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QTVR Photo: Bill Crump and Larry Lowe

U. S. Team:
82-84-86-88-90-92-94-96

Women's Team Gold 1988
Second in World 1990
Fond-du-Lac Cup 1991
IAC Champion 1992
Betty Skelton Award 1995

A/C: CAP 231

Photo: Jim Koepnick/EAA

Put her in a pinstripe suit, tidy up the hairdo and Linda Meyers Morrissey could run a Fortune 500 corporation with the same finesse with which she delivers her Unlimited Freestyle. Meyers Morressey is the ranking member of the United States Aerobatic Team, and one of its most articulate and thoughtful spokespersons. When a visiting journalist visits the team training camp, Meyers Morrissey automatically takes on the task to provide introductions and give a brief familiarization tour of the training facility, an instinctive act reflecting one of her earlier careers as managing director of Kermit Week's aviation museum in Florida. Her conversation is filled with insights that usually address the subject at hand from a perspective a level above the surface issues, and her observations are unusually perceptive.

A LaPorte Indiana native, Linda Meyers holds a BS in Accounting, Business and Interior Design from Purdue University, where she also gained her first exposure to aviation. She began her aerobatic career in the early 80's when she moved to Florida, a hot bed of aerobatic activity in the US, and began an association with Weeks, who was a presence in the sport during the 80's. From the beginning, it was understood that Meyers' participation in sport aerobatics would be at the United States team level. Her first appearance on the world competition scene was at WAC XI in Spitzerberg, Austria in 1982, where she placed 9th in the Women's flying the Weeks Special and took home a Silver Medal as a member of the second place U.S. Women's Team. At the 1984 WAC XII, held in Békéscsaba, Hungary, she captured her first Gold medal for her performance in the Known, again flying the Weeks Special. She also received a Bronze, as the Women's team slipped to third place that year.

At the weather impeded 1986 WAC XIII held in South Cerney, England, Meyers transitioned from the biplane to a monoplane derived from the Stevens Acro/Loudenslager Laser genre, colorfully named the "Abernathy Streaker". She received another Silver that year, as the U.S. Women's team moved back into second place, but the real story is her performance in the Unknown, which stands as one of the memorable flights in U.S. competition history. Meyers had made a costly mistake in the free, and in the words of U.S. team member Bill McIntyre, it was now "a one-flight World Championships for Linda. She came out and attacked the Unknown like a pit bull, and would not let go. She was merciless." The standout performance in the most difficult flight at a WAC earned Meyers her second gold medal--for first place in the Unknown that year.

Nineteen eighty-eight was a banner year for U.S. Aerobatics. The WAC XIV was held in Red Deer, Alberta Canada that year, and the United States Woman's Team consisting of Linda Meyers, Ellen Dean and Patty Wagstaff captured the FAI Challenge Cup trophy for first place in Woman's Team Aerobatics, gaining a unique spot in aerobatic history as this was the first year the trophy was offered. Meyers brought home a FAI silver medal for her second place performance in the Free, as well as the first for the Women's Team.

In Yverdon, Switzerland at WAC XV in 1990, Linda Meyers arrived in a brand new, state of the art CAP 231. With not more than 50 hours on the airplane, much of which was ferry time, Meyers was at something of a disadvantage. When the dust settled, however, she was second overall in the Women's category, behind Natalya Sergeeva of the Soviet Union, as well as a member of the again second place U. S. Women's team and her own third place finish in the Known.

The 1992 WAC XVI in Le Havre, France was weathered out, the competition scrubbed due to high winds, but Meyers continued her unbroken string of United States Team appearances that by now spanned a decade of world aerobatic competition. In 1994 she brought the CAP 231 to WAC XVII in Debreçen, Hungary, where the U. S. Team fared as poorly as anyone can remember in international competition.

CAP 231 Photo: Jim Koepnick/EAA

For WAC XVIII, the CAP 231 is painted in the distinctive Brietling colors, and Meyers Morrissey, now married to team trainer John Morrissey and living in Lee's Summit Missouri, where she and her husband operate Great Planes Aerobatics, is practicing fiercely.

It's been a long run in a demanding sport for this veteran. Along the way, she picked up an IAC Aerobatic Championship in 1982, became the first and only woman thus far to win an international masters cup championship outright at the 1991 Fond-du-Lac Masters Cup and was recipient of the Betty Skelton First Lady of Aerobatics Award in 1995. It's a safe bet she's headed for the IAC Aerobatics Hall of Fame someday.

Linda Meyers Morressey has seen the ups and downs of the sport along the way, but listening to her talk, seeing her work with the team and most of all watching her fly the CAP 231, you know you're dealing with a class act. Seldom does the polished persona drop its guard and let the youngster inside peek out, but it is still there, and occasionally it does. She is just as willing to grab a radio and go call the box limits for a fellow team member in practice as she is to explain to the media the allure of the sport that has kept her at it for so long. There's no question Linda Meyers Morrissey will be a factor in the upcoming contest, whether it's working quietly behind the scenes to support the team, or snarling through the Unknown like she did in 1984.

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