DAYTON — Since graduating from Lakota High School in 1995, Page Felini has flown combat missions in Iraq, participated in joint military exercises with India, and flown a demonstration flight at the 2007 Paris Air Show at the throttle of the U.S. Navy's F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter.

Felini, a lieutenant commissioned in the Navy in 2000, appreciates her timing in joining the service when she did. She said women have only been flying combat missions for the Navy since 1992.

Felini said she loves to fly, and still marvels at the experience at flying one of the country's most powerful warplanes. She is the first female pilot on the Navy's East Coast Super Hornet demonstration team.

"It's pretty amazing," Felini, 30, said Thursday, July 17, after she and fellow Navy pilot Lt. James Guimond, 32, of Westborough, Mass., landed a pair of the Super Hornets at Dayton International Airport. "There are times when I just can't believe that I'm flying one of these things."

The Super Hornets are to be used in flying demonstrations Saturday and Sunday at the Vectren Dayton Air Show.

Felini, formerly of West Chester in Butler County, graduated from the University of Virginia in 1999, and has amassed 1,400 flying hours. She is continuing something of a family tradition. Her brother, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Paul Felini, flew a demonstration at last year's Vectren Dayton Air Show in the Navy's earlier-generation Hornet fighter.

Guimond joined the Navy in 1999. He has flown both the Hornet and the newer Super Hornet, which he said is more responsive and carries more fuel. Because it holds more fuel, the Super Hornet gives its pilot four or five chances to land on an aircraft carrier deck, as opposed to perhaps two chances with the Hornet, he said.

"That's a big stress reliever," Guimond said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.