Women Flying With A Passion
Hello Chapter Chairs!
I would like to extend an invitation to you and your members to join Bay Cities for our 80th anniversary luncheon.
It will be held on March 3, 2012 from 11:30 am – 3:00 pm at Asena restaurant in Alameda, CA. …
I hope to see some of you there as we celebrate our 80 years of flying, fun, and fellowship.
Blue Skies and Kind Regards,
Erika Amir
Chapter Chair
Bay Cities 99s
Amelia Earhart Scholarship Info
Dear 99s Chapter Chair,
The Trustees of the Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarship Fund wanted to make sure you and your chapter members were aware that the 2012 AEMSF scholarship applications are available online. The chapter is the first “stop” in the application process. Please encourage your members to take a look to see if they could benefit from any one of the scholarships.
This year there is a new scholarship, The Emergency Maneuvers Training Scholarship. It has no financial need requirement, length of membership requirement, or existing ratings needed. It is in honor of Vicki Cruse who was an aerobatic pilot. Many 99s, led by the Ventura County Chapter raised the funds for this perpetual scholarship. It will be awarded every year for emergency maneuvers and spin training, along with an introduction to aerobatic flying. The New Pilot Award has also been increased to $2,000.00. This award is for our Future Women Pilots who have soloed, passed their written and need a little financial help finishing up with their initial certificate.
We would also like to ask that each of you remind all of your members that the AEMSF is in the running to win $10,000 from Lightspeed this year. Would you please encourage each member to vote using this website. The deadline is
September 15. http:// www.lightspeedaviationfoundation.org/content.cfm/ Finalists/Your-Vote-Counts
Any and all questions can be directed to the co-chairs Madeleine Monaco (99mjm@sbcglobal.net) or Peggy Doyle (pegdoyle@juno.com) We thank you for the work you do for the 99s, and want you to know we are here to serve this wonderful group of women aviators in pursuing their dreams and goals.
Micki Jones here. Love getting the emails from you guys but never make it up there. In fact, I’ve not been flying as a lone pilot in more than two years! I have kept my CFI current, for what that’s worth, but want to “learn to fly” again. Any help would be appreciated.
So if any of you would like to go up sometime and give me a refresher, I’ll gladly pay for your fuel costs. For the past 4 1/2 years, I’ve been working as a Fire Inspector, no longer a firefighter working 2-24 hr shifts per week. So my time for flying greatly diminished after taking that promotion. Now I’m off one weekday per week (it changes each week) and weekends. So please let me know who may be interested. I sure miss it!
Hanging out at the airport can be the best thing to do on a summer day. There’s a veil of indifference at the gate that does not let any ‘to do’ lists in, cancels all the phone or e- mails and lets one mozy through a day of fun. The characters abound, each hanger having some sort of project in progress that their owners are glad to discuss.
Nicole Vandelaar, a friend from the Santa Rosa 99s and whirly girl, had organized a fly in for several chapters to the 29er Diner at the Petaluma Airport. My job was to stake out a table and defend it from all the other fly in folks. This was a big responsibility since the wx was great and the sky was full of hungry people. We didn’t know how many would show up so I set up a reservation for 8 and hoped for the best. Thank goodness Pat Pittelkow came to keep me company. As it was only 3 others joined us for a relaxing yick yak of flying stories and fun. These are the truly special moments, caught between the business of life, where you can relax without any agenda or deadline.
After lunch I was cruising the ramp and came upon my friend Patrick who wanted to exercise his Stearman. This isn’t any ordinary bi-plane. It’s a gorgeous sky cruiser with an engine on steroids. Patrick is known for his aerobatics which I’ve always envied. It was my lucky day because he was ready to launch and had a seat for me. We took off and immediately descended to just 50’ over the Petaluma River; dusting the tops of pickle weed, boaters and meandering water ways. This was really what the romance of flight is all about. To have the warm wind in your face and a smile on your heart is a flight of a life time.
Early in my flying career I had done a lot of aerobatics with hopes of getting an upside down flying machine. The trouble is that you don’t go anywhere. So those plans were shelved. But oh how I love whirling around in the sky! Patrick put the plane through all the tricks and maneuvers a stomach can take, and I still couldn’t get enough. We’re talking about the most fun you can have in a little patch of the blue! He is a great pilot and loves to share his enthusiasm with others.
Back on the ground there was a beer tasting going on, followed by the spontaneous BBQ. What a day! Who said Saturdays were for chores? Great friends, great fun, great flying…
Monday morning, sunlight lighting up the underbellies of the clouds and my mind lets out a big ahhhh… Last week was the drop kick into reality. While I was off clamoring, hiking and biking the back country of Moab, the State and Fed corporate reporting rules for the 99s chapters changed. What’s now required is for each chapter to be responsible for filing a number of forms annually. Prior to this decree our legal support in the Southwest Section did all the work as an ‘umbrella’ organization. I guess as a way to shake out the bushes for some spare change the Attorney General is going after every lemonade stand in the state.
The forms in and by themselves are not that difficult. The challenge was recreating our history; charter, bylaws, amendments, articles of incorporation and financial reports for the last 8 years. Way back, when I took over the chair, Cathy Morshead dropped off two large boxes of ‘stuff’. She said “Here’s the Marin 99s history. Keep it in your hanger now”. So that’s where it has set, growing fuzzy with time and out of the path of my mind. I never felt a need to poke in those boxes until last week.
There were stacks of correspondence from 1973 on, news articles and a wonderful glimpse of what it took to get our chapter out of the dream mode and off the ground. The recurring comment I kept reading was “where is the charter?”, “Can’t find the charter!”” Has anyone seen the charter?” Somehow this very important article disappeared.
Here’s the problem, I need the charter, there is no faking it. The state wants a copy, The Feds want a copy and SWS wants a copy. In the meantime a poison pen letter from the Attorney General arrived stating if I did not provide all evidence they were demanding by the end of the month I would be fined $800. Yee gods, send me back to Moab!
After 8 hours of digging through those boxes, considering a run for the border, a shiny, gold foil-like stamp surfaced. Shazamm! The Charter! (stand up and cheer) It’s a lovely piece of paper with the seal of California, signed by March Fong Eu, the Secretary of State, dated July 9, 1976. The Charter was wedged between two newspaper articles and some old napkins and almost impossible to see. That sent me immediately searching for the champagne.
There was then another 10 hours of finding, copying, grinding, formatting our corporate history. Forty two pages; (X3) copies for the State, SWS and us. No more ink in the printer, the rollers are starting to creak. At least now it’s all together in one binder and won’t be much more than simple online filings in the future. The web sites are on my list of EPA hazard sites. What a painful, excruciating effort it was to make my way through them. I still have to file one last form with the feds. At least that is not due until Dec. Enough whining!!!
Like I said, time for celebration which ended up coming with our sister pilots from Nepal. Kitty, who has supported and promoted the ‘Charter’ of the Nepal 99s hosted Monica and Sabrina from Katmandu, Nepal. They were both in the film that Kitty and Bob made about women pilots in Nepal. They have come over to fly with Kitty to Oklahoma City for the International Meeting of the 99s.
99s from Nepal, Santa Rosa and Marin
The Nepal chapter is doing so much to promote young women in all aspects of career opportunities. Recently they sponsored a basketball tournament to make money for girls in remote areas. Monica and Sabrina’s energy is joyful and infectious. You can’t help but stand up and cheer when you hear all that they are doing.
Kitty had invited members from the Santa Rosa and Bay Cities chapters along with Barbara O and me. What a great evening it was. Considering they were packing up and flying out the next day was a huge effort on Kitty’s part. Many thanks to all Kitty has done for women pilots worldwide.
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