Doug Vayda

But his laidback personality and great big grin belie the truth—Vayda is a hardnosed, tough, highly accomplished aerobatic pilot, a guy who grew up to be just like his father. Vayda is one of five children born to U.S. Air Force Col. Bob Vayda, who flew bombers in the Korean War, flew three tours in Vietnam, and was a test fighter pilot. “When I grew up it was no question whether or not I wanted to fly. I was told by the colonel I was going to fly,” said Vayda. But the son and father didn’t see eye to eye until later in life.

The summer before he was to enter the U.S. Air Force Academy, his mother was killed in a boating accident. His father was driving the boat. “I was an 18-year-old punk. I got mad and I split.” He worked in Alaska for 10 years before going home. He’d been flying but it wasn’t until he returned home to Florida that the “flying bug really bit me hard,” he said. He and his father opened a banner tow business in the Destin area. “We’d fly up and down the beaches. Some of the absolute best times of my life were flying with my dad doing that,” he said. Then he went straight and did well as an investment broker but he “just did not like the coat and tie.”

At Southeast Aero in St. Augustine he met Walter Extra, inventor of the Extra series of aerobatic airplanes from Germany. Extra offered him a job. “It was fly airplanes, fly Extras, make money, or put on a coat and tie every day.” Vayda was director of sales and chief pilot for Extra Aircraft for more than 20 years. “I spent a lot of my time teaching a lot of people—some really famous people—how to fly these hot rods.” Ironically when he first started flying Vayda suffered from airsickness. “I just had to stay with it and conquer it. My dad was a pretty fantastic pilot, and I didn’t want to wimp out. I stuck it out and found I had a touch, and in [aerobatic] competition I could hold my own against some pretty good guys.”

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