EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2014: Patty Wagstaff

Fred Harl and Carmelo Turdo

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2014 featured an all-star lineup of performers, including St. Louis home-town favorite Patty Wagstaff.  Born in the St. Louis area, she has since traveled the world  - to Japan where her father served as a Japan Airlines Captain, to Alaska where she learned to fly, and on to countless other locales during her still thriving aviation career. 

Wagstaff has achieved nearly every possible goal in competitive aerobatics, including: three-time U.S. National Aerobatic Champion, Sword of Excellence and Bill Barber Award for Showmanship recipient, National Aviation Hall of Fame inductee and a long list of other honors proudly displayed on the fin of her Extra 300S aircraft.  Besides aerobatics, she has also trained pilots of the Kenya Wildlife Service who work to protect elephants from poachers, flown aerial fire fighting missions with Cal Fire, and worked with the entertainment industry on aviation media projects.  She has also started the Patty Wagstaff Aerobatic School in her home base of St. Augustine, FL where she instructs in the Extra 300L and Super Decathlon.  Other interests include raising horses and Terriers.  We salute Patty Wagstaff in this photo essay: