Wild and free!

Not many want to soar through the skies strapped to the wing of a bi-plane!

But Helen Tempest, pictured, was not like most little girls.

With Bradford-born dad Barry one of the country's finest display pilots, it was slightly inevitable that she would take to the skies sooner or later.

So when at the age of 15 she clambered onto the wing of a 1940s bi-plane and undertook her first 'wing-walk' there was no holding her back.

Now 36, Helen already has the honour of being known as the world's youngest wing-walker when she did that first flight.

Since then she has broken world endurance records and performed eye-popping stunts including real wing-walking without being strapped in.

Helen, who now runs the country's only professional wing-walking team Utterly Butterly, appears at the Yorkshire Air Show At Elvington Airfield on August Bank Holiday weekend.

"I used to go to air shows with Dad and had my first flight with him when I was 18 months old," she said.

"But I loved wing-walkers best, they looked so glamorous and full of life. I nagged my father until he gave in.

"It was exhilarating and exciting. I was hooked and flew regularly with him in air shows, even missing a few days off school. But it was a wise career move."

Although wing-walking was not something a careers advisor would normally suggest, Helen became part of a professional team when she was 21.

It was put together by Vic Norman, chairman of the British Aerobatic Association.

"I have been doing it for about 15 years although I look after the team's operations now," she said.

"We do shows all over Europe with beautiful 1940s planes.

"But I do still go up and perform. It has been the most enormous amount of fun."

Helen, who comes to Bradford regularly with husband Steve to see friends and fly their kite, said that total fitness and strength are essential for the job.

"You need to be so fit, especially when you do tricks like loop-the-loops and rolls. The plane dives at 150 mph and you have to carry on waving at the crowds, so there is enormous pressure on your body."

Not content with standing on the top of a flimsy bi-plane or walking along the wings with no safety net or harness, Helen also broke the world wing-walking endurance record in 1987.

"I managed two hours and 40 minutes but it was a freezing September day in the rain.

"Three years later, Roy Castle beat the record flying over the Channel on a nice sunny day."

Helen, who now lives in the Cotswolds, loves the "wild and free spirit" of Yorkshire and enjoys coming to the Elvington show.

Her proud father Barry's parents left Horton Bank Top to run a pub in Norfolk.

His father had worked for AVRO in Yeadon.

Barry returned to take his first solo flight from Yeadon airfield, now Leeds-Bradford Airport.

He was soon flying in international competitions with the British Aerobatics Team in the 1960s.

"It was quite exciting. My favourite move is anything which goes well!

"There have been a couple of occasions where I have not landed well but I only ended up with concussion.

"I still fly and hope to get back to airshows soon.

"When Helen first flew on a wing, I thought that once would be enough. But she has done it for 20 years now. My wife Diana thinks we are both mad."

At the air show, near York, on August 25 and 26, as well as Helen's flying circus, there will be an aerial ballet and dual, Battle of Britain Memorial flypast and aerobatics from the Russian Apache jets featured in the Bond movie The World is Not Enough.