She's soaring high on a dream come true

A trip to an air show sparked a Santa Maria girl's dream to fly - and set her on a history-making path to become the first female Thunderbird pilot.

Now in her second year as Thunderbird No. 3, Maj. Nicole Malachowski and her colleagues will be the headline act at the 2007 Ventura County Naval Base Air Show March 31 through April 1. Gates open at 8 a.m. Saturday at Point Mugu, with aerial performances starting at 10 a.m.

As a member of the Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron - she flies in the right wing position during the diamond formation - Malachowski is savoring the experience of telling the Air Force story and flying supersonic fighter jets.

Now 32 years old and living in Las Vegas, she spent most of her military career in the cockpit of F-15E fighters, only switching to the F-16 Fighting Falcon once she joined the team - a transition she likens to shifting between driving a Porsche or Ferrari.

“It's all fast and it's all fun,” she said. “Not bad for a gal born in Santa Maria. I get to fly the world's two greatest fighters.”

Carrying the title and the burden of first woman Thunderbird pilot could be tiring, but Malachowski said she prefers to view it from the positive.

“I have been afforded an extremely unique opportunity to educate people, inspire people and let them know that the Air Force has a lot to offer everyone regardless of gender, race, religion or ethnicity ... It hopefully symbolizes that if you have a dream, pursue a passion, that you can make that dream come true,” she said.

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Malachowski is the second of three children - she has an older brother and younger sister - born to Robert and Cathy Ellingwood, now residents of Nevada. They will travel to the California coast to watch their daughter fly in her second air show of the 2007 season.

Seeing their daughter fly high-performance military fighter jets, screaming across the sky merely inches from her colleagues, doesn't really disturb the couple.

“It's really neat. Both my wife (Cathy) and I tend to agree that we're more overwhelmed by the patriotism of it,” Robert Ellingwood said. “We're much less concerned about the safety of it, of course, because we see the extreme amount of effort they make to make sure every performance is practiced, choreographed.”

They watched the maintenance crew literally tear their daughter's plane apart “bolt by bolt” last season and reassemble it.

In fact, he said he worries more about this wife's drive to work on the local freeways than his daughter's aerial gymnastics. As a military fighter pilot, his daughter and her colleagues have undergone a great deal of training and logged hundreds of hours of flight time.

“And, there's a whole lot less traffic up there in the air than there is on ground,” he said. “So if we feel any emotion it's usually associated with the patriotism and just the splendor and the magnificence of the performance.”

The proud dad and mom saw about a dozen shows last season. This season will take the team to Europe and Hawaii, and her parents plan to see some of the overseas performances in July with Santa Maria friends Mike and Gigi Jacobson.

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As a 5-year-old growing up on the Central Coast, Nicole became enthralled with flight when she saw a jet screaming across the sky. She believes it was at an air show; her dad can't remember but thinks it might have been seeing jets fly at Vandenberg.

With grandfathers who served during World War II and the Korean War, she said she knew the military was an honorable career. That - combined with a love of the power, technology and grace after seeing the fighter aircraft perform - confirmed her future.

“I pretty much decided that's what I'm going to be when I grow up,” she said.

Robert and Cathy Ellingwood had moved from Southern California to Santa Maria in 1974 while Cathy was pregnant with Nicole, who was born at Marian Hospital.

He worked for 15 months for the Southland Corp. - owners of 7-Eleven - as district representative, but later became a real estate broker, adjunct professor teaching business at Hancock College, and general contractor.

The young Nicole's bedroom ceiling didn't have posters of teen heartthrobs or musicians. Instead she had a replica of the cockpit of an F-15 Strike Eagle, so she could memorize the switches and gauges, her dad said.

Nicole attended Bruce and Adam schools, and then Fesler Junior High. The family moved to Upland in 1987 - after Nicole finished seventh grade.

Two years later they moved to Las Vegas, home to Nellis Air Force Base and the Thunderbirds.

However, a ride with a family friend in a little Cessna plane on the Central Coast did more to spark her interest than living in the hometown of the famous flying team.

“That really was a little extra energizer for her to say, ‘Yeah, man, this is what I want to do,'” Ellingwood said.

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Upon graduating from high school and after spending time with the Civil Air Patrol - with her desire to fly still fervent - Malachowski made a sensible choice for college - the Air Force Academy.

“What's great about the Air Force Academy is we get a lot of training young about important issues, like character development and leadership development,” she said.

At the end of her academy career she found herself in the position to pick what type of plane she wanted to fly.

There wasn't any choice for the fan of the F-4 Phantom jets - the Vietnam era's primary tool for air-to-ground support of the troops. When the military retired F-4s, the aircraft was replaced with what she calls “the world's greatest fighter,” the F-15E Strike Eagle. That plane is the dominant air-to-ground fighter in the inventory today, she said, speaking with the enthusiasm of a sports fan boosting a favorite team or a shoe fanatic touting her favorite brand.

The idea of becoming a woman fighter pilot seemed far-fetched in 1986 when the girl declared her intent to do so. Up until the early 1990s, women were banned from combat.

“She came along at just the right time,” Ellingwood said. “The combination of her determination and the positive political and social environment made it so she could achieve that goal she set for herself a long time ago.”

Malachowski's husband and fellow fighter pilot, Paul, first suggested she seek a slot on the Thunderbirds, pointing out that her resume, flight hours and experience made her qualified for the highly coveted slot.

She didn't realize her trailblazing role when she applied, noting that women began flying fighters in 1993, five years before she began.

The military didn't block women from applying to be Thunderbird pilots. It simply took time for women to log the 1,000 hours in the cockpit and other achievements required to even apply for the Thunderbirds, she said.

“The Air Force is way past that, trust me,” she said, adding that 85 women now fly fighter jets in the Air Force. “When I applied, it wasn't even a thought.”

Since she was picked for the Thunderbirds, the spotlight has focused on Malachowski's role in history as the first female Thunderbird pilot, leading to hundreds of interviews. The Air Force's history Web site for March - Women's History Month - carries a special banner highlighting her role.

The 2007 Thunderbird season kicked off Saturday with a show at Luke Air Force, Ariz. After 70 shows in 22 states and nine countries, Malachowski will wrap up her time as a Thunderbird in November - each team member stays only two years.

“It's amazing how fast it's gone. There's a part of me that is sad that in 10 months I'm not going to be Thunderbird No. 3 anymore,” she said.

Janene Scully can be reached at 739-2214 or janscully@santa

mariatimes.com.

March 25, 2007