Produced by
CUC

It’s as if Julie Clark was born flying

By Jeanette Stewart of The StarPhoenix (Aug 14, 2009)

Even outside the cockpit, she barely sits still, her manicured nails flashing and her blond ponytail bobbing. In 61 years of life and four decades of aviation, she’s spent more than 3.5 years in the air.

Her own story is as wild as the dips, loops and dives she is to perform at the final Cameco Canada Remembers International Air Show this weekend.

Clark was orphaned at 15 after her father was shot by a passenger while piloting a Pacific Airlines flight.

Using her “book money” from college, Clark took her first flying lessons. After earning her commercial pilot’s licence and spending just over a year as a contract instructor for the U.S. Navy, she was brought on as the “token broad” for Hughes Airwest, now Northwest Airlines, in 1977. She went on to become one of the first 20 female pilots to fly commercially, and has lived in the spotlight ever since. Once a pack of journalists chased her all over the Seattle airport trying to get a comment.

Years later, it’s still difficult for anyone to leave the dazzling Californian alone. As she cruises the lobby of the aeronautics building at the Saskatoon airport, she is approached by several people who know her from past air show appearances, including air show announcer Ric Peterson.

“It’s like a family,” Clark said before taking a seat, wearing a blue monogrammed golf shirt and an airplane pinned to her lapel.

She’s an honorary Snowbird and has flown with the Snowbirds on a couple of occasions in her 31 years of air shows.

“I love this jet team,” she said.

This year, Clark will perform her aerobatic ballet in the shiny 1950s Chevron Mentor T-34 she restored. She flies a choreographed route accompanied by coloured smoke, pyrotechnics and fireworks.

Clark literally lives at the airport — both of her homes are attached to an airfield, one in California and one in Minnesota. Though her last sponsor gave her a PT Cruiser eight years ago, she’s put only 32,000 kilometres on it. Roads are too crowded.

Though she flies to all the shows, Clark’s ground crew hauls a trailer all over North America, where fans can come to meet the pilot. Sponsorship from Chevron keeps her plane in the air, flying between 20 and 25 air shows annually.