Part of his plane broke, but this Columbus pilot still won national championship
To all those who have been bothered by that biplane periodically buzzing the skies of Columbus with midair stunts for the past two decades, Marty Flournoy thanks you for putting up with his noise.
And he hopes you agree the U.S. National Aerobatic Advanced Championship he won last month in Salina, Kansas, makes those 23 years of pursuing this title worth the wait.
“I’d won individual flights before, but I’d never won the overall, so this was kind of like finally putting the icing on the cake,” he told the Ledger-Enquirer.
Being the oldest among the 13 pilots who qualified for the national competition in the advanced division made this victory especially sweet for Flournoy, 69.
As a member of the U.S. team, Flournoy competed at September’s world championships in Hungary, where his team finished third out of 14 countries, so this has been a mighty rewarding year for him.
“I’ve been the bridesmaid in second place and third place, and I’ve sort of paid my dues, but I had never closed the deal,” he said.
Thankful for support
Practicing three or four times per week, plus teaching other pilots in Columbus, Flournoy appreciates his wife, Cindy, and colleagues Chris Wightman and Diane Russell at Flournoy & Calhoun Realtors for understanding his time away from them.
“They’ve been just very supportive,” he said.
Flournoy also appreciates the support form Chris Rudd, his plane’s mechanic.
“He just gives you the confidence that, if anything goes wrong, we’re going to solve the problem right there,” Flournoy said.
But if the problem pops up while you’re flying solo — and it’s during your final flight at the national championships — well, you must rely on yourself.
And that’s the crisis Flournoy faced during the national championships.
Part of his plane breaks off
Flournoy was about one-third of the way through the required aerobatic figures amid his final flight when the grip on his plane’s control stick slid off the end of the shaft.
“So, instead of a forward dive, I did a backwards dive,” he said, “and I was able to just luckily catch the grip.”
Flournoy initially thought he could take a break to fix the mechanical problem, but the push-to-talk button that communicates with the tower didn’t work because its wires ripped out when the grip popped off.
“I just made the decision to keep flying,” he said, “but I’m thinking, ‘That just cost you a bunch of points.’”
Flournoy started his final flight atop the standings — but by only a slim margin — so he didn’t have much room for error. He calmed his nerves as he thought about the pilot in second place, Don Hartmann of Florida.
“Well,” he told himself, “if I have to lose this to anybody, I’ll lose it to a good friend.”
Then he thought, “Keep flying and don’t let it bother you. Just don’t make another mistake.”
It was the first time Flournoy had a mechanical problem while flying in competition, but he relied on his years of training.
“Don’t get in a hurry,” he told himself. “Just be very patient and methodical. … Make the other figures count and stick to your game plan.”
‘Amazing pilot’
Mary Beth Rudd, manager of the U.S. Advanced Aerobatics Team, considers Flournoy to be “an amazing pilot.” In fact, so amazing, she was surprised he hadn’t won the national championship until now.
“I can’t tell your how proud I was of him,” she told the Ledger-Enquirer. “He’s just done so well all these years, and he’s been on the podium for second and third, so it was incredible to see him be No. 1”
Rudd put Flournoy’s achievement in perspective, winning this title as a senior citizen while competing against pilots decades younger than him.
“You forget that Marty is his age,” she said. “He’s really quite remarkable. His stamina and his ability to fly and handle all that G-force and G-load, . . . there’s no end in sight for him.”
In the cockpit, Rudd sees Flournoy display a rare combination of physical, mental and emotional mastery.
“Part of that is a natural ability, understanding and telling that plane what you want it to do,” she said. “But he has put in the work. He flies all the time. He practices all the time. He just loves flying.”
Rudd admires the calm Flournoy exudes as a pilot.
“He has such a confidence about him,” she said.
The contest includes requiring pilots to fly a sequence of patterns they are given only 12 hours before their flight.
“He can memorize that in an hour,” Rudd said. “He has conditioned his mind and his body to do exactly what’s needed to do those figures and how the plane is going to fly in the wind and other circumstances you’re flying in. … Some pilots get out of sorts at times, but Marty never gets ruffled.”
All of which means Rudd wasn’t surprised to learn Flournoy persevered through that mechanical problem to win the national championship.
“But that still is incredibly impressive,” she said. “For most people, if something like that happened, it would completely throw them off the rails.”
Flournoy shrugs off the accolades. He emphasizes his joy in flying comes from testing himself.
“I don’t fly against these other competitors as much as I fly against what I think I can do,” he said. “When you train really hard and you train other people, you kind of get a confidence in what you can do it. It’s one of the few sports where you don’t age out.”
This story was originally published November 10, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
