John 'Ripper' Rippinger

Lima Lima Flight Team Pilot | 61 | Schaumburg

Rippinger is president of the Rippinger Financial Group -- a group of insurance and employee-benefits firms. Out of the office, he executes daredevil flights with the Lima Lima Flight Team.

My dad was a pilot of a B24 in World War II. We didn't talk about it a lot. I dug out all his old scrapbooks and just got fascinated with it.

I started flying as a senior in high school. I was working at a radio/TV shop with lots of guys who were pilots so I found an instructor, hired him and, when I could afford it, I'd take a lesson.

My eyes weren't good enough then to get into [military] service, but I ended up working in defense and had top secret clearance. . . . Now with all the concessions -- they allow for corrective measures -- I could go into the Air Force.

I got my private commercial multi-engine license in 1975. Then I got fascinated with hot air-balloon racing in its infancy -- though "race" is a misnomer; it's a precision event, more about tracking rather than where you're going to land. Then I got into gas ballooning -- the joke is gas ballooning is for rich kids allergic to polo ponies. I wasn't a rich kid, but I was sought out because I had the piloting skills.

Steve Fossett? No I don't think he's still alive. I understand all of the things he's done. Flying is in and of itself inherently dangerous. But you could have a heart attack in the plane, the bathtub, or on the Kennedy.

I never intended on being in the airshow business, but in 1991, one of the guys got married and his new wife decided he was no longer in the airshow business. They needed a pilot so the show could go on. At the time, there were entry-level positions. Today, I wouldn't have made it.

They put me through an intensive one-month course to get up to speed for my first show. I learned that when you're a normal pilot, you stay as far as you can from other aircraft and keep your eyes on your instruments. In this, you never look inside the cockpit -- you're looking at each other.

As a regular pilot, you make all the decisions. When you're in formation it's a dictatorship -- the lead calls all the shots. You just stay in position and put your absolute trust in him.

Either you adapt or you die. Unfortunately, we lose a lot of people every year, but you put your game face on, concentrate 150 percent and fly in the show.

You have to be in good physical shape -- you've got to be an athlete. You pull 3, 4-and-a-half Gs, your eyesight narrows, your face elongates, the blood goes to your head, but you can't let any of that bother you.

Ask the guy who gets shot out of the cannon at the circus -- he could probably do anything, but he likes what he does.