Fire and air

by Patty Wagstaff

Patty Wagstaff has made it to the top in aerobatics, one of the most dangerous and demanding sports in the world. Within five years of earning her pilot's license and only three years after her first aerobatic lesson, Patty earned a place on the U.S. Aerobatic Team. In less than fourteen years, she became the first woman to win the U.S. Aerobatic Championship, a feat she repeated in three consecutive years. Today she is a favorite air show and Hollywood stunt pilot, one among a handful of elite performers. But Patty wasn't raised to succeed at anything. Her alcoholic, abusive parents sent her to an endless series of girls' schools in hopes of squelching her "wild side." As a runaway and adventurer, trouble seemed to be her destiny. Then, in Alaska, she met Bob Wagstaff, a man who encouraged her to believe that she could achieve anything she put her mind to. She found her element when he taught her to fly. Patty is a woman with an inner fire, a drive that could have meant her destructio