Doug Sowder

President, EAA International Aerobatic Club

Doug Sowder caught the flying bug from his father Tony, a WW2 B-25 pilot. He got his first airplane ride at about age 8, stuffed into the back seat of an Aeronca Champ with his younger brother, and was irretrievably hooked. Having learned to fly on graduation from high school in 1967, Doug bought, with a partner, a 1938 Taylorcraft in 1969, and has owned and flown one or more airplanes continuously since.

After driving from Spokane, Washington, to Oshkosh on honeymoon with his wife Pat, Doug joined EAA at  OSH in 1972. He and Pat are still working on a clipped-wing Wag Aero Cuby started in 1978. A trip to Oshkosh in 1988 resulted in joining the International Aerobatic Club. The purchase of an older homebuilt Pitts S-1 got Doug into competitive aerobatics, and he later bought a Pitts S-2B which had been totaled in an off-airport landing. After 3 years of rebuilding with help from son Colin, Doug  put the S-2B into service flying Advanced category IAC competition.

Doug has been active on the IAC Board of Directors for several years, and was elected President of IAC in 2012. He is currently a member of five IAC chapters in Washington, Oregon, and California, as well as EAA Chapter 79 in Spokane.

Doug and wife Pat live in Spokane, where he is a practicing Professional Engineer in his lifelong career of designing and building ski lifts. A multi-engine and instrument rated Private Pilot, Doug has accumulated about 4000 hours of flight time, most of it in tailwheel aircraft. He and Pat currently own and fly a classic 1955 Cessna 180 (owned since 1978), and an Extra 300L based at Felts Field in Spokane.