Race the Skies with Kirby Chambliss

Kirby Chambliss graced the cover of SOAR Magazine’s Spring 2015 issue. An amazing aeronautic pilot, Chambliss joined the Red Bull Air Race in 2003 and continues to demonstrate his drive to be one of the sky’s elite. Read on to learn how Chambliss got his start as a pilot in this interview with Jet Linx.

Kirby Chambliss has always known he wanted to be a pilot.

From the days of carting toy airplanes under his arm to helping his dad build an airplane at 13, he’s now a five-time U.S. National Aerobatic Champion and two-time Red Bull Air Race World Championship Champion. A husband to Kellie and father to Karly, Chambliss is a fierce competitor but a family man at heart. He’s worked hard to earn his spot at the top of the pack, but he’s quick to credit his team and a little bit of luck.

“I always consider myself fortunate because I’ve always known what I wanted to do,” Chambliss said. He might have been fortunate to know his goals from an early age, but it has certainly been hard work and dedication that’s propelled Chambliss forward. “I wasn’t the guy who wanted to be the fireman or the garbage man or the policeman, I wanted to be a pilot. And my dad played a key role in that, because of his experience in general aviation as a private pilot. When I was 13 years old, I was able to build an airplane with my dad.”

Chambliss is something of a private pilot himself, sometimes taking passengers for a ride in his team’s Zivko Edge 540T two-seater. YouTube videos shot with GoPro cameras show passengers wide-eyed and screaming as Chambliss calmly goes into roll after roll, changing direction with hardly a moment’s notice, until the only way a viewer can remain steady is to focus on the earth’s surface in the background. The stunts that seem breathtaking from the ground take on a new meaning of the word from cameras placed inside the cockpit or at the end of the wing, but Chambliss’s experience helps ensure the safety of all on board. Flying since the age of 13, Chambliss was Southwest Airlines’ youngest commercial pilot at 24. Captain at 28, he already had an eye to aerobatic flying, thanks to training during his years as a business jet pilot. Now, Chambliss participates in more than 25 events per year, including worldwide Red Bull Air Race engagements and air shows across the country.

Chambliss began competing in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship in its inaugural season in 2003, but his training with the Edge 540 used in the races began much earlier. “It was designed for flying aerobatics,” Chambliss said. “I was the test pilot from when it started in 1993 all the way up to about 2005, so I’m pretty well versed in it. It’s evolved over the years to be an unbelievable, unlimited aerobatic airplane, and also it’s very well suited for the Red Bull Air Race. I tell people all the time, if you can’t do it in this airplane, it pretty much can’t be done. Your imagination is kind of the limit. It’s super strong, super powerful and very agile.”

The Edge 540 isn’t the only ace up Chambliss’s sleeve. His team uses an Edge 540 V3 for racing, a “straight up Edge 540” for air shows, and an Edge 540T – the ‘T’ is for two seat – as a media plane. The planes don’t fly themselves – or keep themselves in tiptop shape required for precision flight. Team Chambliss includes Jason Resop, crew chief and ferry pilot, and Grant Groathouse, ferry pilot and team assistant. The pair, along with technician and aircraft inspector John Hanlon, keep the machines in racing condition: no easy task. “These aerobatic airplanes are racing cars, so they constantly need to be worked on,” Chambliss remarked. “We have two guys that will normally take our airshow airplane and the media plane. Then I take the [Piper] Meridian, and it provides my transportation and not only that, but all the support equipment and everything we need for the air show and everything that we need to support the other airplanes.”

The Meridian serves as the team’s support aircraft. “It plays a vital role in our business,” Chambliss said. “We had a different plane for about 8 years before we got the Meridian, and it was a great airplane. But I would just tell people, ‘I’m just so tired of being in the ice at night over the mountains.’ And the Meridian’s just a fantastic airplane; it’s really got a nice niche. It’s the Turboprop PT6, which is really reliable, and it’ll climb at 1,000 feet a minute up to 30,000 feet. It allows you to fly in the same type of weather as an airliner. So I can go a little later or at night and over the mountains, and climb over the ice and get out of a lot of the weather.”

Chambliss takes great satisfaction in competing. “I really got into it from an aerobatic standpoint, as well as being able to represent my country in a world-level competition,” he said. Chambliss is enamored with the sport from a technical standpoint. “The thing that I like about it is that there’s no such thing as a perfect flight, there’s always something to work on,” he said with a smile. “But when you come really close on a flight and do a double outside snap on a 45 line and look out and know you just nailed it, it gives you great satisfaction. Some of the things take hours and hours and hours and hours and hours to develop or get them right or come up with a new figure or take a figure and make it better and more exciting. I tell people I consider myself an artist: the sky is the canvas and the plane is the paintbrush. try to paint a beautiful picture for everybody to see at the air show.”

Chambliss is an award-winning sky painter: he’s been recognized as a five-time U.S. National Aerobatic Champion. “I struggled, and I had two second places before I won in ’98 and quite frankly you start to question yourself. ‘Can I win?’ It’s so much work,” Chambliss said, quietly reminiscing on the tough years.

“When I finally won it the first time in 1998, it was an amazing experience for me, because I’d just gotten to the point where I was thinking, ‘Is this doable?'” Once he stood atop the podium for the first time, Chambliss knew he would be there again. “It’s easier to win after that because if you’ve already won, you know you can do it. It’s a confidence thing. After I won two or three times I expected to win, and it makes it easier when you have that mentality.”

The winning mentality followed Chambliss into the Red Bull Air Race World Championship. Chambliss won the series in 2004 and 2006 and cites the 2006 victory as the sweetest in his Red Bull career. “It was amazing. We were in Australia, and there were just tons of people there. We had our ups and downs throughout the year and it was a tough year, but we ended up winning the whole thing.”

Read more about Team Chambliss in SOAR Magazine’s Spring 2015 issue, available online.