experienced a loss of consciousness

in an aerobatic flight.

And early on in my training, all I was doing was

inverted turns and then a pull down.

And I didn't realize you don't have to do high negative Gs,

it's just sustained negative Gs and a pull down

that can get you.

And the world went gone.

I was completely unconscious for a few seconds.

The recovery was frightening

because it took a minute before I knew where I was.

And then I almost had the shakes or something.

And I couldn't really control things for a moment or two.

I was just lucky I was in a climb

and by the time things settled down

and I was able to fly again safely.

(upbeat music)

- When I hear "a woman who dares",

what that brings to mind is women who are willing

to go out there and try something,

go out there and take a chance.

- I'm not even sure if we are women who dare,

because it is very calculated.

- I think that for women just to have the courage

to take opportunities when they have them,

I think that that's a daring woman right there.

- The only thing stopping you in life to do things

is really yourself.

Most things happen in life because you want them to happen.

- I haven't flown in 9 years, about 9 years.

From 1999 to 2008, I haven't flown.

And the reason why I stopped,

I became more aware of the risk.

Also my brother's wife passed away in an airplane accident

when his son and my daughter were

just a little under three years old.

And when she didn't come home, that was very hard.

And I just quit.

I couldn't, I got so afraid to not come home anymore.

- So I'm not afraid when I see her training,

because everything is well prepared.

We share the same vision, the same sport

so I know how it works.

- Mechanical failure, we train for them.

And maybe the only fear in the championship

is a mistake, a mistake I will do.

- I may say "Hey, Melissa",

"look at this thing on the airplane,"

"it seems to be cracked."

And Lissa will walk up and go "Oh, you're an idiot."

"This doesn't matter, it's nothing."

(Melissa laughs)

But for me, it's not nothing.

For me, it's something that if it breaks,

oh my gosh, what would happen?

Would Melissa go into a wild spin and crash?

Stuff like that is important to me,

but at the same time, she's got the experience.

So when she says it's fine, I need to back off

and go "Okay, it's fine, it's going to be fine."

- If you look at the statistics,

aerobatic competition has a very low accident rate.

And I want to say, I'm not sure if I'm right,

but I think there have been only two fatalities

in 40 years of competition.

One was 1976 and the other one was Vicki Cruse.

- [Announcer] The 27th World Aerobatic Championship

takes place over a 10 day period and includes 60 pilots

from 18 different countries.

Each pilot must perform four programs.

Known, unknown, free, and four-minute freestyle.

These strong-willed female pilots will be tested

on their physical abilities, knowledge, and skills.

Kathel Boulanger has done a wonderful job preparing

her newly designed pink Extreme Air XA41 plane

to win this championship.

She's been a member of the French team since 2004

and has one thing in mind.

Winning first place.

(rock music)

The next pilot preparing is Aude Lemordant,

also representing France with her Cap 232 plane.

She finished second in the last world championship.

Will this be the year she takes down Svetlana,

the highest ranking female pilot of all time?

- When I meet people like Kathel and Aude,

one thing I know is that they love what they do

and they love flying and they love aerobatics

more than anything.

- I started aerobatics because one of my friends took me

for a ride.

I loved that.

Some more hours of flight for my professional licenses

and I said "Oh, I like aerobatics",

"so I will pass my second degree in aerobatics."

And I actually never stopped.

(thunder crashing)

- Well, nothing's been happening here

because of low cloud, rain, and winds that are too high.

- We're going stir-crazy, to be honest.

This weather is terrible.

And it's because there's a tropical storm or a cyclone

or something coming out of Mexico right now.

And it's just dumping rain here in Texas.

- There's supposed to be four programs

and I guess I might get two.

Which are not the most selective programs,

because the most selective ones are the unknowns.

So I don't think we'll get a chance to do it.

- I haven't flown yet, so I still have to be thinking

about my program and ready to fly.

But that's a tough thing to maintain

when it's just day after day of sitting around

with dreary weather inside of a hotel.

(upbeat music)

- [Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,

here's our youngest pilot in the competition,

Melissa Pemberton of the United States.

She's a very talented young lady

and this is her second world competition

and she's got big shoes to fill.

Will she be the next Debby Rihn-Harvey or Patti Wagstaff?

(engine rumbling)

- My dad was a deep sea diver

and we dredged for gold as kids growing up.

And he would take us for rock climbing as a family.

I think that my father's adventurous side

was really passed onto me,

and my mom comes from an aviation family.

So when I told them "You know, Mom and Dad,"

"I think I want to become an airshow pilot"

"and a professional aerobatic pilot,"

I don't think they were all that surprised.

(laughs)

I have a couple of little traditions that I keep up.

I always do my nails so they're in their red, white,

and blue.

And that's my own little good luck charm.

I do that for world level and national level competitions.

- Melissa is a great pilot and a great aerobatic pilot

and I think if she chooses to continue at this level

in competition, she'll do very well.

- What most pilots do that are serious about competition

is they start at sportsman and then they work their way up

and gradually gain the experience and skill

that they need.

That's exactly what Melissa did.

Plus she has a good aircraft, good support.

- I think that you do have a sort of relationship

with your airplane.

Me, I always say "Oh, it's our baby."

I spend way more time with that airplane

than I do my husband.

- Well, we met actually in Australia.

Melissa decided to tour Australia for a year

and bring her aircraft down from the United States

to Australia to train.

And I met her through a mutual passion of BASE jumping,

which is jumping off cliffs with parachutes.

Something that really attracted me to Melissa

in the first place when we first met

was just that pure drive that she has,

to set a goal and then go after it

and not let anybody get in the way.

- We're seeing far more women now exposing themselves

to skydiving, aerobatics, you know, extreme skiing.

And it's a great thing.

Like, why wouldn't they?

The difference between, say,

the French and the Russian teams and the other countries,

is they are teams.

They have structure.

They have coaching.

They have spots in their national aero club.

They have sponsors.

They run training camps.

That is how you win a championship.

- For many women that are now still early in their careers,

that have recently entered aviation as a career field,

they're not at the point in their lives yet

where they may be able to afford it.

Certainly that's true in America.

Now, the subsidized or the state-supported teams,

that's a little different.

- Many countries, it is a hobby

and so therefore, you have to weigh your time

and commitment to that hobby

versus making a living to pay for the hobby

and what your participation level will be.

- It's very expensive to become involved in aerobatics

because first of all, you have to be an experienced pilot

to begin with.

And then there's the purchase of the aircraft

and the aircraft now are all in six figures in US dollars.

Two to $400,000.

But then the training of course is also very intensive

and very expensive.

I will say this, it's not so expensive to start

in aerobatics, it's only when you get

into serious competition later.

Not only money, but also a lot of time.

- I'm on the road from January through November

with air shows.

And then adding a world level competition and training

to the mix, it leaves me with very little spare time.

- It requires a lot of dedication and a lot of

sacrifice

from other parts of your life and family.

- [Andrew] One of my favorite airshow moves.

We're gonna roll up, roll up, roll up, roll up.

We're going to transition

into an inverted upright flag spin.

Spinning down, spinning down, spinning down.

It's kinda wild.

But it's actually gentle, it really is.

- Okay.

- [Andrew] Always get (mumbles) about that.

(laughs)

But you might want to brace you head, okay?

You might want to brace your head.

There we go, we're going down right here.

Going down center, coming up into that.

Pulling up, rolling to the right, to the left.

Rolling, rolling, rolling to the right.

You still with me?

- I'm here!

- [Andrew] Here we go.

- Oh my God!

To the left, spin to the left.

Oh yeah.

That's one of my favorite ones.

You can relax, you can relax.

We'll take a break here.

We can edit out all the breaks, it's no problem at all.

How you doing?

- Doing okay.

That one hit me.

- [Andrew] I thought it might have.

- We have such skilled men and women

and as far as figuring out who the biggest competition is,

oh, that's a tough one.

My competitors are all my friends, so it makes it extra

fun.

- My biggest competition, I would say, you know,

the Russians and the French.

- Biggest competitor will be the Russians for sure.

And I think this year, American team will be very strong

as well.

- My biggest competitor's myself.

This is my first world championship

and my expectation, if I do really well,

I'll be in maybe the middle or the lower middle.

- The last world championship, I was second,

so the girl in front of me is Svetlana.

Dream is one day to go past her.

- My expectation for the world championship

is of course the first place, you know?

- I now go to the competitions, especially to this one,

I'm so happy to be here.

It's the best thing, I meet people from all over the world.

I see old friends, I meet new friends.

And just to be part of it is really special

and it's a privilege, I think.

Because it is a select group of pilots

at the world championship.

- [Announcer] This is the last day of the competition.

The big showdown for female pilots

to become the 2013 world aerobatic champion.

Who will take home the title?

(upbeat music)

- [Debby] Any of the women at any time can win.

- You need teamwork, you need structure,

you need discipline, drive, determination.

All of those things to get the top result.

I don't really see the difference between men and

women,

especially in aerobatics.

The top women pilots are fantastic pilots.

(applause)

What does it take to be a champion in aerobatics?

A lot people talk about, you know, natural skill.

That is only a very small part of becoming champion.

- I just feel that I've gained so much from aviation

and hopefully I've helped to pave a path

so it's easier for other young women to get where I am

and beyond where I am.

(applause)

- [Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, the winner

of the 2013 World Aerobatics Women's Championship is

Aude Lemordant.

- Someday a woman will be the overall world champion,

I believe.

If they hang in there long enough.

- [Andrew] Tada.

Okay.

(laughing)

(mumbles)

- Oh my gosh.

- Awesome job, awesome job.

- I can't believe I did it.

(calm music)

- [Woman] Oh.

I have slipped the soily bonds of earth.

And down to the skies on laughter silver wings.

Sunwards I climb

and join the tumbling worth of sunsplit clouds.

I've done a hundred things you have not dreamed of.

Wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.

Hovering, I've chased the shouting wind along

and flung my eager craft through faultless holes of air.

Up, up the long delirious burning blue.

I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

where never love or even eagle flew.

And while with silent lifting mind,

I've trod the high, untrespassed sanctity of space,

put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

- Testing, testing, one, two, three.

- My name's Melissa Pemberton.

- No, your name is Rex Pemberton.

My name is...

- But this is...

(laughs)

- That was so surreal!

Oh my god, that was incredible.

I feel like I'm watching a movie, it's not real.