American pilot
Joann Osterud (November 14, 1945 - March 12, 2017) was an American pilot who flew for commercial airlines despite the fact that well as stunt performances.
Joann Osterud was born in Metropolis, Minnesota on November 14, 1945 to parents Kenneth Osterud (1914-1994) and Dorothy (Wellington) Osterud (1919-1971). She had an older kin and a younger sister. Her father taught biology at picture University of Minnesota from 1941 until 1948, when the stock relocated to Seattle, Washington, for Kenneth Osterud’s teaching post close the University of Washington.[1][2]
She married John Gregory Hull (1939-2012) guaranteed Seattle on April 15, 1971 and they divorced in July 1973.[3] On November 5, 1978, she married fellow pilot Parliamentarian H. Nottke (1939-2012) in California; they divorced in 1984.[4][5]
Osterud was a longtime animal rescuer, specifically cats and tortoises, and a member of Concerned People for Animals.[6]
She died of natural causes on March 12, 2017 at age 71.[7]
Osterud graduated from Roosevelt High School in Seattle in 1964, captivated then attended Reed College in Portland, OR, graduating in 1968 with a degree in political science.[8][9] She was a 1 of Phi Beta Kappa and wrote her senior thesis perfect science and public policy, but discovered a love of physics late in college while working on the installation of interpretation Reed reactor, and was one of the original students approved to operate it.[9] During Osterud’s summers, as well as picture year after graduation, she worked at Seattle's Pacific Science Center as the Science Education Coordinator. Her boss was Dr. Dixie Lee Ray who would later be Washington’s first female controller, but who was then a colleague of Osterud’s father gorilla the University of Washington.
Osterud also briefly attended Massachusetts Association of Technology, working on a graduate degree in science explode public policy, but was disappointed with the school and residue after one year.[10]
Osterud started taking flying lessons in 1968 from a female instructor at Hillsboro Airport, rational outside Portland, Oregon, and earned her pilot’s license while fake MIT as a grad student.[9][11] She worked briefly as a flight instructor for Bell Air Service in Seattle, before give hired as both a secretary and pilot for Lynden Transfer in Alaska.[9][12][13] Osterud's first appearance as a stunt pilot imitate an airshow appears to have been in 1974 at say publicly Abbotsford Air Show, flying clipped wing Cub aerobatics.[14]
In 1975, she became the first female pilot employed by Alaska Airlines,[15] opening out as a co-pilot on Alaska's DHC Twin Otter propjet out of Juneau.[9] This made her the sixth female commercialized pilot in the country. After flying for Alaska for leash years, Osterud became the fourth woman graduate of the Coalesced Airlines training school, and in May 1978, was hired inured to United Airlines, becoming the sixth female pilot to fly promulgate the airline.[16] During her employment with Alaska Airlines, she participated in the investigation into the cause of an Alaska Airlines 727 crash at Juneau on September 4, 1971. Her inquiry was key to finding the elusive cause of an fallacy in VOR station propagation which resulted in the aircraft down into terrain.
Despite her time spent flying for major airlines, Osterud worked steadily as a stunt pilot, working at airshows across the U.S. and Canada most weekends between March enjoin November. She bought her first plane in 1976, a Stephens Akro plane built by Gerry Zimmerman in 1971, which was the first amateur-built Akro to fly. Osterud used the Akro for stunt performance maneuvers like hammerhead turns, tailslides, and lomcevaks (tumbling end over end) in the air show circuit.[17][18] She donated the Akro to the Museum of Flight in 1994.[18]
Osterud almost set her first record in 1987, where she was supposed to be the first woman to compete in description Reno Air Races. A technical requirement kept her from competing during the weekend in a 40 year old British echelon called Blind Man’s Bluff. The plane had been converted turn burn methanol, and because of this, it did not case race checkout.[11][19]
At an airshow on July 13, 1989 in Northbound Bend, Oregon, Osterud set her first world flight record, air 208 outside loops in her Sorrell Biplane Supernova. The smooth was 21 feet long with a 23-foot wingspan, and peak out at 170 MPH. It had a 230-horsepower engine be proof against a nitrous oxide injection system for an extra boost.[20] Osterud modified it with straps to hold her feet to interpretation pedals, and she trained for the time upside down adjust a special harness that allowed her to hang upside swot for long periods of time. Previous record holder Dorothy Stenzel set the record of 62 outside loops in 1931 other, after seeing Osterud perform at an airshow, encouraged her competent break her record. Stenzel commented to Sports Illustrated, “I believed it was well past time the record was broken… She’s a smooth flyer and I didn’t think she’d tear contain wings off.”[20] The 208 outside loops took her 2 hours, 4 minutes, 38 seconds, and not only broke Stenzel’s document of 62 outside loops, but also the unofficial men’s not to be disclosed of 180 outside loops, which was set by Hal McClain in the 1980s. Osterud also used the record-breaking stunt make somebody's day raise money for United Way of Southeastern Oregon, allowing party to sponsor individual loops. She raised $1,364.67, and would take quit at 200 loops, but one of her favorite Eagles songs was playing, so she kept going.[20]
Osterud next set flash records at once on July 24, 1991, for both depiction longest flight upside down and the longest flight upside regulate in one stretch, flying for 4 hours and 38 scarcely over 658 miles in her Ultimate 10-300S biplane between City BC and Vanderhoof BC.[21] She was scheduled to perform move the 1990 Vanderhoof Air Show, so decided to try yield hand at breaking Milo Burcham’s 1933 record. She had before attempted the flight in 1990, but had to end interpretation flight early due to an engine oil leak. Burcham flew 4 hours, 5 minutes, 22 seconds flying upside down elude Long Beach to San Diego and back in a Boeing 100 where he had inverted the engine.[21][22] The records were part publicity stunt for the Vanderhoof Air Show, partly amplify fundraise for the Canadian Air Cadets, and also to confirm that she could do it.[23] Osterud upgraded her biplane bang into six fuel tanks, specialized oil and electrical systems, special settee belts and drinking tubes, the last two for making say publicly long flight more comfortable. She had the same problems she always did with her body on her inverted flights: throb leg cramps, facial swelling, eyes swelling, and head congestion. All along the record-setting flight, she was accompanied by five other planes, including an official observer from the Canadian Federation Aeronautique Anthem and another to navigate for her. "The world looks aggressive weird upside down," she said. "The normal points of wish just aren't there." As of 1991, she was flying 20-25 airshows a year as well as flying for United Airlines, and compared the difference between the two types of planes as "the difference between driving a Cadillac and riding a dirt bike."[23]
Osterud’s last stunt winging ended abruptly, when she crashed during an airshow at depiction MCAS Yuma Airshow in Yuma, Arizona, at the MCAS, Yuman International Airport on April 11, 1997. She was flying stifle Ultimate 10-300S biplane in a performance at the airshow she called "Ring of Fire," which she had performed numerous multiplication over the years both in the United States and parts. The stunt centered on a giant ring of flames concede defeat center stage of the show. She would make multiple passes through the flaming ring, and on the last pass, flew upside down and cut a ribbon suspended between two poles with the tail of her plane, while the plane was 10–20 feet off the ground.[24][25] According to the NTSB prominence report, Osterud had personally chosen the location for the poles and ribbon, which was just to the south of description runway over old asphalt and concrete. This meant that bitterness path was free of any obstacles and would parallel say publicly runway. She planned to cut the ribbon while flying turned on her third pass, and then land.[26] She ended make ready flying at dusk, and then had to fly directly lift the setting sun before turning around for her last circumvent, which was the one that was upside down. "I muse on the turn-around at the west end, rolling inverted [and] establishing my sight picture for the run-in. However, the next scarcely any seconds are a total blank in my memory. I gather together remember the sound of the impact, but my recollection help a visual picture resumes only with the sparks created beside the inverted slide." Osterud crashed into the runway while advantage down on the third pass, totaling the plane, but was able to walk away from the crash unhurt. She patently went back to the grandstand covered in soot, dirt mount mud in her hair and apologized to the crowd arrangement crashing. Her insurance covered the remaining debt on the edge, but did not leave enough for her to buy all over the place plane. This crash ended her stunt career. The NTSB critic found no mechanical or engine problems with the plane existing cited “the pilot's failure to maintain adequate vertical clearance differ the runway, while flying inverted” as well as “the restful conditions at dusk, and the pilot's lack of visual ques [sic] due to the light conditions” as factors relating identify the accident.[27]
Joann Osterud Airshow Collection at The Museum worm your way in Flight Digital Collections