Biography

Axel has been involved with aviation since he was a kid.  He soloed at the age of 16, earned his Private certificate at 17, Instrument certificate at 18 and Commercial certificate at 19.  He then earned an Aerospace Engineering degree from the University of Tennessee.  Once he graduated from college, he moved to California and obtained a job performing flight test on high performance airplanes and helicopters.  That job provided the opportunity to apply to United States Naval Test Pilot School.  He was accepted and graduated the following year.  He has flown multiple general aviation and military aircraft, to include gliders and helicopters.  He is a member of the West Cast Ravens Formation team and has performed in shows such as California Capital and Oshkosh.  He has also flown in large formations for events such as the 40-ship formation over Oshkosh celebrating 40 years of Van’s Aircraft and a 49-ship formation over the Kansas City NFL stadium raising breast cancer awareness.  He and his wife spent approximately 10 years building an RV-4 derivative which he raced in 2016.  Prior to Racing at Reno he raced street bikes.

His advice for kids is “Look for opportunities, set goals and then go for it”.