Unlike many career aviators, professional airshow pilot Brian Correll did not grow up around airplanes. Still, he brings a love for aviation and aerial acrobatics with him to the Great Bend Airport Airfest, Sept. 17-19. 

Correll, who grew up on a farm near Spearville in southwest Kansas, said he had no childhood experience with airplanes, but as a farm youth, did have a passion for all things mechanical. As a kid on a farm, he said he was always working on something.

“I always liked working with my hands,” Correll said. “I had dirt bikes and (other) things I was always trying to keep running.”

That love for mechanics led him to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering at Kansas State University, where he had his first experience in an airplane as a freshman. His first experience was not like most, though.

“A friend of mine asked if I wanted to go to a ‘First Jump’ class with the K-State Parachute Club,” Correll said. “So my first ride on an airplane was to jump out of it.”

Sixty more jumps from an airplane would ensue before he experienced his first landing in an aircraft, but from then on, a love of all things aviation was kindled.

“Flying is a three-dimensional freedom that we get to enjoy, whether it’s going up and doing a little sightseeing to introduce somebody to aviation, (or) take you all the way across the world,” Correll said.

After receiving his degree from K-State, Correll pursued both private and commercial pilots’ licenses, eventually becoming certified as a flight instructor, and pursuing military aviation as a member of the Air National Guard.

But it’s more than just flying the planes, or jumping from them, that keeps Correll involved in aviation.

His love for mechanics and hands-on craftsmanship eventually led him to purchase and rebuild an airplane of his own in 2010, a 1979 Pitts S2S biplane, the plane he now flies in airshows.

About the plane

The plane Correll brings to Airfest was originally built in a factory in Wyoming in 1979. But the plane he flies now is definitely not the plane that rolled off the line.

Since purchasing the aircraft in 2010, Correll undertook what he called a “tip to tail” remodelling to make it more suited to the aerial acrobatics he loves to do.

“It’s like a car; if you want to get the most performance out of it, you have to make it fit your specifications,” he said.

The fuselage of the plane is a rebuilt and reinforced chromoly steel, built similarly to the chassis of a racecar. He also rebuilt the wings of the aircraft out of a strong and fatigue-resistant wood, as well as updating the plane’s controls, including the engine, propeller and instrumentation. Also, instead of an aluminum covering, Correll covered the plane in a Dacron polyester-style fabric. 

All the changes, he said, add up to a stronger, lighter and more efficient airplane for his acrobatic stunt shows.

Correll said flying the plane in an airshow is, “like riding the biggest roller coaster you can find.”

He loves doing it not only for the thrill of flying, but the chance to share his love for aviation and aerial acrobatics with “kids of all ages.”

“(I have) young kids to kids in their 80s come up to me and want to talk to me about the airplane, or flying, or anything like that,” he said.

Correll said his goal with his shows is to, “entertain, educate and inspire.”

In particular, he hopes to educate people about the rich aviation in Kansas, something he discovered as he got into aviation himself. Great Bend and the B-29s flown here are a significant part of that history.

Through that, he said, he hopes to inspire young people to set goals and pursue them passionately, because it can open a lot of doors in the future as aviation did for him.

“If you enjoy (what you’re doing), it makes going to work everyday a lot more enjoyable,” he said.

Other flight experience

When he is not flying airshows, Correll works professionally as a Production Flight Test Pilot for Textron Aviation near Wichita, as well as serving as an instructor pilot for the KC-135 in the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

In his aviation career, he has logged over 9,000 flight hours in over 100 different models of aircraft, and has logged over 3,000 hours as an FAA-certified flight instructor.

In addition to his work as a pilot and instructor, Correll is FAA-certified as a flight mechanic, and has logged over 750 skydives in his aviation career.

He currently lives near Wichita on an airpark with his wife Rachel and two sons.