Amelia Rose Earhart has also become one of the biggest names in aviation – thanks in part to recently becoming the youngest woman to circumnavigate the world in a single-engine airplane. Earhart, 31, has been a pilot for about 10 years, logged over 400 hours and with the help of her foundation, is offering younger girls a chance to chase their dreams of becoming a female pilot. But earlier this month, the California native got an adventure that seemed like a dream come true, when she flew with Red Bull Air Race pilot Kirby Chambliss before this weekend’s races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
While the two might not have been whipping around 80-foot-high air-filled pylons at 10 g-forces and speeds of up to 230 mph like an actual race, Chambliss gave his young admirer a sample of just what the agile aircraft could do.
We recently got the chance to chat with Earhart about the experience, where also we discussed other things including the origin of her name and following in her namesake’s footsteps. Be sure to tune into FOX Sports 1 Monday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. to catch the full-length broadcast of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship, or check out Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s website for tickets.
CraveOnline: Before we start, your name is a unique one. I’m sure you get this all the time, but can you explain how it came about?
Amelia Rose Earhart: So, my family shares the same last name with the first Amelia Earhart, but we aren’t related, and basically my parents wanted to give me a good role model and wanted to give me a unique name, even though it was the same as Amelia. They wanted to give me an inspirational name, but they also wanted to give me a name no one would forget – and cause people to remember me after they met me. And that definitely worked. Until I was about 18 I went by Amy, because I was teased so much. Now at this point, it’s the best thing they could’ve given me. It was an awesome gift.
Crave: You mentioned teasing, was it tough growing up with that name?
Earhart: It was tough because I was always getting compared to the first Amelia and the questions were always, ‘are you a pilot?’ or, ‘would you ever fly around the world?’ and you get kind of sick of being compared, which is when I thought I should learn how to fly because if I liked it that would be a great thing and I’d have a lot of great adventures because of it. But if I had a bad fear of flying, or something like that, I could learn deal with it. So, I took that first flying lesson at 21 and I’ve been flying for 10 years and it turns out I do love it – and it’s become my biggest passion.
Crave: How did you get into flying, did your namesake play a role in that?
Earhart: Absolutely, I’ve had this last name all my life and my teachers, parents and everyone I interacted with talked about Amelia because she’s such a cool, historic figure. She completely changed the way women found their opportunities and how we viewed aviation. So, for me, it was fun to have this tie to this really brave figure that did great things and I kind of felt that I was pretty similar to her. I’ve always been a daredevil – always jumping out of airplanes, or doing rock climbing, or doing adventurous things as much as I could. So, flying was a natural fit. After the first flight lesson, I called my Dad and said, ‘Dad, I know this is cheesy, but I feel like I’m flying with Amelia’. I’ve always felt like she’s in the cockpit with me in some way, you know, her adventurous spirit and that what I’ve done with Fly With Amelia, the hashtag I use on social media – and that’s what I named my foundation, the Fly With Amelia Foundation, which is how we help other girls get into flying if they don’t have the financial means to do so.
Crave: 400 hours flying, so we have to ask, had you ever experienced anything like your adventure with Kirby Chambliss in preparation for the upcoming Red Bull Air Race?
Earhart: You know, I had done some aerobatic training before, but it was nothing like what Kirby took me through. The flight with Kirby was intense on a level that I never imagined and the other thing that made it so unique is that we were flying over the ocean. I mean we were off the pacific coast, so the views were so stunning. We had blue skies above, we had the ocean below – so, you completely get, at least for me because I know Kirby wasn’t, disoriented in terms of what was up and what was down. It was totally thrilling on a whole other level.
Crave: We could tell in the video that you were like a kid in a candy store, just in awe.
Earhart: Absolutely [laughs].
Crave: Have you seen one of the Red Bull Air Races up close and personal?
Earhart: I have. I went to the air races at Fort Worth, Texas and Kirby competed, along with everyone else, and to be totally honest, I was shocked at how close you are to the planes. When you’re sitting in the speedway like that, these planes are right there – you can hear the engines, you can hear the change in power, you can hear when they climb. You’ve also got the cockpit cameras inside the plane and they’ve got them up on the jumbotron, so you can see expressions on the pilots’ faces. The people who came were totally engaged and everybody was just on the edge of their seat, waiting for what happens next and to see the G-force monitor on the screen, you know what the pilot is doing, you know how fast they’re going, you’ve got their airspeed right in front of you – it’s a pretty engaging event.
Crave: The crowd gets nervous, the pilots are used to it, but what about you – were you nervous with Kirby?
Earhart: You know, I think I’ve lost my ability to get nervous in airplanes. I have a healthy respect for airplanes – I know what can happen, but no. Kirby walked me around the plane and told me what to expect, strapped me in, I was wearing a parachute, I had on multiple harnesses and, you know, he’s a pretty incredible pilot. I know for a lot of folks there would be a lot of fear, but since I’ve been upside-down in airplane, there was more of a thrill. And for me there’s a definite difference.
Crave: What is that like, what is it like to be upside-down in an airplane?
Earhart: The best part is when you’re hanging upside-down for so long, that you’re body completely separates from the seat and you’ve got two harnesses on but you’re hanging upside-down and you saw my hair in the video. I have really long air, so it’s completely hanging upside-down, touching the canopy and you’ve got the ocean underneath you and the sky above you – no wait, it’s the opposite [laughs]. I said to Kirby, ‘how long can this plane stay upside-down before you have to roll it back over?’ wondering about the fuel lines and how the oil gets to the engine and he explained that the plane was designed that if the human body could take it, the plane could fly upside-down for 20 minutes.
Crave: Did you know Kirby before this experience?
Earhart: Yes, in a couple of different ways. So, Kirby has always been a huge role model for me. I would always watch air shows as a young pilot going through training and, you know, Kirby Chambliss was always a name I would hear and I’d follow him on Twitter and Facebook and just kind of be in awe of what he was capable of doing. Then through the years, as I appreciated my flying and eventually finished my flight around the world, we had some mutual sponsors and so we would find ourselves at a couple different events. And I will tell you what, the first time I had an autograph signing with Kirby and myself, where our pictures were next to each other and we showed up and signed autographs together, I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. Like I was sitting next to Kirby and people actually wanted my autograph. I just really respect what he’s doing. He’s a super comfortable guy. If a fan walks up to him, he’s absolutely willing to stop, take a picture, sign an autograph and shake your hand.
Ed Miller is a contributor for CraveOnline Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @PhillyEdMiller or “like” CraveOnline Sports on Facebook.
Photo and video content courtesy of Red Bull Content Pool
