York Guides

(Yorkshire Post)

The thought of performing turns and twists which subject the body to six times the force of gravity might be enough to make the strongest stomach turn over.
But now Yorkshire pilot Ms Dennis is putting those who still snigger about "the weaker sex" to shame, by becoming the only female flyer in the national aerobatic championships, starting in Peterborough on Friday.
Tipped as one of the leading contenders in the event, Ms Dennis, 44, said: "There is a bit of joshing about not wanting to be beaten by a girl, but it's all pretty light-hearted."
Men and women, it seems, really are equals in the sky.
"This sport is a really good leveller. It's quite a small flying community and I don't really think I get treated any differently being a woman," she added.
As well as flying, Ms Dennis combines a love of motorbikes and horses with running her own clothing design company from her home in Skipwith, near York.
She always wanted to fly, and after her first trip in a two-seater aircraft in 1999, she was hooked. Her first aerobatic lesson shortly afterwards was "the start of an even more expensive addiction."
After gaining her pilot's licence in just five and a half months – at a cost of £5,000 – she bought a share in a single-seat Pitts special S1S : a 180hp aerobatic plane with a top speed of nearly 200mph.
With some stunts requiring her to withstand six times the force of gravity, her fear of heights was soon forgotten. She said: "Once I become detached from the ground I no longer feel the pull of it any more. People love it or hate it. You find out pretty quickly which one you are."
She is competing in the higher level of the two-tier national championships with points awarded by a panel of judges for the efficiency of their acrobatic turns and manoeuvres.
With three competition wins already under her belt this season, Ms Dennis is nearing her goal of becoming a national force in European acrobatics.
The pilots are all briefed in emergency procedures and aviation law, and have a minimum altitude below which they are not supposed to fly for safety reasons. But that has not prevented Ms Dennis continuing to search for a sponsor a parachute – something she has been reluctant to invest in herself because she needs all her money to keep flying.
Training flights up to three times a day means she has to find £7,000 for her hobby every year – or risk losing her competitive edge.
"A parachute costs £500, and that works out to roughly 10 hours of flying. I could really do with one for obvious reasons. But it boils down to how much flying time I will miss," she explained.