AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2015 - 136

PILOTS

FREE SPIRIT

Julie Clark
Nothing stands in her way

LOGBOOK

136 | AOPA PILOT August 2015

performer and former
Northwest Airlines captain
HOURS | More than 32,000
FAVORITE AIRCRAFT | Beech
T-34 Mentor
EXTRA | "I'm a warbird lover.
That's my true love and World
War II is my favorite era."

aluminum airplane, hand-polishing it inside and out. It is painted her whimsical version
of "Air Force One" and dubbed Free Spirit. A former instructor in the T-34 for the U.S.
Navy, Clark is the only airshow performer in the aircraft in the United States. Although
the T-34 was a trainer for the U.S. Navy and Air Force, it demands tremendous skill to
fly aerobatics. "In the T-34, inverted flight must be carefully calculated because it does
not have an inverted oil or fuel system," Clark says.
Clark wrote a memoir in 2004, Nothing Stood in Her Way, published by Women in
Aviation International, and calls it a "tell-all" book about her life. "I talk to my dad when
I'm getting ready to perform. I say, OK, Dad, don't let me do nuttin' dumb."
AOPA
EMAIL julie.walker@aopa.org

MIKE FIZER

JULIE CLARK WILL BE ON HAND AT THE
AOPA FLY-IN IN ANOKA, MINNESOTA,
AUGUST 22; COLORADO SPRINGS,
COLORADO, SEPTEMBER 26; AND
TULLAHOMA, TENNESSEE, OCTOBER 10.

VIDEO

WHO | Julie Clark, airshow

B Y J U L I E S U M M E R S WA L K E R

TO DESCRIBE JULIE CLARK as enthusiastic would be akin to describing the sky as
blue or the sun as hot. This is one energetic woman, passionate pilot, and intense
patriot. After all, she flies a painstakingly
restored red, white, and blue 1949 Beech
T-34 Mentor in an airshow routine that
features music such as God Bless the USA
and, at the conclusion of her performance,
jumps-leaps-from her aircraft to meet
fans with such power that it belies her 67
years. She's been flying airshow routines
for more than 36 years and is rated in 66
different aircraft. And she has wanted to
do exactly what she's doing since she was
8 years old. "While most little girls were
playing with dolls, I was building models
of airplanes and reading all I could about
flying," she says.
Her father was the chief pilot for Pacific
Airlines in the 1960s, and Clark idolized
him and his career. "I thought that was the
greatest thing when I could go fly with my
dad," Clark says. Tragically, in 1964, Capt.
Ernie Clark was filling in for another pilot
on a flight from Reno, Nevada, to Oakland,
California, when a passenger entered the
unlocked cockpit and killed both Clark
and his first officer. The aircraft crashed,
killing everyone on board. Cockpit doors
have since been locked during commercial
flights under the "Clark Act."
The loss of her father (and her mother a
year earlier in an accident) did not deter the
aspiring pilot. She spent her college book
money on flying lessons. She was the first
woman to fly for Golden West Airlines and
eventually became a captain for Northwest
Airlines in 1984. She retired in 2004.
She bought her T-34 in 1977 "sight
unseen" and spent four years restoring the

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2015