Sugar Valley Airport in Mocksville was host to a conference on women in
aviation on Saturday. After the panel discussions, pilots from the
Experimental Aircraft Association in Salisbury gave free rides to kids
and some adults. The Goodyear Blimp made an appearance during those
flights.
MOCKSVILLE It seemed only fitting that
Saturday’s gathering of female aviation leaders at Sugar Valley Airport
was held on one of those cloudless mornings that pilots dream about.
Several of the 100 or so people at the
event flew into the airport, which is just outside the Farmington
community. The Goodyear Blimp even made an appearance, flying over the
runway.
They came for “The Spirit
of Aviation: Outstanding Women and Today’s Opportunities,” the first of
what organizers hope will be a series of yearly conferences about
different aspects of aviation.
Lee White, one of about 50
volunteers who run Sugar Valley Airport, said she and others were
inspired by a gathering of World War II-era women pilots, known as
WASPs, at an air show in Oshkosh, Wis.
Most of the surviving
WASPs, which stands for Women Airforce Service Pilot. are now in their
90s, so getting them to Sugar Valley was not feasible, White said.
Instead, organizers decided to have a conference celebrating women
aviators and opportunities in this field for young women.
“We called these ladies and they said, ‘yes,’” White said. “We were blown away and just ran with it.”
Most of the 10 women who
spoke Saturday are from the Triad. They included Dena Miller, who flew
for Piedmont Airlines and now flies for US Airways out of Charlotte;
Linda Finch, who successfully re-created Amelia Earhart’s flight around
the world; and Capt. Bridgett Fitzsimmons, an F-15E Strike Eagle Pilot
in the 335th Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in
Goldsboro.
“We have a number of phenomenal female aviators in this area,” White said. “They just came out of the woodwork.”
The event featured two
panel discussions focusing on careers and education. Later, kids and
some adults got free airplane rides, courtesy of the pilots from the
Experimental Aircraft Association’s Salisbury chapter.
The women shared stories
about how they started in aviation and how they were treated in a
male-dominated field. Most said they never confronted any barriers.
Zenda Liess, a flight
instructor and FAA-designator examiner who lives in Lexington, began
flying in the early 1990s and has logged more than 10,000 hours.
“My biggest fear was how
the captains were going to treat me,” said Liess, who worked for a
regional airline carrier for a few years. “I had a stereotypical idea of
what men were going to think. But almost every guy I ever flew with
treated me with respect. I thought all of them would be male
chauvinists, but I was wrong.”
Chad and Rhonda Wilcox of
Stokesdale were among the people who attended the conference. Both are
competitive skydivers, and Rhonda has been flying since 1996.
“I’ve never heard about
anything like this before,” Wilcox said about an aviation conference
focusing on women. “I was very interested in what they had to say.”
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