Unlimited Team 2024 Bios

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Rob Holland - Team Captain Rob Holland has never known a time where he was not completely obsessed with Aviation and Aerobatics. At a young age his dad brought him to an airshow where he saw an airplane flying upside down, and knew that was what he HAD to do. He has been flying now since the age of 18 and has accumulated greater than 11000 hours of flight time in over 172  different types of aircraft ranging from Piper Cubs to Regional Transport Aircraft, gliders to high performance aerobatic machines.

Rob’s complete dedication to the sport of aerobatic has led him to an impressive list of personal achievements:

• 10-Time US National Aerobatic Champion 2011-2021
• 5-Time World 4 Minute Freestyle Champion 2011-2019
• 2012 Recipient of the Art Scholl Award for Showmanship (the highest honor an airshow perform can receive)
• 2008 World Advanced Aerobatic Champion
• 2008 ASB “Person of the Year”
• 2006 World Advanced Aerobatic Silver Medalist.
• Member of US Aerobatic Team, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013,  2015, 2017, 2019, 2021
• 2008 Daniel Webster College “Distinguished Alumnus of the Year”

Rob graduated from Daniel Webster College in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aviation Management and a Bachelor of Science degree in Aviation Flight Operations.

Rob is rated as an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) with a Certified Flight and Ground Instructor (CFI, CFII, IGI, AGI) rating and also holds a glider and seaplane rating.

Rob has had a diverse aviation career so far: flight instructor, banner tow pilot, aircraft ferry pilot, Pilatus PC-12 corporate pilot, and commuter airline pilot. He currently works full time both domestically  and abroad as a professional airshow performer.

Rob’s infectious, upbeat, and approachable demeanor makes him a favored crowd-pleaser at airshows. His complete love of aviation is immediately apparent to everyone who meets him. Rob hopes to instill into others his insatiable desire to excel and for them to actively pursue their goals and dreams.

Jeff Boerboon As a student at the University of North  Dakota, Jeff acquired all of his flying ratings  including his first opportunity to fly aerobatics. While at UND, Boerboon was an aerobatic flight instructor and a member of the 1989 and 1990 NIFA National Championship teams. Since 1999, Boerboon has flown for Delta Air  Lines as an Airbus 320 captain. Before joining Delta, he flew for Grand Canyon Air Tours and American Eagle Airlines between 1992 and 1999.

Jeff won the U.S. National Aerobatic Championship in 2003 and 2007 in the Advanced Category, as well as in 2010 in the Unlimited Category. He has been a member of both the U.S. Advanced and Unlimited Aerobatic teams, having flown in multiple World Aerobatic Championships, receiving numerous awards and accolades.

In recent years Jeff has flown airshow performances in the Jack Link’s Jet Waco, the “Screamin’ Sasquatch”. He became inspired to fly aerobatics when he was only seven years old after attending the EAA AirVenture Fly-in and Convention in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Jeff currently flies airshows in the YAK-110, a one-off design that was constructed by joining two Yak-55 fuselages and a jet engine mounted in between.

In 2021 Jeff secured a place on the U.S. Unlimited team at the U.S. Aerobatic Championships by placing second in the Unlimited category.

Jim Bourke Jim’s love of aerobatics is lifelong, beginning  as a young child delivering airplanes with his  father, an aircraft broker.  As an adult, after a  4-year stint in the Air Force, he turned his  aviation passion toward R/C model planes. He founded the world's most popular web site  for R/C modeling, RCGroups.com, in 1996 and acquired Knife Edge Software, the makers of the RealFlight R/C flight simulator and other flight simulation products.  He has since sold his R/C-related interests to focus on aerobatics.  Jim is an inductee in the Academy of Model Aeronautics Hall of Fame.

Jim has served the IAC in many areas, as a board member, Safety Chair, national judge, juror, contest director, coach and is currently the IAC President.  Jim spearheaded the recent ground-up rewrite of the IAC Rule Book.

Jim is also an air show pilot with a surface-level waiver.  He shares his life with fellow aerobatic pilot Marianne Fox and has three children.

Jim first earned a slot on Team USA in 2016 and will be competing in his third World Aerobatic Championship this year. “I believe that flying aerobatics is perfectly approachable for almost everyone with good equipment and the right training and I've made it my mission to share what I learn as I progress in the sport,” said Jim.

Craig Gifford Craig has been flying general aviation aircraft his entire life and has over 4500 hours in dozens of different types of aircraft. He is a returning member of the 2017 US Unlimited Aerobatic Team that won Bronze in South Africa, and the 2019 US Unlimited Aerobatic Team that won Silver at Chateauroux, France. He is also a three-time member of the US Advanced team, having won numerous team and flight medals, as well as placing in the top 10 worldwide twice.

Craig flies an Extra 330SC which he has flown for 3 years. Originally from Texas, he now lives and works in Minneapolis.  He currently serves on the IAC board of directors as the Mid-America Regional Director.

John Wacker Johnny has been a member of the U.S. Advanced Team in 2015, 2017, 2019. Originally an alternate, he competed with the team in 2016 World Advanced Aerobatic Championships at Hosin, Poland. He also flew as a team member at the 2018 WAAC in Strejnic, Romania. An IAC member since 2007, Johnny has been flying competitively since 2009. He has been to the U.S. National Aerobatic Championships six times where he consistently finishes in the top 10.

Being from Alabama, Johnny competes primarily in the Southeast region and has been the Southeast regional series 2010 Sportsman champion, in 2014 was 4th place in Intermediate, 2017 was 4th place in Advanced, and in 2018 was 3rd place in Advanced category. He currently flies an Extra 330SC.

A.J. Wilder AJ Wilder is an avid aerobatic competitor  with over 25 years of flying experience.  He can be found flying his EXTRA 330-SC  in aerobatic competitions throughout the US and Europe. With multiple ratings in nearly every type of flying machine, his passion for flying is unmatched. AJ is a two-time US team  member; one as a US Advanced aerobatic team member finishing 12th overall and ranking as one of the top three scoring pilots for the US that received a 2nd Place Silver team medal in 2018, and as a member of the US Unlimited aerobatic team in 2019.

AJ co-founded the Figure 1 Foundation in 2015, a nonprofit organization dedicated to granting aviation scholarships to young adults. AJ is a registered architect and President of Wolcott Architecture, a successful design firm located in Los Angeles, California.

“I’m honored to be on the US Unlimited aerobatic team again and I look forward to competing WAC 2024.”

Goody Thomas I have been flying since the age of 13.  My father and grandfather flew in the  military. I fell in love with aviation as a  young boy. Built model airplanes and  model rockets as a young boy. Began  flying radio control at the age of 11 and continued the models into my early  twenties. Aviation dominated my life’s focus. The only other thing was soccer, which also took a large commitment; as I traveled extensively and trained. Competition has always been at the forefront of my life. I am a very focused and highly motivated individual.

I soloed when I was 16 while still in High School. Soon thereafter attended Clemson University. Flew throughout college. Began corporate flying after college and then soon landed my first commuter airline job. After working my way up over several years and airlines I now am proudly flying for SouthWest Airlines.

As a child growing up, I again fell love to the aerobatic and Airshow side of aviation. I began going to Airshows as a young child, attending Oshkosh many times with my dad and grandfather. I took a big interest and inspiration from the late Leo Loudenslager. I got his autograph while at the Dayton Airshow when I was a kid. I wanted to fly just like Leo.

I began flying acro when I was 23 in a Pitts S-2B. I flew my first contest in 1998 in Keystone Florida. In 1999 I went to the U.S. Nationals and was third to qualify for the US Advanced Aerobatic team which flew in Germany the following year. I was on the 2000 AWAC team and finished 7th in the World. In 2001 I moved into the SU-31 and began flying in the Unlimited category. It was a huge step changing planes and moving up into Unlimited. It took me many years to become proficient.

Over the years I have won multiple gold medals in Unlimited. I was the 2015 team captain and have been on 6 US National Teams placing in the top ten multiple times on individual flights at World Championships. I was the recipient of Charlie Hillard Award in 2011 for the highest scoring U.S. pilot at the WAC. I am currently flying an Extra 330 SC.

Steve Groshmeyer Steve has been competing in IAC contests since at least 2001. During competition years most of those years he flew an EigenHawk (monoplane) in the Mid-America and Northeastern Regions.  He currently flies an MX2 MX Aircraft. Steve has flown in the U.S. National Aerobatic Championships eight times since 2011 and qualified for the U.S. Unlimited Team twice previously.

In 2015, Steve won the IAC Open Championship East while competing in the Unlimited category at Rome, Georgia. He repeated the win at Union City, Tennessee in 2016.  He placed first in the 2012 Regional Series in the MidAmerica Region and has earned the Sportsman through Unlimited (Stars) IAC Achievement Awards.

Steve is a Lt. Col., USMC. Ret and a retired experimental test pilot.
 

Jeff Petrocelli Jeff grew up flying with his dad every Saturday and with his support and guidance he went on to become an aerobatic pilot. Flying primarily in the Northeast region in the Sportsman and then Intermediate categories, Jeff's aircraft from 2014 to 2017 was an Extra 200. In 2017 he began flying an Extra 330SC, which he continues to fly today.  Competing in the Advanced category until 2019, Jeff returned to competition in the Unlimited category in 2022.

Jeff was captain on the 2019-2020 U.S. Advanced Team. The team was scheduled to compete at the 2020 World Advanced Aerobatic Championships, however the competition was moved to 2021 during the global shutdown created by COVID-19.