CAMARILLO, California — Red Bull aerobatic helicopter pilot Chuck Aaron is flying straight and level 2,000 feet above the citrus groves south of here. We're moving along at 110 knots when Aaron gives the control stick — known as a cyclic in a helicopter — a gentle pull. Suddenly we see nothing but blue sky.

Airspeed bleeds off quickly and we reach a critical point Aaron calls his "chicken point." He came up with the name several years ago, when he was just learning how to make helicopters do things they probably ought not do. Things like rolls and loops.

"I'd fly at 2,000 feet above the ground, pull it up to do a loop and I'd get just about straight up and I'd chicken out and roll out and fly away from it," Aaron says.

Six years later the chicken point no longer exists. Aaron flies right through it. As our airspeed slows toward 60 knots, Aaron continues pulling back on the cyclic. Just as it feels we might suddenly stop, we flip over backward. Aaron strains his head back to see the ground and drops the collective stick that controls the pitch of the rotor blades — which are now below us.

Quickly the helicopter begins to accelerate. It continues to round out the loop and the sky is once again above us, the ground below. There is some noise as the rotor blades hit their own wake as we pull out of the bottom of the loop. Seconds later we're flying straight and level again at 2,000 feet.

"Now, for a roll, we start by pulling back on the cyclic again, but ..."

The lesson continues.

Above: Chuck Aaron looks back for the ground at the top of a loop.