Sylvia Grandstaff

Sylvia Grandstaff learned to fly at the Soaring Club of Houston at thirteen. Soaring’s connection to the beauty and energy of the natural world immediately captured her spirit and has inspired two decades of personal and professional accomplishments in aviation. She is endlessly curious, a quiet competitor with a perfectionist edge, and forever “uncomfortable with being comfortable.” This restlessness fuels her drive in aviation and puts force behind the artistry she feels in flight. Sylvia earned her commercial and flight instructor ratings in gliders while in college at Rice University and began competing in regional and national soaring competitions. After graduation from Rice, she attended medical school and in 2007 flew in the Australian Junior Nationals. She later, left medical school to join the US Army as a warrant officer and CH47-F Chinook helicopter pilot.

Sylvia deployed twice with the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and has logged over 900 combat hours in Afghanistan as a pilot in command, flight lead, air mission commander and instructor pilot. During this service time, she temporarily paused her competition soaring efforts. Throughout her professional career, she has remained active in general aviation, and in addition to her glider and helicopter qualifications, holds multiple ratings in single- and multi-engine airplanes and seaplanes. Sylvia considers science and math as the languages of the beauty of flight, and in 2015, she was selected as the US Army’s first female warrant officer experimental test pilot and attended the United States Naval Test Pilot School. She is a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and completed her Army service in 2021 after twelve years of active duty.She currently lives in Northern California with her husband, Hugh, a third-generation pilot, and flies a Discus 2a, “Xray Papa.”