Gretchen passed on this wonderful news to us today. She is working with Mike Smith out of Napa. She says he is great! You go, girl!!
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The Marin County Chapter of the Ninety-Nines, Inc. – Annual Meeting Agenda – February 22, 2020
10:00 Brunch / Mingle time
10:30 Welcome everyone – Introductions
10:45 Treasurer’s report
11:00 Business –
- Vote for new officers:
Rita Merker, Chair
Valerie Westen, Vice Chair
Cindy Pickett, Treasurer
Vacant, Secretary
- Marielle Coeytaux – Presenting her flight project “Sea to Shining Sea.”
- Sue Royce – Recap of Girl Scout Aviation Badge Class on January 18
Calendar –
3/21 – 10 a.m – 2:00 p.m. – Fly-out to Angwin – bring a bag lunch
4/30 – 5/3 – SW Section 99s Spring 2020 meeting, hosted by the Santa Clara Valley Chapter.
7/8 – 7/12 – 2020 99s international Conf. in Long Beach – more info on internet
9/26 – Girls in Aviation Day / Sponsored by Women and Aviation – We will plan on having another event this day at Gnoss Field
10/17 – Gretchen’s Annual Paella dinner
12/5 – Holiday Party at Gnoss Field
11:00 Future activities
11:30 Open discussion
12:00 Meeting adjourned
The Ninety-Nines Mission Statement: The Ninety-Nines is the International Organization of Women Pilots that promotes advancement of aviation through education, scholarships, and mutual support while honoring our unique history and sharing our passion of flight.
Part of the North Bay chapter of the California Disaster Airlift Response Team, or CalDART, the statewide network of volunteer pilots has been delivering masks, ventilator equipment, personnel and other supplies throughout the state and the West during the coronavirus pandemic. Last July, 2020, Val Westen and Dan Bedford flew 1,000 plastic face shields from San Diego (made by the student-run Youth Golf Alliance in Carlsbad) to Marin County for use by various facilities badly in need of them.
“It was just really exciting to see this generation stepping in, and this was all their idea,” Westen said after landing at Gnoss Field on Thursday afternoon.
Last Fall, 2020, Marielle was asked by Paul Marshall, President of CalDART, to create an independent DART operation at Angwin. She took on the task of starting one, and since then has been working hard to meet the challenge. Today, they are 14 pilots and 17 aircrafts strong, along with 6 ground volunteers, each specialized in a valuable field (logistics, ham radio communications, finance management, and data processing). Today, they are recognized by CalDART as being a certified DART Operator. Marielle is currently the director of operations for Angwin DART and will serve as its Incident Commander if a disaster were to hit tomorrow.
Photo below: this flight to San Martin served as their official “annual exercise”, as required by CalDART to be considered operational. They picked up 500 face shields and 500 face masks for the essential workers of Napa County, which were delivered to the Napa COAD for distribution.
Photo below: Marielle flew right seat with Bob Edwards in his newly purchased Cirrus out of Angwin under the TFR that reserved the airspace for the Lightning Complex firefighters. They received special permission to fly out and back into Angwin.
Maddie here. Sorry I haven’t reached out in a bit, I wanted to wait until I
had some exciting news! I passed my Checkride the other day! Been a lot of
hard work but I couldn’t have picked a better program. I’ll keep you updated with my milestones! Thank you so much for helping me get started, that truly made an impact and has inspired me to do the same. I’ve attached a photo that was taken right after my practical test. Btw- I get to fly the coolest planes! Cirrus SR-20 pictured below.
