The mind freezes.

The force is overpowering.

The body is bound to the cockpit seat of the 180-horsepower red and blue Super Decathlon airplane. Any attempt to lift an arm is futile, because the pressure of six G-forces on a body creates the feeling that it is six times its normal weight.

It’s all in a day’s work for the SIU Aerobatic Team – a six-member aviation unit that travels throughout the Midwest showing its piloting skills while performing an array of stunts, including loops and barrel rolls.

Having students fly upside down performing tricks in a two-seater plane may sound dangerous, but the notion is unfounded, said Charley Rodriguez, assistant professor of aviation technologies.

“When they hear the word aerobatics and college students, they think, ‘Oh man, that’s a recipe for disaster,'” he said. “That’s a very bad misconception because, if anything, it makes these young people better pilots.”

Aerobatics conjures up an image of daredevil pilots in decorated planes performing impossible maneuvers too close to the ground at air shows, Rodriguez said, but the collegiate competitions are much different.

Team captain Andrew Bochnovic, a senior from Glen Ellyn studying aviation technologies, said air show pilots sacrifice the precision of aerobatic flying for the crowd’s “wow-factor” achieved by accomplishing impossible feats with the airplane.

“Air show pilots, more or less, they’re real good at what they do, but they just go whacking around the thing and make everything look great,” he said.

Bochnovic said the SIU team’s tricks are judged on clean execution, such as the precision of angles. It is this attention to small detail that makes aerobatic pilots better at flying, Rodriguez said.

Bochnovic said he was always fascinated with flying and described himself as an airport kid who spent long hours watching planes.

“I always wanted to do it, so I just kind of decided I was going to do it, and here I am,” he said.

A pilot of nearly six years, Bochnovic said his curiosity in aerobatic flying peaked about a year ago when a friend described the activity to him. He said he has been hooked since his first flight.

“What pilot hasn’t thought about being upside down?” he said.

Beyond becoming skilled pilots, the team has also learned about camping.

Bochnovic said money for the team was scarce, which has caused its members to set up tents at the airports during competitions instead of getting hotel rooms. He said breakfast consists of whatever is left over from the previous night.

Despite their meager means, the team continues to beat its competition, Rodriguez said.

“They’re winning national titles despite having the big disadvantages,” he said.

The team started in 2001 when one student studying aviation technologies could not fly for SIU’s regular flight team because it is reserved for aviation management and flight students.

Rodriguez said E. Tyson Englehardt, who graduated from the university in 2001, presented the idea of starting an aerobatic flight team to him in fall 2001. Rodriguez said he was immediately on board with the plan.

Englehardt, Rodriguez and Englehardt’s father – who at the time was a senior captain for United Airlines – laid out general rules to be used by all colleges interested in competing, and before long, the International Aerobatic Club started the collegiate-level competitions.

“Really between Ty and his father, the whole thing got off the ground,” Rodriguez said.

During its six year run, the SIUC team has won the IAC Collegiate National Championship Team Award five times and has had four Collegiate National Champions. There are about six other schools that compete, including the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, Rodriguez said.

Englehardt, who won the individual title in 2001, said he began flying aerobatics in 1997, nearly six months after he got his pilot’s license. The then 17-year-old said he signed up for three aerobatic flight lessons to enhance his skills.

“I just thought it was a good part of flight training,” he said. “It really makes you more comfortable in the airplane, learning what the airplane is capable of doing.”

Despite an unpleasant first flight, Englehardt said he went back because he already paid for the lessons.

“I went back for the second one and really enjoyed it,” he said. “I went back for the third one and it was even better, and I was hooked.”

Eric Platt, a freshman studying aviation technologies from Chester, said he already has an aviation management and flight degree but wanted to learn more about the mechanical aspects of planes, so he joined the team this season.

“One of the underlying reasons for coming to get my (Airframe and Powerplant certification) was also to be on the aerobatic team,” Platt said.

He said his first time in an aerobatic plane was different from his preconceived notions, but the experience was more than he expected – especially the negative G-force.

“Negative g’s makes you feel like your eyes are going to pop out of your head,” Platt said. “It’s a weird feeling.”

The team’s first competition this year is set to take place June 10 in Aurora.

Bochnovic said he wants the team to prove once again that it has the best aerobatic pilots in the nation.

“Of course I’m looking forward to it, hoping to keep up that tradition that we got going on – kind of our winning tradition, I guess,” he said. “Not hoping, knowing.”

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