The DC area

I fly upside down a lot.

Doug Byrd. Aerobatic pilot, flying musician, and a Tuskegee Airmen youth program graduate trying to do for young people what that program did for me.

Watch the sequence Work with me

Filmed from the cockpit. His own camera.

The Intermediate sequence

“We go through it in our mind before we ever step foot in the airplane.”

THE FULL SEQUENCE, 42 SECONDS, UNCUT

For those who are unfortunate enough not to know.... aerobatics is an exotic kind of flying. It is not flying straight and level. Rolls, loops, spins, and a few maneuvers where I point the airplane straight at the ground on purpose.

This is my Intermediate sequence, flown with my coach Rob Dumovic at Spread Aviation. Every figure is called out in advance and flown inside a box in the sky about a kilometre on each side. You do not get to improvise. That is the part people do not expect.

Prince George’s County, Maryland

A program decided I was worth the seat.

I started flight training at 16 and had my license at 17, through the East Coast Chapter Tuskegee Airmen’s Youth in Aviation Program. Class of 2008. Since then: eight aerobatic contests, a Commercial certificate, and years of paying for flying by cutting grass and playing bass. I’m still building. That’s the honest version, and the one I’d rather tell.

The whole story

Doug Byrd, smiling, beside aerobatic champion Michael Goulian at the ICAS convention — With Michael Goulian. ICAS, December 2025.

Doug Byrd playing steel pan at EAA AirVenture, wearing a CAF Red Tail cap — Steel pan at AirVenture. Photo: Flying Musicians Association.

16First training flight

17Licensed to fly

8Sanctioned contests, 2012 to 2021

2024Commercial certificate

Competed: eight contests. Carded: not yet. First season: the goal.

Flight log, recent

Aug 2026Chicago, ILOBAP Convention 2026
Jul 2026Oshkosh, WisconsinEAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2026
Jun 2026Nashua, New HampshireWorking the Intermediate sequence with coach Rob Dumovic.
Jun 2026Maryland Airport (2W5)Eyes Above the Horizon® youth outreach (Legacy Flight Academy)
Dec 2025Las Vegas, NevadaHis first ICAS convention, in his own words.

“If you’re sitting in a room with two fools, who’s going to be the third fool?
You are.”

How he talks to students. RealTalk podcast, January 2026.

Aviation is the icebreaker. The conversation is about study habits, who you spend your time around, and daring to want something.

The youth work

The next airplane

Looking for sponsors to make this airshow dream a reality

The airplane I competed in carries two other men’s names on the canopy rail. Theirs, rightly. It was never mine. The next one is unpainted because it’s unbought.

Partner with Doug