TORRINGTON – Wayne and Heidi Forbes may seem at first like any other good-natured, intellectual, well-to-do couple with an admirable open-minded keenness on meeting new people and seeing new places.

Originally from Colorado and having spent significant time all around the United States from Florida, to California and most recently all the way up to Alaska; the Forbes have spent the vast majority of their recent years living and traveling out of their own cherished recreational vehicle.

Although rare yet admirable for most people living in this day and age, the unique couple has a distinct and very interesting purpose for this way of life; as well as why it brought them to little ole Torrington, Wyoming.

With never-ending support from his longtime loving wife, Wayne is not only an experienced licensed pilot but an incredible up-and-coming flying aerobatics competitor. 

According to the resourceful “flying couple”, Torrington right now is the perfect place to be for a competitive craft such as this. With little air traffic going on above and a generous local airport willing to provide storage for a single-engine plane, both Wayne and Heidi feel they are in an ideal place to practice air ingenuity and imagination.

A very important element considering the next competition is this weekend in Fort Morgan, Colorado. 

“We have some very good friends who live here, and also my late cousin owned and had a farm down by the river,” Wayne said.

“After he passed away a few years back my family still has the farm and rented out the house, but really none of our family lives in Torrington anymore. We just came up to keep an eye on that, as our house is in Alaska. We will probably be here until October, and then we will move on.”

“It’s a great central location for all the aerobatic contests I have coming up this summer,” Wayne added. “It’s a great place to be proactive, and the airport is close to a practice area. That works very well for us. Dean McClain was gracious enough to give me a spot in his hanger, so I can have a place to put my airplane.”

According to Wayne, having the incredible matchless opportunity to practice such a rare art form is something he only dreamt of while growing up in northern Colorado. 

As the lifetime pilot illustrated, flying has been a part of his very soul for the vast majority of his life. Interestingly enough the process didn’t start immediately with flying itself as it did ensuring the safety and essential maintenance for preceding pilots.

“I grew up just outside of Berthoud and went to high school near Longmont,” Wayne continued. “After high school, I went to aircraft mechanical school, and shortly thereafter went to flight school in Greeley to learn how to be an airline pilot. Since then I’ve been flying, and fortunately learned early on I preferred to fly instead of just working on them. I also did flight instruction down in Florida for about a year building flight time, and then from there we went to Alaska.”

Although Wayne did not start his flight career performing amazing feats of aerial skill right off the bat; amazingly enough he has only been in competition for a mere four years now.

As with any serious competitor, however, sometimes you know when something is for you right from the beginning.

“With aerobatics, I started pretty much in 2020 and bought what’s called a super decathlon which is an aerobatic entry plane. I competed in that for a few years and then upgraded to what I have now which is a higher performance plane. I have competed since 2020, but there was a year in there where I only did a few contests because of issues with the plane. So I’ve really been competing for three full years now.”

As Wayne would further explain, practice makes perfect and improvement only comes with experience.

With this, Wayne considers Heidi perhaps the most important part of his flying progress and now considers her his full-time coach; one who continues to lead him in the right direction while always keeping him safe.

“What I love most about this is just the precision and the exhilaration, which can get pretty intense,” Wayne continued. “This season we’ve gotten a lot more involved and Heidi basically has gone through judges training, and now is coaching me. She will watch me as I fly from the ground with a radio, coaches me as I fly, and tells me if I’m doing something wrong. For instance, maybe the airplane is not in the position it’s supposed to be. So she will coach and critique me from the ground to get the right maneuvers and sequences.

“Often times a lot of the best coaches are not actual pilots themselves because they don’t have any preconceived notions, whereas other pilots can have a lot have a biases when they are watching. But with Heidi, she’s not a pilot, so that’s really all I need. Often times she’ll say, ‘No it’s the hanging position,’ or ‘You’re crooked.’ That’s really all I need to know on what I can do to fix it. I can’t tell from the inside what everything looks like as I’m flying, so it’s a huge help to have someone on the ground watching every proactive flight I do.”

According to Heidi, the newfound and unexpected role in coaching aerobatic flying has proved to be just as rewarding an experience as the actual flying itself.

As Heidi added in a very flattering way, the couple has become quite attached to the small town of Torrington noting the immense support, generosity, and virtuous curiosity offered by residents.

“The first couple of years I was a spectator,” Heidi said. “Since then I’ve gotten more involved. It’s become so much more fun, and it’s very nice to have a hobby we do together. It’s something we can always talk about, and we get to spend more time together. It’s been a lot of fun. We have met a lot of great people at the contests. Dean and the locals out at the airport have just been so nice. Even when I’m out there coaching on the ground the farmers will drive by, smile, and wave. I really like it here. I actually wouldn’t mind staying beyond October.”

“The entire community has been very supportive and interested in this,” Heidi continued. “With a lot of places, this just doesn’t happen. A lot of places you go where it’s completely legal to be proactive in the areas, but you will get noise complaints and people constantly irritable. None of that is happening here. We have folks who are actually begging us to fly by their houses. It’s very refreshing to have a community like this. The people here are just amazing.”

While it would perhaps be fair to assume most wives would be hesitant or even fearful of their husbands taking up such an intense or potentially dangerous hobby, Heidi’s words remained nothing but supportive and inspirational when it came to her husband continuing to pursue his dream of flying.

“Life is just too short,” Heidi said. “You have to live how you want to live. He’s wanted to do what he’s wanted to do for a long time and finally got the opportunity to do it. That’s why I’m so glad he’s doing exactly what he’s doing.”