Wingwalkers look for new recruits (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Wingwalkers look for new recruits

A TEAM of daredevils who carry out breathtaking stunts are preparing to select new members.

The Utterly Butterlys wingwalking team are based at Rendcomb Airfield and each summer recruits newcomers to join.

This year budding wingwalkers from across the country will descend on the airfield on April 20 in the hope that they will become the next stunt rider.

Between 12 and 14 girls will battle it out for just two places. Each contender will get to go up on the wing of one of the 1940s biplanes and perform other challenges to prove their worth.

Helen Tempest has been with the Utterly Butterlys team since it started in 1987. She explained successful candidates aiming to join her on the wings would have to show a lot more than just guts.

The team perform at more than one hundred shows each year and as the face of the Utterly Butterlys the girls have to keep smiling rain or shine.

She said: "Its a very steep learning curve because the successful girls then have to learn the job for the first display which is usually quite soon after selection."

Marie Duguid was a wingwalker with the team for three years.

Marie, who grew up in Cirencester, applied after spotting an advert on the side of an Utterly Butterly tub but it was a lot harder than she expected. She said: "We were working against 150mph winds. Anybody can stand on there but you have to train all year to be able to do that many shows."

Helen has been wingwalking since she was 15. "I really wanted to do it when I was little," she said. "When I started it wasn't a job, as in it didn't exist."

Wingwalking started in the 1920s after the end of World War One. Pilots who were used to the action of war couldn't face returning to normal life. They bought aircraft and went barnstorming, flying around the country and sleeping in barns.

Some pilots made money from charging people to fly and others began to do increasingly daring stunts. Wingwalking was born.

Today the practice is far safer than those early days. Wingwalkers wear a special harness and are attached to a revolving rig. The rig allows them to perform handstands and tricks while the aircraft travels at high speed.

It's not all hard work for successful wing walkers though, last year Helen and the team travelled the globe to airshows in France and China. One of the main perks is the views they get to enjoy from the planes.

Helen explained: "We're also very lucky here in that we don't have an international airport nearby so the area is very free for flying, it's so beautiful to fly home."