On the Cover: SAM MASON: The YoungestMember of the U.S. National Aerobatic Team

Sammy at 17 years of age flying his family’s 1941 Boeing Stearman PT-17 at the Cable Airshow in 2012! (Anthony Taylor/Warbirdfotos.com)In 2013, at 19, Sam Mason became the youngest member of the U.S. National Aerobatic Team. He will represent the United States at the World Advanced Aerobatic Championships this summer in Slovakia. Cover photo is Sammy at 17 years of age flying his family’s 1941 Boeing Stearman PT-17 at the Cable Airshow in 2012!

Aerobatic Pilot Sammy Mason

Sammy Mason’s effortless flying style comes from a life immersed in aviation. The Mason family flies airplanes as casually as a normal family drives cars. Sammy’s parents run the family business restoring vintage airplanes and managing the airport in Santa Paula, Calif. Sammy lives at the airport above the family hangar. He shares the name of his grandfather, an aerobatic pilot famous for his displays in modified Boeing Stearman and for accomplishing the first loop in a helicopter.

In the hangar, next to his grandfather’s Stearman, sits his competition airplane - a red Pitts S1S. It was a family affair to restore the airplane, which arrived to the shop badly damaged from a landing accident. In his first contest season in the Pitts, Sammy moved up quickly; winning multiple Sportsman and Intermediate contests and finishing the year at the top of the Advanced field. Sammy is a commercial pilot with over 1,500 hours logged in more than 50 types of aircraft. He was the youngest airshow pilot in the world at age 16 flying an aerobatic motorglider and today flies shows in his Pitts S1S as well as a replica of his grandfather’s Stearman. Watch for him to make headlines this summer at the World Advanced Aerobatic Championships!