Franklin woman battling cancer takes hot air balloon ride

From BGDaily News:  Franklin woman battling cancer takes hot air balloon ride

Linda Denton stands in the middle of the basket, wide-eyed and grinning. As the balloon lifts off, she shouts and waves.

Denton’s first hot air balloon ride today was far from her bravest adventure. In addition to raising five children, the 64-year-old Franklin woman was a race car driver – the first female driver at Fairgrounds Motor Speedway in Louisville, she said.

But Denton began her most daunting battle when she was diagnosed with lung cancer four months ago and given up to six months to live. That’s when she decided to seek help from Hospice of Southern Kentucky. She never dreamed it would lead to a small basket and a giant, multicolored balloon.

Todd Dixon, spokesman at Hospice of Southern Kentucky, was thinking of unique activities for patients when he thought of hot air balloon rides. Service One Credit Union sponsored the ride with a $200 donation. Hospice initially offered the ride to an 81-year-old patient, who backed out. That’s when they called Denton, who initially declined the offer.

“I said, ‘No, I can’t,’ ” she said. “ ‘I’ve got something to do.’ ”

But her daughter, Teresa Dallas, eventually convinced her mother to give it a try. On a chilly morning, Dallas, of Franklin, choked back tears as she led her mother across the yard at Otte Golf Center, where the enormous balloon was inflating. Since learning of her mother’s condition, Dallas had been praying for one last opportunity like this, she said.

“They gave my mom three to six months,” she said, “and I want to remember everything about it I can.”
A handful of people stood around the basket, watching the flame blast and the balloon slowly inflate. Some were other passengers, and some were there for Denton. David Hall, a hospice nurse, stood nearby to watch Denton’s big moment.

“People think about hospice as dying, but it’s not. It’s about living,” Hall said. “It’s about helping them to have good days.”

Dallas was afraid that her mother might be too weak for the ride, but once she saw the balloon, Denton was determined to make the trip. She grabbed one of the metal bars around the burner, balancing herself as she climbed into the basket.

She held onto pilot Doug Robertson as he pulled her into the basket. As she found her footing, Denton immediately asked Robertson how many balloon trips he has taken. She giggled when he joked that it was only his third trip.

Actually, Robertson, of eHotAir.com Ballooning Adventures in Bowling Green, has flown about 350 times. He’s worked with organizations such as Hospice before, he said.

“A lot of times ballooning is on a person’s bucket list,” he said.

Hot air ballooning was never on Denton’s bucket list, but she decided to give it a chance. Her eyes grew wide as she watched Robertson crank up the burner.

“I’m nervous,” she said. “My knees are shaking.”

But she couldn’t hide her excitement as the balloon slowly floated into the air. She waved and hugged her daughter, who asked her mother if she was feeling OK. Denton nodded and smiled.

“I feel like Oz,” Dallas shouted as the balloon climbed into the clouds.

 

Non-Profit Girls With Wings Soars North

A Press release from Girls With Wings:  Non-Profit Girls With Wings Soars North With Support from Alaska's Famous Female Flyers - Books Penned by Group's Founder to be Delivered to Remote Alaskan Villages

Tweto is an energetic student pilot featured in the upcoming third season of Discovery Channels' Flying Wild Alaska, set to debut Friday, June 8th at 10:00pm ET/PT. Tweto and Era Alaska bush pilot, Sarah Fraher, are both familiar with the treacherous terrain associated with Alaska's unforgiving landscape. Despite their fearless flying, both women embrace the importance of serving as role models for future female aviators.
”I think it’s important for women to fly,” Tweto added. “If what Sarah and I are doing can provide a little glimmer of hope to the people of these villages, that’s just really inspiring for me personally.”

The Girls With Wings organization was founded by another female pilot, Lynda Meeks, who was an Army helicopter pilot and current commercial pilot and flight instructor. The goal of Girls With Wings is to use women in aviation to inspire girls to achieve their full potential by understanding that anything is possible through hard work, commitment to education, and a tireless pursuit of personal achievement.
Fraher and her fellow Era Alaska pilots will help hand deliver 50 Penelope Pilot and her First Day as Captain books, written by Meeks, to remote villages across Alaska later this fall. The books were donated by Jones Dykstra & Associates, Inc., a digital forensics, cybercrime investigation, e-discovery, and expert witness company based in Columbia, MD.

"It is my dream that this is just the tip of the iceberg in bringing some attention and inspiration to the remote villages ERA Airlines serves," said Keith Jones, Senior Partner, Jones Dykstra & Associates, Inc. "As both a pilot and father of two daughters, I was inspired by the message Girls With Wings sent to my daughters. As a fan of the Flying Wild Alaska show, I felt it was important to get the Penelope Pilot book into the hands of future aviators. Sarah (Fraher) originally brought up the idea to me and our company was able to make the donation a reality." Jones Dykstra & Associates also donated the funds needed to deliver the books to Alaska to prep them for further distribution.

"The Penelope Pilot book is more than just a book for girls about a female pilot," said Meeks, who wrote the book to find another way to reach out to the younger generation with her message. "It's meant to show the teamwork and responsibilities involved in being a pilot. Yes, it features a female pilot, helping to show everyone that this is a job that women can do just as well as men.”

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, only 6% of all commercial pilots are female. Meeks and the Girls With Wings organization are doing everything they can to change that number.
"I know the combined efforts of Sarah, Ariel, Girls With Wings, along with the generosity of companies like Jones Dykstra & Associate and Era Alaska, can only do so much," Meeks said. "But if we can use this book to change the future prospects for even one young girl or boy, wherever they are - in Alaska or Maryland - then we're making a difference."

”Girls With Wings is wonderful at promoting women in aviation,” Sarah Fraher said in a phone interview with Girls With Wings from Los Angeles. “This organization inspires girls across the country to explore a career in a mostly male dominated industry."

About Flying Wild Alaska, Discovery Channel
Meet the unconventional family that rules Alaska's most dangerous skies. Operating their family-run airline, Era Alaska, the Tweto family battles unforgiving Alaska weather and terrain to transport life's necessities to one of the most remote and extreme regions of America. Season Three of Flying Wild Alaska debuts on Discovery Channel Friday, June 8th at 10:00pm ET/PT. http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/flying-wild-alaska/

About Girls With Wings, Inc.
Girls With Wings, Inc. is a nonprofit organization using aviation to entertain and educate girls about their limitless opportunities for personal growth via an interactive website and presentations to girls groups and organizations. The scholarships are funded through private donations and is always looking for new volunteers to increase its mission http://www.girlswithwings.com

U.S.'s Rhode sets Olympic record on way to skeet gold medal

Not about a woman pilot...but interesting nevertheless. Shows what hard work combined with a bit of skill can do for you!

From CBS Sports: U.S.'s Rhode sets Olympic record on way to skeet gold medal

The U.S. team notches its biggest day in shooting history with Rhode hitting her marks. (Getty Images)

LONDON -- Kimberly Rhode won the gold medal in women's skeet shooting Sunday, making her the first American to take an individual-sport medal in five consecutive Olympics.
Rhode tied the world record and set an Olympic record with 99 points. Wei Ning of China took silver with 91 points and Danka Bartekova of Slovakia got bronze by beating Marina Belikova of Russia in a shootout after they tied with 90 points.
Rhode won a gold medal in double trap at Atlanta as a teenager in 1996, took bronze in that event four years later at Sydney, reclaimed the gold at Athens in 2004 and won the silver in skeet at Beijing in 2008.
In qualifying, Rhode set another Olympic record, missing only one of her 75 shots. Rhode led by four points entering the final, and the way she was connecting Sunday, there was no way she was getting caught.
USA Shooting touted it as the biggest day in shooting history.
Hard to argue with that.
Rhode was a perfect 25-for-25 in each of the first two qualifying sessions, then ran her streak to 65 straight hits before her lone qualifying misfire. Several people watching on a chilly, rainy day at the Royal Artillery Barracks sighed in disbelief at the miss, which Rhode shrugged off with ease.
When qualifying was complete, she flipped the last of the empty shells from her gun, gave a brief fist-pump, followed by a wave and a smile. Rhode thanked several well-wishers as she walked away, moments before rain started falling significantly harder.
The field started with 17 women from 17 nations, before getting pared to six for the final later Sunday.

Lohmann: A pilot for the ages (and hers is 87)

From Richmond Times Dispatch (a couple of weeks ago):  Lohmann: A pilot for the ages (and hers is 87)

FARMVILLE, Va. -- Soon after introductions, Sara Parmenter turned to me and said, "You didn't call me Mrs. Parmenter, did you? Better not have. I'm Sara."
I told her I didn't think I had, but I would be sure to use "Sara" from here on, which she seemed to appreciate.
"I'm not your typical old lady," she said with a laugh.

A few minutes later, Sara, an 87-year-old pilot, climbed into her plane and took off into the skies over the Virginia Piedmont.

Parmenter, who lives on a farm in Cumberland County with her husband, Robert, and will turn 88 in August, is a certified UFO — a United Flying Octogenarian. In fact, she founded the Virginia chapter of the national UFO organization.

On Saturday, she and other Virginia pilots who have crossed the 80th-birthday threshold were honored by the Department of Aviation in a reception celebrating the state's "aviation pioneers" at the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach.

At the same event, Parmenter was given the Federal Aviation Administration's Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, which recognizes pilots who have demonstrated aviation expertise by maintaining safe operations for 50 years or more.

Others receiving the Wright Brothers award were Ray Tyson and John Greenwood, who fly out of Hanover County Airport, and Hubert Compton, who flies out of Orange County Airport.

"I feel very inadequate compared to many of my fellow pilots, some of whom have done so much, flying for the military or airlines," Parmenter said. "I can't say I have that much experience, just over a long period of time."

A long period of time is right. She took her first flight at age 7, in the early 1930s, after her father scraped together $5 so she could ride in a barnstorming open-cockpit biplane that had come to her Florida town.
"We were real poor, but my father knew I loved planes," she said. "I'd always looked at pictures and would point when one came over. I'll always be grateful to him because he knew how much I loved it."

During World War II, she served in the Civil Air Patrol, riding in small planes looking for German subs along the Florida coast, and worked as a coastal spotter, searching the skies for enemy planes and getting to know the silhouettes of every aircraft imaginable.

With increased demand for stateside nurses because of the war, she joined the Cadet Nurse Corps Program, later becoming an Army nurse, then transferring to the Air Force. In 1950, she married Robert Parmenter, an Army surgeon, and began a life of hopscotch travel around the country and overseas when his orders changed.

A year earlier, having finally saved enough money for flying lessons, she had gotten her first taste of piloting a plane. It produced within her a contentment that remains to this day. She talks about the peacefulness, the feeling of bonding with a plane and the "sense of wonderment" when flying over some particularly fetching patch of earthly handiwork — even though, she admitted, she's deathly afraid of heights.
The Parmenters moved to Virginia in 1968, finding a 40-acre farm in Cumberland where, while Robert worked as a district director for the Virginia Department of Health, Sara raised cattle and hogs, chickens and ducks, even peacocks. For a time, she would arise every morning to milk the goats before going to her nursing job at a local hospital.

"I had a lot of energy in those days," she said.

In 1972, she fell in love with a 1948 Cessna 140, a single-engine, two-seater that reminded her of a plane she'd had to sell before one of the couple's overseas transfers. She bought it, and she's been flying it out of Farmville Regional Airport ever since.

In recent years, she has served as the honorary ambassador — her face is on the posters — for the Virginia Aviation Ambassadors Program, which, among other things, encourages pilots to fly to all 67 of Virginia's airfields, which she has done, all the while happily chatting up anyone she meets.

"They kid me about yakking," she said with a laugh. "But if anybody gets me started on flying, I can't stop."
Randall P. Burdette, the state's director of aviation, marvels at Parmenter, calling her "an inspiration" and "a bundle of energy."

"I hope when I get to be 87, I'll have near the energy she does," Burdette said.

All of that, and she's Eb Dawson's aunt!

Eb Dawson, played by Tom Lester, was the hillbilly handyman who said "Golly" a lot on the 1960s hit television series "Green Acres" (one of America's finest 20th-century achievements in entertainment). Lester, the son of Parmenter's older brother (who also happened to be a pilot), is alive and well, living in his native Mississippi and doing motivational speaking.

Parmenter, who has not run across an older female pilot still flying in Virginia, takes the privilege very seriously. She is extra careful when it comes to safety, refusing to fly, for example, at more than a hint of a breath of wind. She knows that at her age, any slip-up could mark the end of her flying days, and that's not something she's eager to reach.

Even on days when the weather is too sketchy to fly or she doesn't have time, she will visit her plane at its airport hangar and "just stand there and look at it and remember how grateful I am for being able to fly."

 

Astronaut Sally Ride inspired young women

From HeraldOnline:  Astronaut Sally Ride inspired young women

America’s first female astronaut was a positive role model for many young people.

Sally Ride, who died Monday at age 61, probably could have been a success at just about any career path she took. But as she herself noted, all she wanted to do was fly, to soar into space, float around weightless, look out at the heavens and back at Earth.

About the only way to accomplish that goal was to become an astronaut. And as it happened, Ride found herself at the perfect juncture in history to make her dream come true.

She was finishing studies at Stanford University – earning degrees in physics and astrophysics, and English, with a specialty in Shakespeare. NASA was recruiting astronauts, with the unstated goal of bringing women on board.

Ride filled out an application she saw in a newspaper and was accepted into the program. Her educational background was a big factor, but so was a demeanor that allowed her to keep cool under pressure and weather the inevitable skepticism about sending women into space.

It is hard to comprehend three decades after her first ride aboard the shuttle Challenger how unusual it was for a woman to be admitted to the macho fraternity of NASA astronauts.

In those days, allowing women to take on jobs that were both dangerous and physically demanding was rare.
At the time, there were no female fighter pilots in the Air Force.

But Ride, as part of her NASA training, not only learned to fly a jet but also trained in parachute jumping, water survival and acclimatization to weightlessness and the massive G-forces of a rocket launch.
Before her first liftoff, reporters asked her questions that would be unthinkable today: Did she plan to wear a bra and makeup in space? Did she cry on the job? Would space flight affect her ability to have children?
The task of a pioneer blazing a new trail can be difficult. But, apparently for Ride, the payoff was worth it.
She not only became an astronaut, but she also was able to use her physics and engineering skills to help develop a robotic arm for the shuttle. And she got to test it on her first shuttle flight.
In the process of pursuing her dream, Ride also served as an inspiration and role model to a new generation of girls. That, in effect, became her life’s work.

After retiring from NASA in 1987, she took science-related jobs at Stanford and the University of California, San Diego. But she was driven to instill a love of science, technology and math in young people, especially young girls.

In 2001, she started a company, Sally Ride Science, to “make science and engineering cool again,” as she put it.

She also wrote six science books for children.

Ride, who succumbed to pancreatic cancer, will forever hold a place in history as the first American woman to show young girls that they could look at the heavens and say to themselves, “I can go there.”

Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/07/25/4138776/sally-ride-americas-first-woman.html#storylink=cpy

 

India: Thud! It’s a plane’s wheel

From Telegraph India:  Thud! It’s a plane’s wheel
- All-lady crew saves the day after mid-air revelation of loss at take-off

June 10: As the Air India plane took off from Silchar airport amid a drizzle, ground staff saw something drop from the sky. It was one of the ATR-42 aircraft’s nose wheels.

The 48 Guwahati-bound passengers learnt about it about half an hour later. Ratu Hazarika clearly remembers the on-board announcement that set off “the scariest moments of my life”.

“The crew asked us to fasten our seat belts and announced the plane might have to make an emergency landing because of a technical snag. It created panic inside the aircraft,” the divisional sales manger with pharmaceutical company Akumentis Healthcare told The Telegraph.

Eventually, Flight ATR 9760 touched down safely after circling over Guwahati airport for nearly an hour to burn up fuel and reduce the risk of a fire, with ambulances and fire engines lining the runway.

None among the passengers or the all-female crew of four — two women pilots and two airhostesses — was injured, but Hazarika said the 65-odd minutes since the announcement were nerve-wracking. Soon, the cabin crew began giving safety demonstrations relating to emergency landings and fires.

“An airhostess told us some emergency situation was anticipated and the plane might even have to land in a river. She showed us how to use life jackets,” the Guwahati resident said.

To Payal Jain Agarwal, a 35-year-old jewellery designer from Surat who was travelling with her two young sons and mother, it seemed like a nightmare. “They showed us the emergency exits and told us we might need to run or jump. For a moment, it seemed like I was watching a disaster movie,” she said.

Two passengers fainted. “There was a lot of turbulence and the plane shook violently while landing,” Hazarika said. “When it touched down safely, I felt as if I had been given a second life.”

A pilot and aviation trainer, Samar Desai, said there wasn’t really much risk provided the “standard procedure” for landing with a damaged nose wheel was followed.

“In such a situation, a pilot is expected to land on the main landing gear (the wheels under the wings) and keep the nose in the air, using air brakes to generate drag and reduce the aircraft’s speed,” said Desai, who handles Indian operations for an aviation college in Australia.

“The goal is to slow down the aircraft as much as possible before the nose wheel touches the ground.”

As the pilots burnt up the excess fuel, it also reduced the plane’s weight: a crucial step for a safe emergency landing. The crew moved the luggage to the rear to shift the centre of gravity further to the aft and away from the nose.

Sources at Guwahati airport said the ATR-42 planes that Air India uses in the Guwahati-Silchar sector are mostly old and poorly maintained. They said this aspect was being investigated.

The passengers did not know what exactly the problem was till after the landing, said Agarwal, who was travelling to Guwahati for a “family function”. She described how her horror increased with every titbit of information and every assurance.

“First, the airhostess stressed the correct sitting posture during landing, leaving us wondering what was amiss. Prodded, she said there was some problem with the landing systems,” Agarwal said. “Then they started moving the luggage, saying this was for our safety. Then came the bolt from the blue: the announcement about an emergency landing.”

She added: “They issued a slew of dos and don’ts: don’t panic, don’t get up, move to the closest exit on landing, don’t carry your belongings....”

But Agarwal praised the cabin crew. “All along, they were very calm and composed, attending to the fainting and panic-stricken passengers, offering them water and helping them relax.”

When the crew assured everyone that ambulances and fire engines were standing by, “all kinds of thoughts were going through my mind, like what was going to happen next, how to tackle a fire, what would happen if we had to jump.... Everyone was praying.”

Eventually, no emergency medical help was needed. After the plane landed, the passengers cheered loudly and shook hands with pilot Urmila Yadav and co-pilot Yashu.

Moloy Dutta, a senior air traffic control (ATC) official in Guwahati, praised the Silchar ATC for promptly informing the pilots and Guwahati as soon as the wheel mishap was noticed. Several other airports in the region — Imphal, Dimapur, Agartala, Tezpur and Aizawl — too prepared for an emergency landing.

“We asked the aircraft to fly lowpass (low) so that the ground engineers at Guwahati airport could see what the problem was,” Dutta said. “Good piloting helped avert a disaster.”

Chief minister Tarun Gogoi called up Yadav to say: “Hats off to you and your co-pilot.”

The errant nose wheel, retrieved from the runway, has been kept at Silchar airport.

Patricia Mawuli: Ghana’s High-Flying Woman

From the World:  Patricia Mawuli: Ghana’s High-Flying Woman

Ghana's first female pilot Patricia Mawuli. (Photo: english.cntv.cn)

At age 23, Patricia Mawuli is among the youngest pilots in the west African nation of Ghana. And she’s also the country’s first female pilot. The best place to find Mawuli is at the Kpong Airfield, where she is an instructor at Ghana’s Aviation and Technology Academy.

And if this weren’t unusual enough for a woman in rural Ghana, Mawuli is also an aircraft engineer. She teaches other young women from the Lake Volta region to build and fly ultra-light planes. It is a traditionally all-male occupation, but Mawuli believes women have unique qualities that enable them to be good pilots.
“Many people consider aviation to be very risky,” Mawuli said. “In an environment where women are seen as the wives who should look after the family, I actually believe there is a reason why God made women to be the people who deliver to children, because women have more patience and are able to handle things in a much more fragile manner.”

And Mawuli exercises that “fragile manner” in her volunteer work with Medicine on the Move. It’s an organization that works together with the Aviation Academy to deliver medical services and health education to rural communities across Ghana.

Mawuli transports medical supplies and doctors all around the country, and she occasionally drops educational pamphlets over remote villages.

“For jobs like that I’m quite happy to jump into the plane and to take people and especially sometimes they do medicine advice like giving health programs on malaria, schistosomiasis, and things like that to the community,” she said. “So they print it out and I can fly and drop it to the communities.”

One of Mawuli’s favorite places to fly is over nearby Lake Volta, the largest man-made lake in the world at 3,000 square miles.

“You can see some communities that are farming or fishing, and they are actually a bit isolated,” she said. “And so flying overhead seeing how hardworking they are lets me appreciate much more what my people can do.”