Rocky Hill not only does acrobatics with his friend Larry Long, he does stunt flying professionally.

Photograph by Erik Hildebrandt from his book 'Front Row Center'

Pair of Aces

Two local stunt pilots demonstrate the ups and downs and upside-downs of their hobby

By Nathan R. Huff

There's something exhilarating about zooming along at 200 miles per hour, banking left and right less than 100 feet above Calaveras Reservoir. Unfortunately, there's something quite nauseating about the experience as well.

Looking at downloaded videos of an identical plane pulling death-defying maneuvers the day before, that feeling of nausea was nowhere to be found. In fact, there was really no way to comprehend that what looked like a trackless roller coaster felt more like stepping into the ring for a few rounds with Mike Tyson.

Even as the emergency procedures are explained in the small metal hangar and the plane's 300 horses come to life, the whole situation still has the feel of a surrealistic amusement park. Two minutes later the experience is less virtual and more reality.

Perhaps it's the dizzying spins or the sheer physical force of seven G's of pressure, but, either way, the video just doesn't do the experience justice. On the other hand, maybe that was the advantage of the video--doing the experience justice meant feeling the full effects. And feeling the full effects means feeling one's stomach in one's throat.

So, as local stunt pilot Larry Long pulls his two-seater stunt plane up away from the water and asks the Los Gatos Weekly-Times reporter if he wants to try anything else, all the reporter can muster to say through the headset-microphone is a, "No, I think that's good."

After a series of relatively simple rolls, loop-to-loops and a gut-wrenching "vertical torque roll," this land-based digestive system is showing signs of rebellion. Leaving the designated stunt-flying area, Long and his queasy passenger head back toward Reid Hillview Airport, where friend and fellow stunt aviator Rocky Hill and the Weekly-Time's photographer take bets on the state of the first-time stunt flyer's stomach.


Larry Long (left) and Rocky Hill keep their acrobatic planes at Reid-Hillview Airport. They frequently do stunts and fly in formation over Calaveras Reservoir--as a way to relax at the end of a hard day at work.




Strapped tightly into the front seat of the plane, the reporter begins to think he's going to beat the odds--make it back to the ground with a clean bill of health. But as Long drops a wing and banks hard left to prepare for landing, that little voice in the pit of the stomach sends a very clear message: "Forget it pal, no way are you going to make it."

Pulling into the hangar area, Hill is all smiles looking up at Long and the extremely green-faced reporter seated in front of him holding a small white bag. Hill and the photographer laugh at the sight of the sweat-stained writer attempting to undo his safety harness and parachute.

Between chuckles, Hill offers up words of encouragement. Pointing to the back of his own hangar--which adjoins his buddy Long's--Hill tells the weary but smiling reporter, "That's why I put those couches back there. When I was first doing this the same thing happened to me."

Nowadays, the two pals do this for fun after a long day at work. The veteran pilots, Hill a Saratoga resident and Long a Los Gatos resident, don't feel anything other than G-forces and adrenaline rushes when they take a post-work flight.

Hill, who runs a large container business in San Jose, spends almost half his year traveling to and performing in air shows across the country. This year alone, Rocky Hill Airshows and its chief sponsor America Online will travel to almost a dozen different shows, some with crowds of close to 900,000 people and another with one particularly important viewer--the President of the United States.

In the meantime, Long will fly four to five times a week himself. While he isn't willing to make the air show schedule time commitment, Hill makes the journey down from his Hayward Toyota dealership to the Reid Hillview airport on a regular basis.


Photograph by Erik Hildebrandt from his book 'Front Row Center'

Rocky Hill flies from March through November in air shows across the country.




While other married men might take a few hours off work to grab a beer with their cohorts, Hill and Long prefer a more exciting way to wind down after a day of work. Do their wives mind the duo's penchant for high-speed, aerial acrobatics?

"Nah," Long says. "It keeps us out of trouble."

The two airmen have been staying out of trouble together for the past two years. Long grew up in New York, coming to California more than 20 years ago for a change of scenery. After seven years in the Los Angeles area, work brought him up to the west valley. He now lives with his wife and 13- and 16 year-old children in Los Gatos, commuting daily up to Hayward and almost daily down to Reid Hillview Airport.

Hill, who lives in Saratoga with his wife and two teenagers and a 14-month-old baby, is a Class of 1976 Los Gatos High School graduate. He even served as a youth councilman for the Town of Los Gatos as an 8th-grade Van Meter student. The octagon bulletin board kiosk across from town hall is his enduring accomplishment as a public official, he jokes.


Rocky Hill helps Larry Long pull his plane out of the hangar.




Hill began flying 25 years ago, learning from his father, who was also a pilot. Long is a more recent convert, who fell in love with aviation after a business partner took him for a ride in his plane 10 years ago.

In an "it's a small world" episode of life just over two years ago, the two men ran into each other on the property line dividing their hunting properties south of Hollister. After talking, they discovered that, not only did they have a number of friends in common, they flew the same type of planes. Then, as chance would have it, they were assigned neighboring hangars at Reid Hillview.

Now the two fly together whenever they get the chance, mock dog-fighting in the "Wavered Aerobatics Box"--an area of air space the FAA opens on request for stunt flying over the Calaveras Reservoir. Rolling, diving and tumbling, the pilots fly their almost identical 1,400 pound "Tumble Time" Extra 300 aircrafts just feet over the water.

"It's like anything else," Long says. "You just like the camaraderie [of flying together]. Naturally, you can visually critique each other, too."

Two to three times a week, Hill and Long fly together, sometimes doing tricks and other times in formation, their planes 6 to 10 feet apart. Think of it as an extreme version of a post-work softball game.

"You can have a bad day at work, then you go fly and you're on Cloud Nine when you're done," Long says.

Hill tries to make it more difficult to have a bad day at work by turning stunt flying into an occupation. While Hill also runs his San Jose Tote-a-Shed business, close to 10 weeks a year he's off to various destinations across the country to perform in air shows. The air-show season runs from March to November, moving from the south to the north, and back to the south.


Photograph by Kathy De La Torre

Larry Long, in the pilot's seat, gets clearance to taxi the runway. Our bright-eyed reporter sits in front of him, looking forward to what he assumes will be something akin to an amusement park ride.




The shows are media circuses, Hill says, with the America Online-sponsored crew flying planes to each location almost a week in advance. Hill--who happily reports he flies to the sites on more cushy commercial planes--will perform for the major networks and cable stations all week before the scheduled air show.

Last month, Hill performed as part of an Andrew's Air Force Base show with fellow civilian pilots, as well as the Blue Angels and other military stunt groups. Two weeks ago, St. Louis played host to The Rocky Hill Air Show, as Hill executed stunts over the Mississippi River with the St. Louis Arch in the background.

"One of the things I like about the air shows is you can show people flying and maybe get them interested," Hill says, adding that he gets emails from people who saw a show and are now enrolled in flying lessons.

Learning to fly, both Hill and Long say, is not that extraordinarily difficult. Aside from landings, memorizing all the rules and regulations are the hardest part, they say. Even the physical stresses put on the body--which, as was discovered by this reporter, are severe--are easily adjusted to in time. Not to say the forces aren't serious.

"If you can imagine you have a 2,200-pound back pack on, that's what it feels like," Hill says, before adding, "But if you do it all the time you absolutely do not feel it. You just jump in, go up, get out, and you're off and going."


Photograph by Erik Hildebrandt from his book 'Front Row Center'

Rocky Hill flies with a crew sponsored by America Online.




Children pick up piloting particularly fast, Hills says. "If they've ever played a video game, they take to it so fast." Both pilots let their own children take control occasionally, though none have indicated a desire to follow in their fathers' high-flying footsteps quite yet.

Despite the seemingly inherent dangers, neither Hill nor Long really think about the chances of an accident happening while they're in the air, hence their enthusiasm for anyone interested to take up flying.

"You get to know these airplanes very well," Hill says, running his hand along the plane's 26-foot wingspan. "You know where a weak spot is and what to look for."


Photograph by Erik Hildebrandt from his book 'Front Row Center.'

Rocky Hill spends about 10 weeks each year flying at air shows. Flying an acrobatic plane through a wall of smoke is one of his air-show stunts.




Long says the most common problems occur when a plane is in the hands of a once-a-month operator. "The safety factor is doing it all the time," he says. "If I go five days without flying, I lose a little edge."

Neither report ever having a close call. Hill doesn't count the two times he tried to escape the plane but couldn't open the canopy. Both times, he says, the problem "fixed itself" and abandoning the aircraft would have actually been a "waste."

While many stunt pilots eventually give up the life of thrills and chills, Long and Hill just can't see following other stunt aviators into the realm of commercial jets. The Los Gatan and Saratogan just have too much fun to trade in their $225,000 toys for seats in a 747 cockpit.

"Nah," says Long, smiling, "That'd be too boring."

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