GRAHAM, TX (KFDX/KJTL)—Pilots from all over the united states are taking to the skies in Graham this weekend for the annual Lone Star Aerobatic Competition.

These pilots spent the entire day going over the sequences they’ll be flying for the actual competition this weekend, battling it out for bragging rights and belt buckles.

For these seasoned pilots, flying high comes second nature, and Competition Director for the Lone Star Aerobatic Competition, Curt Richmond said this competition is the best way to showcase these pilots’ skills.

“There’s three different flights, there’s a known flight which everybody flies at every contest for the year then there is a free that is a sequence that is drawn up by the competitor under certain rules,” Richmond said.

And lastly, these pilots will fly an unknown sequence that they will have one day to practice for, something that competing pilot, Paul Richmond got plenty of today.

“Aerobatics brings that love of flying and going out and kind of like jumping on your motorcycle and going for a ride, or jumping in your sports car and going to have fun on the race track or something, aerobatics is a lot of hand-eye coordination,” Richmond said.

All within staying in one little box, well little considering we’re talking about airplanes here.

“The box is basically a thousand meters square, so 33 hundred feet tall, 33 hundred feet wide, and 33 hundred feet long,” Richmond said.

And some of you may be wondering, what happens if things don’t go according to plan?

“I put in a parachute part of the safety sanctions for us in this contest is you must wear a parachute should anything happen and you get out of the aircraft you’ll have a parachute for safety,” Richmond said.

Richmond said there’s an entirely different rush he gets when it comes to aerobatic flying.

“It’s a challenge, it’s not something that everybody does, it takes a lot of tenacity, it takes a lot of self-discipline,” Richmond said.

Self-discipline that these pilots hope will pay off when they take to the skies this weekend.

For more information and a full schedule of this weekend’s events, click here.