Flying High on Dreams at Pt. Mugu Air Show

Many air show fanatics would consider Paula-Marie Hiebert a very lucky woman.

The 30-year-old single mom is learning to fly a former Czechoslovakian military jet--riding mostly as a passenger, but sometimes taking control of the two-seat aircraft.

She has zoomed through the clouds at more than 450 mph, rolled wing over wing and nearly passed out from the G-forces. She’s addicted.

It could be five years before Hiebert is qualified to go solo in the jet, but she’s willing to wait.

“I went up for my first ride and it gave me new life,” said Hiebert of West Los Angeles. “I feel like I’m a teenager all over again.”

Hiebert spent the last day of the 37th annual Point Mugu Air Show answering questions about the jet. She helps coordinate publicity about the craft for Pacific Sunset Aviation, a Van Nuys aerospace research company.

The jet is owned by the company’s president, Dennis Hamm of Agoura Hills.

Hiebert said she’s learning to fly the plane because she has to know how it works if she’s going to promote it. When she told passersby that she got to ride in the jet and handle its controls, some didn’t believe her.

“They think you’re the model for the plane, and then they realize you actually know what you’re talking about,” Hiebert said, wearing a blue flight suit and leather flight jacket.

The plane, known as an Aero L-39 Albatross, was used to train Eastern Bloc pilots nearly 30 years ago. It was imported by a U.S. broker after the fall of Communism.

On Sunday, the Albatross looked like a hornet sleeping on the tarmac, its metallic purple paint job shimmering in the sun under clear skies.

The plane was one of nearly 150 aircraft on hand for the air show’s last day.

An estimated 150,000 visitors flocked to the base to wander through displays of cargo planes, jets and helicopters, while F-14s and civilian-piloted aircraft roared overhead.

A group of biplanes called the Red Baron Stearman Squadron also performed, flying in tight arching loops and trailing streams of smoke.

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Vintage military and civilian stunt planes took to the sky as well, demonstrating the speed and power of their old, rumbling engines.

An estimated 240,000 people visited the base during the three-day show, well short of last year’s attendance of about 300,000.

This year’s show lacked a popular jet team, such as the Blue Angels, who performed in 1999. The absence of a high-profile team might have kept some air show fans away, said Point Mugu Naval Air Station spokeswoman Cora Fields.

But Fields wasn’t disappointed in the turnout.

“To not have a major jet team and pull this kind of crowd far exceeded our expectations,” she said.

The fans who did show up didn’t seem to mind the absence of the Blue Angels, as smaller teams of fighter jets raced across the sky, rolling and flipping above the crowd.

David Volk, 29, of Oxnard saw the Blue Angels perform last year and said this year’s show was just as much fun.

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“It feels the same,” said Volk, who carried his 3-year-old son, David Jr., on his shoulders. “We just like the planes.”

Chris Coyle, 9, whose parents are both in the Navy, said he wants to become an F-14 pilot.

The F-14 demonstration was his favorite part of the show.

“It sounds like it’s a really powerful bomb blowing up,” he said.

Hiebert, who flew to the air show with a pilot in the half-million-dollar Czechoslovakian jet, has tasted Chris’ dream. The plane’s owner, Hamm, is helping her earn a private pilot’s license. When she accrues the 1,000 flight hours to fly solo in the jet, he will let her take it up by herself, he said.

Hiebert beamed as she heard him say the words.

“It gives me butterflies just standing by this plane,” she said.