The brilliant stunts of the Spanish pilot Juan Velarde explained by himself

@DefAviation ES 3·12·2024 · 14:35 0

Juan Velarde is a name that deserves to be pronounced with reverence and admiration by aviation fans in Spain.

This is one of the classic aircraft exhibitions of the Fundación Infante de Orleáns
The Beechcraft C-45 Twin Beech of the FIO, a jewel of Spanish aviation from 1942

This pilot, born in Madrid in 1974, combines his passion for flying in two very different ways: the first, as a commercial aircraft pilot as commander of Iberia, and the second and more spectacular, as an acrobatic pilot. I saw him for the first time many years ago at the Vigo Air Festival and I was amazed by his skill. Juan has been a member of the National Aerobatic Flight Team and has been winning trophies as an aerobatic pilot in several countries for years.

Nowadays Juan flies a Zivko Edge 540 V2, a single-engine plane specially designed for stunt flying, with a fuselage 6.3 meters long, a span of 7.43 meters, a weight of 540 kg and a power of 300 HP. What Juan can do with this machine seems purely unreal, as he demonstrated on March 3 at the Cuatro Vientos airfield in Madrid, during an exhibition of the Fundación Infante de Orleáns, of which he is a collaborator. Today Fly By Wire Aviation has published a video of that exhibition in which Juan Velarde himself explains the maneuvers he carried out (the video is in Spanish, you can activate the automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):

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Main photo: Paco Rivas / juanvelarde26.com.