Goodyear Eagles
The Goodyear Eagles Aerobatics Team has been in the forefront of bringing formation aerobatic’s excitement to the public for the past 27 years. Goodyear Aviation became the teams official sponsor in 2009.
Since inception, the team has been a regular, sought after performer on the South African airshow circuit, as well as having the honour of being the first ever South African team to perform across South African borders.
The team has been a regular performer at air shows in Swaziland, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and first performed at the Al Ain Aerobatic Show in 2008 where they performed as ‘The Wizards’. During the late 1980’s the team performed a First, in South African Aerobatic display history by performing an inverted parachute drop as part of the display. Then in early 2000 the Team executed the FIRST ever Dual Inverted parachute drop ever performed on the African Continent at the Virginia Airshow with 2 skydivers exiting 2 aircraft simultaneously whilst the aircrafts performed a loop.
The team are currently in the final stages of preparing to perform a World First - a Triple synchronised inverted parachute drop, which they will be performing for the first time in public at the Al Ain Aerobatic Show 2010.
All three pilots fly the Aviat built Pitts Special S2B biplane aerobatic aircraft, originally designed by Curtis Pitts, with 260 hp Lycoming AE540 engines.
Team Member Info
All team members are pilots in full time employment within the aviation industry, and therefore only fly for the team on a part time basis.
Pilots:
Dennis Spence: Team Leader
A South African Airways Airbus A340 Senior Captain with more than 23000 flying hours experience.
He has been the owner and operator of the Team since 1985, and represented South Africa in the first Advance World aerobatic championships in 1995, obtaining South African National colors.
Glen Warden: Wingman and Alternate Team Leader
A British Airways/Comair Boeing 737 Training Captain with over 18000 flying hours experience.
A former fighter pilot with the South African Air Force flying the Mirage jet, he also spent time as an exchange pilot with the Chilean Air Force.
Neil Trollip: Wingman
A South African Airways A340 pilot, with over 12500 flying hours experience. He served in the South African Air Force as a fighter Pilot flying the Aeromacchi (Impala) and the Mirage, and was the South African Air Force Mirage display pilot from 1995 to 1997.
Skydivers:
Graham Field:
Has been involved in Skydiving for over 23 years and has 4500 total jumps to date. He has won 32 National Titles in all skydiving disciplines (Canopy Formation, Relative Work, Accuracy), and has also participated in World’s largest Skydiving Formation (216 skydivers) in Slovakia, as part of the World Team in 1994.He represented South Africa at the 1996 World Skydiving Championships, Indonesia and the 1998 World Skydiving Championships , USA.
Ricardo (Ricci) Bucerri:
23 years in the sport, with 4593 Jumps to date.
He has won two South African National Titles for Junior Free Fall Skydiving and 35 South African National Titles in Canopy Formation Skydiving. He also represented South Africa at the 1996 Indonesia Canopy Formation Skydiving Championships.
Johan Grobler:
18 years in the sport and 2000 jumps to date.
He won a gold medal for formation skydiving (junior nationals) at the 1993 National Championships and in 1995, he also won gold in formation skydiving (senior nationals) and represented South Africa at the World Meet held in France. In 1996 he won a gold medal for canopy formation, and represented South Africa at the World Skydiving Championships Lido Lakes Indonesia World.
