Soviet iron.Wisconsin hands.

A 1970s Soviet warbird, a former professional drummer at the controls, and a routine flown on the beat.

Raised on a dairy farm in central Wisconsin, Jody Graffunder earned his pilot's license in 2012 — in just two and a half months — and trained under an airshow veteran with 40 years in the business. He pushed through two full years of airsickness to keep flying aerobatics, and today holds roughly 2,200 hours, an IAC and ICAS membership, and a 500-foot waiver.

His airplane is the Yak-52W: 400 horsepower of nine-cylinder radial that announces itself across the field long before the crowd sees it. Jody pairs that unmistakable radial roar with precision aerobatics and gyroscopic tumbles — a performance with genuine Cold War character.

Every summer he flies the Yak in the warbird formation flyovers at Oshkosh. And on the ground the airplane is a magnet — he welcomes families in for cockpit photos and questions, pulling a crowd before the prop even turns.