OXNARD : Pilot Sets Records by Flying Upside Down

Joann Osterud’s upside-down view of the world has earned her aviation records three times now.

The 43-year-old Oxnard pilot returned Tuesday night from Vanderhoof, British Columbia, where she recently broke a 1933 record for flying upside down for 4 hours, 38 minutes and 10 seconds, she said. The previous inverted-flight record was set by Milo Burcham when he flew from Long Beach to San Diego and back for 4 hours, 5 minutes and 22 seconds.

Osterud simultaneously broke a 60-year-old distance record for flying upside down more than 650 miles in a stretch. She had previously broken a record for flying 208 upside-down loops in a row two years ago.

The pilot set the two recent records partly as a publicity stunt for the Vanderhoof Air Show, partly to raise money for the Canadian Air Cadets and partly to prove that she could do it, Osterud said. She tried to break the records last year but had to end the flight when oil leaked out of her plane.

She was better prepared this time, she said. “We’ve been working nonstop” since last year making improvements to the plane, Osterud said. Her Ultimate biplane was outfitted with six fuel tanks, special oil and electrical systems, tubes for drinking and special seat belts to make the flight more comfortable.

Not that the flight was that comfortable, Osterud said.

“The world looks real weird upside down,” she said. “The normal points of reference just aren’t there.”

Osterud said she experienced painful leg cramps a little way into the flight. “You start to feel like you have a really bad head cold. Your face starts to swell up and your eyes swell up,” she said.

The stunt pilot said she didn’t have much time to think about her discomfort because it was a real effort to keep the plane going. Five other planes accompanied her, including a guide who did all the navigating for her, and an official observer from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in Canada, she said.

When she’s not in the air performing in one of 20 to 25 air shows yearly, Osterud is a pilot for United Airlines. She said the difference between the two types of planes is “the difference between driving a Cadillac and riding a dirt bike.”

Osterud, who said she hates roller coasters, never planned to spend her life doing somersaults in a plane but became hooked after she was introduced to the sport 20 years ago, she said. She intends to keep flying until “it gets to be like real work.”