Debbie Gary Class of 1965

Ms. Gary graduated from William MacFarland High School in 1965. After graduation, she attended George Washington University for two years. She left college when her father asked her to take a semester off in 1967 to accompany him to St. Thomas, where he was beginning a construction job. Her long career in aviation began during that time.

In 1969, Debbie attended the University of Florida for one year. “A number of people suggested that since I was a flight instructor, I might like to study aeronautical engineering.” When she realized the curriculum had little to do with the actual flying that she loved, Debbie left after a former boss lured her away to another adventurous flying job.

In 1983, Debbie returned to college at the University of Houston to take creative writing courses. Her coursework was part-time since she had to divide her time between school and being a mother and wife. She received her degree in Journalism in 1994, graduating Magna Cum Laude.

Debbie had a unique aviation career, flying airshows throughout the United States, Canada, and parts of Mexico and the Caribbean from 1971 until 2009, and writing for aviation magazines from 1995 to the present. She took flying lessons at Trenton Aviation at Mercer County Airport in 1966 and later completed her first flying license in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

She began her career in 1968 at a glider flying school in St. Croix. She spent some time flying tourists between Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands but quickly realized that the adventurous side of aviation—teaching in gliders and flying upside down for a living—was more her style. In 1969, she flew her first glider demonstration at an airshow in St. Croix, and in 1971 she flew her first aerobatic airshow at Warren-Sugarbush Airport in Vermont.

From 1971 to late 1973, Debbie toured the United States and Canada, leading a two-plane formation aerobatic team with Jim Holland Airshows. In 1973, she competed against 39 other pilots for a position on a fully sponsored four-biplane aerobatic team. She won a slot and, from 1973 until 1975, flew the number four position on the Carling Aerobatic Team based in Ontario.

This achievement made her the first woman in the world to fly a “wing position” on a formation aerobatic team. After the Carling Team disbanded in 1975, she was invited to try out for the Bede Jet Team based in Newton, Kansas. The twelve-and-a-half-foot-long Bede Microjet was the smallest jet in the world, and the three-jet team was the flying sensation of the aviation world in the early to mid-1970s. She flew the number three position, left wing, throughout the 1975 airshow season and became the first woman in the world to fly on a formation jet aerobatic team. She left to fly solo after the team disbanded.

From 1976 to 1982, Debbie flew as a full-time solo airshow performer, flying the open-cockpit Pitts Special biplane and later the factory demonstration aircraft for Bellanca Aircraft, the four-place sedan-style Bellanca Viking. She later married the president of Bellanca, Jim Callier, had two children, and began to fly airshows on a part-time basis.

Debbie flew over 100 different types of airplanes and, in 2000, became one of the first women in the world to fly with a wing-walker on her wing.

In 2012, Debbie was inducted into the International Council of Airshows Hall of Fame. In 2017, she was honored by the International Council of Airshows Foundation in its “Pioneer/Trailblazer Corner” for being the first woman in the world to fly on a formation aerobatic team.

Debbie served as a volunteer at the Experimental Aircraft Association's convention in Wisconsin and was the manager of the Charlie Hillard Air Operations Building until 2015. She also served on the ICAS Board of Directors and the ICAS Foundation Board of Directors, helping raise money for scholarships and family funds. Debbie is also involved in the Young Eagles program and with Inprint.

Debbie had her own airshow, “Debbie Gary Airshows,” which was featured in the book Front Row Center 2: Inside the World’s Greatest Air Shows by Eric Hildebrandt.