History takes wing

From Santa Maria Times:  History takes wing

Leah Thompson/Staff

Michael Sheppard of Signs of Success installs a mural depicting the history of women in flight Wednesday at the Santa Maria Museum of Flight.

The Santa Maria Valley Chapter of the Ninety-Nines will be making a bit of history by celebrating 100 years of it.
The chapter will host the Southwest Section meeting of the Ninety-Nines, an international organization of licensed women pilots, next weekend when more than 100 women from California, Arizona, and Nevada are expected to land in Santa Maria.
On Saturday, the local chapter will dedicate its Ninety-Nines Memorial Garden, a park that celebrates women’s contributions to aviation.
The local chapter has members from the Five Cities to Santa Ynez.
The public is invited to the ceremony, which begins at 2:30 p.m. A reception follows the dedication. The garden is located adjacent to the Santa Maria Museum of Flight, 3015 Airpark Drive.
The garden has been a two-year labor of love for the Ninety-Nines, especially chapter vice chair Sunni Gibbons, who took an idea and flew with it.
“It was clearly a calling. The woman who started the idea for this, Wilma Poage, passed away. When she was talking about it, something in me just clicked and I knew this was mine to do,” Gibbons said of Poage, a local Ninety-Nine and director of the Museum of Flight who died in 2009 from breast cancer.
Poage and Katherine Hulme, the museum’s first executive director, are remembered in the rose garden that leads from the door of the museum to the memorial garden.
Developing the garden and the spectacular mural that celebrates nearly 100 years of women’s achievements and contributions to aviation, was kind of like flying without landmarks for Gibbons, an accomplished artist.
“It’s been a real intense experience — total involvement. Any artist can tell you what it is to be totally involved with your creative project for a long period of time. This is the biggest creative project I’ve ever attempted,” said Gibbons, who this year became the fourth local pilot inducted into the Forest of Friendship, a living memorial in Atchison, Kan., the birthplace of Amelia Earhart, dedicated to people who contributed to aviation.
Pat Rowe and Diane Pirman, accompanied Gibbons to Kansas in June for the ceremony.
While the garden, with its meandering path outlined by memorial bricks and benches, has been complete for some time, the 28-foot mural has been created in the past eight months.
Gibbons created computer layouts of the photographic images of historic women aviators she collected with help from Pirman and Cheryl Cooney, of the San Luis Obispo chapter. Signs of Success, a Santa Maria sign company, turned those files into the vivid mural that now adorns the garden wall.
Comprised of seven 4- by 8-foot panels of aluminum sheeting, each panel depicts a different era of women in aviation stretching from Harriet Quimby, the first licensed woman pilot in America, to astronauts Peggy Whitson, who became the first female space station commander, and Sunita Williams, holder of the female flight endurance record with 195 days in space.
A group that received special attention in the mural is “The Warriors,” women military pilots whose origins can be traced to the WASPs, the Women Air Services Pilots of World War II.
“These were gals that flew. They were never even acknowledged by the government until the 1980s,” said Pat Viker. They used to ferry aircraft from manufacturers to where the government needed them, and they’d tow targets for the men to shoot at. Can you believe that?”
The WASPS will also be recognized in a display the Ninety-Nines are organizing inside the Museum of Flight. Four original WASP uniforms, donated by Five Cities resident Mark Weedon, will be on display along with an original WASP patch, with its Fifinella mascot that was created by Walt Disney.
The dedication marks the end of two years of work that turned a weed-filled eyesore at the airport into a focal point. Even though Gibbons is an accomplished artist, much like the women the garden honors, she stretched her wings during its development.
“When you’re kind of doing something out at the far edges of what you’ve done before you don’t have any models to go by. You just feel your way organically to the next step,” she said.
The Ninety-Nines Memorial Garden is a perfect landing.

GIRL PILOT BLAMED FOR FATAL CRASH

From Express.co.uk: GIRL PILOT BLAMED FOR FATAL CRASH 

A SCOTS trainee pilot who died alongside her brother in a plane crash last year was at fault for the tragic accident, the American authorities have ruled.

Carly Beattie, 21, was at the controls of the Cessna 152 aircraft when it plummeted into a Florida swap on June 9, killing her and her 24-year-old brother Daniel.

Although initial reports suggested the plane might have suffered technical problems, a year-long investigation into the tragedy has determined that pilot error was the most likely cause.

The findings will come as a further blow to the siblings' devastated parents, Thomas and Elaine Beattie, from Penicuik, Midlothian.

The family were visiting Miss Beattie, who was studying in the US as part of her pilot degree, at the time of the ill-fated flight last year.

A report by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) states the "probable cause" of the crash was Miss Beattie's "failure to maintain adequate airspeed while maneuvering, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and subsequent spin".

The siblings hired the Cessna from the Space Coast Aviation flying school on Flordia's Merritt Island but never returned.

It took the authorities several hours to find the wreckage of the plane, which had "nose-dived" into a wooded swamp near the Blue Cypress resort, 50 miles away.

The inquiry found that the plane issued a distress signal shortly before the crash and the investigation focused on part of the Cessna's rudder which was said to be incorrectly fitted

News reports last year suggested that a second crash involving another aircraft leased from the same flying school could indicate the planes had suffered technical problems.

The report, published on Friday, reads: "Review of radar data revealed that in the last few minutes of the flight the airplane made several maneuvering turns. The reason the pilot chose to maneuver in that location is unknown. The final maneuvers included a 70-degree right turn to a heading of 180 degrees.

"About two minutes later, the airplane made a 360-degree left turn, and radar contact was lost. The radar data was consistent with cruise speed throughout the flight, except for the last return, which indicated that the airplane had slowed significantly.

"Post-accident wreckage signatures were consistent with a spinning descent and impact, indicating that the airplane likely entered an aerodynamic stall from which the pilot did not recover."

Bill Walker, a family friend and Miss Beattie's former athletics coach, told the Sunday Express that he was "surprised" by the verdict.

"Carly had quite a bit of experience, she had studied flying down in England and had travelled to America to get even more experience with commercial planes. She had been passing all of her exams.

"I'd be surprised if Carly was at fault here - I've heard that the [leasing] company had experienced crashes in the past and they had been down to problems with their planes.

"I think that hearing the findings will be quite distressing for her parents but I can't see them challenging the decision - I don't think that they'd want to drag this out any longer."

In April the Sunday Express revealed that Edinburgh Athletic Club, where Carly trained as a sprinter, had decided to hold a special annual event in tribute to her, whilst Morningside School of Music launched an award in memory of Daniel, who was a keen guitarist.

Speaking at the time Mr Beattie admitted the tragedy was "too tender" to revisit, adding: "I've lost my kids, and that is never going to go away."

And Mr Walker, who too has experienced his own tragic losses within the past year, explained that the couple have tried to spend time away from home in an attempt to deal with their grief.

"I lost my daughter last year and my wife last month so I've been spending time with them both. On Carly's birthday we went out for a meal together.

"They seem to be coping, they have been on quite a lot of holidays. I think it makes it easier not being around the family home."

Young Female Pilot Sets the Bar High

From Caribena.com:  Young Female Pilot Sets the Bar High

Fiona Austin McDonald

Antigua St. John’s - When I met up with 24-year-old Fiona Austin McDonald to do this interview she was dressed in casual attire - and the stares we (well, she) got while we were walking to our location!

It’s no wonder that, according to her, even though members of the public see her as plain as daylight dressed in her uniform looking to take up duty, they still come up to her and ask, “Are you a pilot?”

“It’s a question I get so often nearly everywhere I go that I’m so used to it by now, although sometimes I grow a little tired of answering the obvious. Just the other day, I went to a particular restaurant where I’ve been going for so long and one of the workers asked me, ‘Are you a pilot?’ I was like, what?”

McDonald, who flies with LIAT, said when she went to her father Wade Austin McDonald, who is a Training Captain with LIAT and told him of her career decision and that she wanted to go to flight school, all he said was ‘OK’.

“Daddy said OK... just like that and I noticed that he did not say anything else about it and I went back to him after about two months and said ‘Daddy remember I told you I want to go to flight school?’ And he turned and said to me, ‘Yes, but I didn’t realise you were serious’. And when he realised I was, it was full speed ahead in preparation for that.”

I asked Ms. McDonald if she didn’t think her father was shocked or was between two minds, as is the response from some parents when their children choose certain types of careers.

The vibrant young woman quickly said, “Oh no, not Daddy! He always encouraged us to do what we wanted to do...do what we are passionate about and reach for the stars. And another thing too, the ‘love’ for flying runs in the family. Apart from my father who’s been doing that for many years, there is my brother; he is a pilot and my stepmom is a flight attendant. And let me say, it’s not because of all of that - this is just something I really wanted to do.”

McDonald said her interest to take up flying struck her via two experiences.

“I was a flight attendant with Caribbean Star at the time and one evening when we were coming into Antigua, the pilot had the aircraft at a certain angle where I could see the runway brightly lit and how great it looked and I said right there and then, ‘You know what, I want to be up in front there taking charge, not back here’.

“Another experience was when I met this young female pilot, a Jamaican. I saw her on the ramp and she was with her male counterparts and the respect she got was just remarkable and that impressed me a great deal.”

McDonald has some concerns, however, about how the public perceives the roles and functions of female pilots versus her male counterparts.

Antigua St. John's - Senior Member of the Antigua Labour Party (ALP) and Member of Parliament in St. Mary's North Molwyn Joseph has taken up the proli...
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Although in an era where the gender gap in some careers seems to be closing in, there is still much further to go.
“Just the other day it was all females in control of the flights and remarks were made like ‘wait a all women a fly today, a whey de man and dem?’ Another comment I get a lot is ‘you look like a teenager, you sure you can handle yourself, you look young ….young.’ Almost every day I get that and it just goes to show how some people label certain jobs as being a ‘man’s or woman’s job’. And it is perceived that women are a little softer than men, but from what I see both male and female pilots do equally great jobs in any circumstances there is no differentiation you just have to perform with all the zeal and confidence that you have.”

The young pilot said there are a lot of decisions to be made when it comes to flying and pilots have to be in tiptop shape both physically and mentally.

She said that’s why LIAT ensures its pilots get routine medical checks and simulator training every six months, and attend ground school.

Actually, McDonald’s turn for ground school training in Canada comes up shortly.

I asked her what’s her most memorable and challenging experiences since she’s been flying for the past three years.

She said, “It’s this time when I was called out to work and had to return an Antigua/Dominica flight back to Antigua on one engine. It was my first one-engine landing and because of the superb training we got with LIAT, I was very comfortable with it. Actually, my dad was more shaken up than I was. Daddy has never really experienced the single engine with LIAT, but I think, he’s had some minor incidents with companies he flew with before in Guyana, but all in all, I was okay.

“In terms of my most challenging moment, it was when there was a lightning/thunder storm and my female captain was so at ease and I saw the lightning striking dangerously causing damage on the ramp in this terrible weather. I was like, being a young First Officer, I was thinking…are we still going and yes we did. My captain was so cool, calm and collective, she didn’t flinch and we navigated around the storm and came through safely.”

McDonald said she can see why there is a perception regarding pilots, more so the males whereby some people say they have an ego.

“But now I’m right ‘in the know’, I wouldn’t really say it’s an ego. You see, you have to have a certain level of confidence when you  are a pilot;  you have to have a certain level of confidence when making decisions regarding people’s lives. It’s either up or down, yes or no and you have to be sure of what you are doing; there is no maybe.”

McDonald, who pursued her training in the USA, said although she is happy with her achievements and position with LIAT; she would like to move to the higher rung of the ladder yet still.

“Yes, I see myself being promoted to captain someday,. I know this comes with hard work and lots of experience, but I am up to the task.  And the good thing is, I love what I do. I get up at 4 in the morning knowing that I am going to do what I love to do.”

 Asked her how she balances her busy work life with leisure she said: “When I am off, I spend time with my family, go to the beach, sometimes take in a movie, nothing more. I am not really a big limer, so you wouldn’t find me hanging out late, then having trouble to go the next day. How funny though, now I am of age and I can go where I want, I am not doing that, but when I was younger and wanted to go out and my parents said no, that use to hurt a lot.

“Now, I look forward to work, and recognise the importance of having a solid career to build on. My routine is like this sometimes: it’s up at 4 in the morning, get ready with my son who is eight months and drop him off at my mom’s, check in at 5 to get ready to fly at 6, and so it goes. Sometimes we fly all day, we do a sector flight each and it’s a really great experience so far.

“My boyfriend has also been very supportive in all of this as well, I have to give credit to him because he’s an awesome daddy to our son and helps out a lot.”

McDonald said she had her eyes set on becoming a model or a career in Computer Science but she found being a pilot was more appealing.

She encouraged parents who see their children leaning towards becoming pilots not to discourage them.read more

“Let them go for it. I am glad my parents supported me when I decided on this. It’s a career with so much potential and experience that you can build on later on in life.  Allow your children to feel out their career paths, don’t decide for them.

“And for those who think flying may mean risks, risks come in all forms so think positive, especially you females; don’t say it’s a man’s job. As long as it’s what you want to do, just do it.”

PR: Chasing Reno Gold: DVD for the True Fan of Unlimited Racing

Chasing Reno Gold: DVD for the True Fan of Unlimited Racing

This four-hour feature is packed with information and personality, as director Mark Chiolis interviews every living Unlimited Gold winner of the National Championship Air Races. These remarkable men, aged from the low twenties to their seventies, are among the fastest humans on the planet, and the fastest-ever behind a spinning propeller. They openly share their insights and recollections with us mortals, and it’s surprising how similar their piloting experiences are to those of the rest of ours – and how different!

Each of the interviewees is casual and open, happy to talk of the good times, the scary times, and the occasional bad times; their dreams when they started and their ideas, today. 

The Unlimited winners, always an exclusive club, are rarer still in this year’s entry list: Darryl Greenamyer has retired from Unlimited racing at least until his 4360-powered special – (more on that in the video) gets ready; Mira Slovak retired after winning the first Gold in 1964; Bruce Lockwood has stopped flying altogether; Skip Holm and John Penney aren’t entered in 2012; Steve Hinton flies the pace plane; Ron Hevle and Mike Brown don’t compete any longer; Clay Lacy is running his corporate flying empire; Bill DeStefani has handed Strega over to younger hands; and the Sanders brothers, Dennis and Brian, share turns in Dreadnought. Only they and Steven Hinton (Steve’s son) are Chasing Reno Gold. 

Of the winning airplanes, only two-time winner Dreadnought, ten-time winner* Rare Bear, nine-time winner Strega, and September Fury are still flying. The breed is getting rarer each year, and attrition and price inflation are culling the available warbirds, fast. That makes this DVD more a treasure; Unlimited Air Racing as we know it is folding in on itself, and its new regulations are keeping a lot of other prospects out – the good times are right now!

It’s not just the pilots who contribute, either. The top names in Reno speed – Pete Law, Bill Kerchenfaut, and others give up some of their secrets. History is provided by Bob Hoover, Grand Marshal for some 30 years; and current insights by RARA (Reno Air Racing Association) officials, bring us up to the minute.

Any fan of the Reno Championship Air Races, of air racing, or of the heroism and hard work that go into a championship motorsports effort will gain a lot by watching this video. It’s more education than entertainment – but so is college, compared to a movie; and which does your soul more good?

Available on DVD and high definition Blu Ray.

More: www.JustPlaneFunVideos.com 

Female pilots few, but proud

From JDNews.com:  Female pilots few, but proud

On May 22, 1912, 1st Lt. Alfred Cunningham reported to Annapolis, Md., for duty, marking the birth of Marine Corps aviation. It was another 81 years, in 1993, before 2nd Lt. Sarah Deal was selected as the first female Marine to attend Naval aviation training.
Deal paved the way for the hundreds of female Marines who have since followed — Marines like Capt. Andrea Neagle.
As a senior in high school, Neagle watched the twin towers go down on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and like so many other men and women that day, she decided to join the military.
“It just got me thinking about what I was doing with my life and what I was contributing to the country,” she said.
She applied to the U.S. Naval Academy and, to her own astonishment, was accepted. Neagle spent the next four years learning the ins and outs of military service, before finally deciding she wanted to spend her military career as a Marine.
“I always admired the Marines,” Neagle said. “They took pride in their work and it was always about the Marine you were taking care of.”
As for her occupation, like only a few women before her, she decided she wanted to earn her wings as a Marine aviator and MV-22 Osprey pilot.
“I figured, ‘What’s cooler than flying?’” said Neagle, one of about 10 female Osprey pilots — out of a total 400 Osprey pilots — currently serving in the Marine Corps.
Neagle said like all other pilots, she’s been taught to see herself as a Marine officer first, and a pilot second. But being a female Marine officer alone puts Neagle in another minority group.
Female officers make up about 6 percent of the entire officer Corps, and that’s a responsibility that Neagle said puts more pressure on her than being a pilot does.
“I don’t feel extra pressure because I’m in the pilot community,” Neagle said. “I think more because I’m an officer. You’re one of a few and it’s more responsibility and how you carry yourself and how you react to things — people watch.”
The reason why so few females serve as pilots was simple for Neagle to explain: “They just don’t want to be a pilot,” she said, adding that many of her female officer friends are perfectly capable of making it through the rigorous pilot training.
Although only a small percentage of women fly planes in the Marine Corps — 2.5-percent of Osprey pilots are female — women in Marine Corps aviation have come a long way over the past century.
“For us, it’s not really like ‘Hey we’re the females out there,’” Neagle said. “We’re just one of the Marines lucky and privileged to fly a plane.”

 

All Women Air Race Classic - 2012

You'll have to go to Youtube via a computer to see this video of

All Women Air Race Classic - 2012 

 

AIN Blog: The Bizav Boys' Club

From AINOnline: AIN Blog: The Bizav Boys' Club

In his recent Business Jet Traveler interview with Elite Aviation owner Chris Holifield, journalist Matt Thurber notes that “you don’t see a lot of women-owned aviation businesses.” Bizav, he says, is “a boys’ club.”

It sure is, and so is the rest of the aviation world.

Granted, female pilots have become more common, and there’s even a magazine called Aviation for Women. But can you imagine a periodical called Aviation for Men? The title sounds ridiculous. Women in aviation, on the other hand, are still enough of a novelty to merit a dedicated publication.

Just look around. The CEOs of the NBAA, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association and National Air Transportation Association are all male. The heads of Argus, Wyvern and the Flight Safety Foundation are all male. The CEOs of the six major fractional-jet-share providers are all male. Virtually all the leading bizav consultants are male. The CEOs of Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Cessna, Dassault, Embraer, Gulfstream, Hawker Beechcraft, Piaggio Aero and Pilatus are all male.

Are you beginning to detect a pattern?

Business Jet Traveler magazine, which I edit, mirrors the aviation community and the overall society. We feature women on our cover and in our pages every chance we get, but we don’t get enough chances. We have interviewed some prominent women, such as financial adviser Suze Orman and former New Jersey governor Christie Whitman and, as noted above, we recently ran a Q&A with Elite Aviation’s Holifield. But the vast majority of our covers and interview subjects have featured men. Our audience is predominantly male, too, and so are our company’s CEO, COO, EVP, publisher, production/manufacturing manager, editor-in-chief, magazine and online editors and creative director, though we do have a few women in senior-level positions.

I know that many societal factors contribute to this imbalance and that it isn’t necessarily a reflection on the practices of our company or any of the others I’ve mentioned. But that doesn’t make the situation any better.
The good news is that attitudes and laws are changing, albeit too slowly. My 13-year-old daughter can barely believe it when I tell her this, but in my admittedly not-too-short lifetime, there was a period when employers could legally specify in an ad whether they sought to hire a man or a woman. I still remember the “Help Wanted–Male” notices in The New York Times, which would announce positions for attorneys, corporate executives and other professionals, and the “Help Wanted–Female” listings, which would say things like, “Needed–Gal Friday. Must be able to type 55 wpm.” This continued for nearly a decade after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed job discrimination based on race.

That this mistreatment of women persisted should surprise no one who has paid attention to history. While blacks often had to fight for the right to vote until the Civil Rights Act of 1965, they at least earned that right officially way back in 1870, with the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, which said that the right to vote could not be denied based on “race, color or previous condition of servitude.” But that amendment made no mention of gender. Women had to wait until 1920 and the 19th Amendment to gain the right to vote.

As I’ve said, there’s no question that we’ve witnessed progress in recent years. More and more women now occupy top slots at corporations, for example, and in 2008 a woman had a serious shot at the presidency for the first time. And there are now more women in aviation than there were a few decades ago.

But it’s way too soon to celebrate. Men still hold the vast majority of senior executive positions, women still typically earn less than men for the same jobs and some people still wouldn’t vote for a female presidential candidate. Moreover, the 1972 Equal Rights Amendment—which simply stated that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex”—never became law because proponents failed to find 38 states willing to ratify it by the 1982 deadline.  While it has been reintroduced in Congress in every session since then, it has never garnered enough votes to allow the ratification process to restart. In 2010, meanwhile, Supreme Court Justice Antonio Scalia stated his view that the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which ostensibly provides equal protection to all people under the law, does not prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. 

Here’s hoping different views will soon prevail and that we’ll someday live in a world with many female pilots and aviation CEOs—not to mention female U.S. presidents. Until we do, millions of women will be shortchanged and both men and women will miss out on the benefits of their untapped capabilities.