Why is Our balloon pilot the best? Because she’s OUR balloon pilot of course! Our Treasurer, Karalynn probably flies for the joy of flying more than any other member in our group. (For the joy of flying, not that you professional pilots don’t get joy from what you do). In fact, if you’re lucky enough to be a “Lemon Squeezer” for her balloon, Citrus in the Sky, then you see her bi weekly or sometimes weekly emails about where she’s flying and does anyone want to crew?? Now that her son is a Balloon pilot, she has TWO Balloons! The newest Balloon is, “Don’t Tell Mom”. Naturally, she was flying during the Great Reno Balloon Race this year! This year she also made the trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the International Balloon Fiesta. It’s the Mecca of the Balloon world, and an amazing event to attend and participate in. I highly recommend you check it out…. At any rate, here are some photos I snagged off of her Facebook feed from Fiesta this year. She flew a special shape balloon this year. Special shape balloons are comparatively difficult to fly for a number of reasons. It takes quite a bit of knowledge, skill and competence to fly a special shape safely.

Have you been wondering where RHS member Laura Starkey has been? She’s been busy building a plane! Check out the articles she’s been writing detailing her and her 49.5 build process! https://www.kitplanes.com/mike-and-laura-starkeys-rans-s-21/ Bonus points if you can spot another RHS member in her build diary.

Check out the September / October edition of Aviation for Woman to see the Kit Plane advertisement featuring Laura!

Yes, we’re having a great time at RARA! Check out these photos of our members in our memorabilia tent and playing with a gyrocopter… Better yet, come out and support the Reno Air Races, and stop by our tent!!

Heather and Natasha

Member Neita M. attended the more recent Southwest Section Meeting, hosted in and by our Las Vegas Chapter. We had members from both sections in attendance. What a special and wonderful opportunity for all of us to gather, make friends, and celebrate our successes.

If you’ve been in Reno the past month, and you didn’t already know the word pyrocumulous, you probably know it now. A pyrocumulous is in essence, a cloud caused by fire, smoke and ash. For a more specific definition, click here.

RHS member Steff’s 49 1/2 Ruben was flying in the area for work and shared some photos he took of the fires/smoke.

Smoke from California Fires blowing into Nevada

Smoke from California Fires blowing into Nevada

Welcome to Nevada, California's designated smoking area...

Despite the joke about smoking areas, wild fires are serious, and deadly. Our thoughts are with those whose lives have been directly and indirectly impacted by wildfires.

Reno has literally been choking on the smoke blowing in from surrounding forest fires. The smoke has been so thick and heavy that flights have been diverted! The air quality has ranged from moderate to unhealthy in August. Our homes (well, at least mine) have begun to smell like smoke, and walking out to find ash covered vehicles (and airplanes!) has been quite disheartening.

Just in case you were wondering, the N95 mask is the appropriate mask to wear to protect yourself from wildfire smoke and ash if you need to be outside.

We hope you and yours are safe and breathing filtered air indoors. We also hope wildfire season ends soon.

Reno’s Air Quality for the month of August 2021. Moderate (yellow) to unhealthy (purple). No green in sight…

As you may or may not know, our amazing Chairman Heather is on a personal mission to fly each and every month with a fellow 99. Last month, she took RHS member Dani for a flight. This month, it was RHS member Laura! Who will it be next??? This webmistress hopes Heather has inspired you and that you’ll also take on this mission and share your photos!

RHS member Laura and RHS Chairman Heather flying!

RHS member Laura and RHS Chairman Heather, with Heather’s Dakota!

We finally got together just for the sake of getting together this past week at Mimi’s. Thank you to Laura for organizing this little soiree of aviatrixes. It was a great opportunity to reconnect with old friends and make new ones! We hope you’ll join us next time!

Back in late July, RHS 99 Dani was heading to Denver when she saw a familiar face! Debra is a professional pilot who relocated to Reno and reached out through our website to connect with us! Dani and Debra had a chance to to catch up as they were on the same flight!

Chapter member Steff; former RHS Secretary, a helicopter pilot, CFI, CFII, fixed wing pilot, current Squadron Commander for the Reno Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol, and one of our webmistresses made these beautiful purses from old charts and pretty paper. Have you made any airplane related crafts? Which purse is your favorite??

5 Purses made by Steff, which is your favorite?? I’m torn between the blue high IFR chart and the gold/tan desert sectional.

Purse 1

Purse 2

Purse 3

Purse 4

Purse 5

Here’s what the look like from the top with the zipper.

Summer is a great time for flying adventures. Chapter member Elizabeth and her co-pilot Rio (the world’s cutest golden retriever I can’t wait to meet) recently flew up to the Idaho backcountry. Some of the fun parts of a backcountry trip: Sunrise over the mountains, camping under the wing of your plane, having a good co-pilot companion, visiting remote areas and not-so remote areas, early morning flying, afternoon hiking, swimming, napping in the shade of your airplane, and visiting with like minded people, and flying home with a tired, happy, crew.

As a reminder - Please get adequate backcountry and mountain flying training before heading off on an adventure like this! Backcountry flying it is very different from flying around your home airport!

Sunrise over the Mountains

Elizabeth, Rio, the C-180, and camping gear!

Camping under the wing of your plane.

Rio, a good flying companion

Elizabeth and Rio checking out remote places.

Watching other pilots, checking out other planes, and Rio catching a nap with mom.

Exploring beautiful land with a handsome co-pilot.

Who needs a tree for shade, when you have airplane wings??

Rio keeping things under control in the back of the airplane.

Our new Vice Chairman, Serena is taking names and kicking, er, um, PASSING TESTS!! Serena had to drive to Auburn to take her Commercial Written, but she passed it with flying colors!! (no pun intended) . At least that’s what I call scoring a 98%! Congrats to Serena and we hope you enjoy your well earned “Flight” across the street from Knee Deep!

We’ve said it before, but we have the COOLEST members in our Chapter! Congrats to Syd, our new Secretary, on receiving a $10,000 AOPA Scholarship!!!

Click here for info on the scholarship

This is from the AOPA Magazine and includes an interview with Syd:

Sometimes life prevents us from doing what we love the most. (Flying, of course!) If you can’t get up in the air or find some simulator time, check out the reading list for the Aviatrix Book Club on Facebook! It’s a private group, but don’t worry, let us know if you want an invite and we’ll get you in. They have zoom meetings to discuss books, as well as online discussions. Here’s their reading list for this year. July’s book is about a Helicopter pilot.

(Click the link below for a cool article!)

Meet the Nevada Air National Guard’s 1st female flight instructor pilot

Maj. Sarah Spy has wanted to be a pilot since she was a little girl. Now, at 37, she has become the first female flight instructor pilot for the Nevada Air National Guard.

Congrats to April who recently earned her Instrument Rating, and is working towards her commercial and then CFI ratings!

After spending all day Sunday on the ground air marking the Nervino airport, Coraline couldn’t resist flying up there on Monday to see how it looked from the sky! Doesn’t it look fantastic???

Coraline wasn’t the only RHS 99 up in the skies on Monday. Heather and Dani were flying in Heather’s beautiful Dakota around the Silver Springs airport when Dani heard a familiar voice on the radio. Serena was out and about flying near Silver Springs as well. Sorry, we don’t have a photo of Serena.

On Sunday, June 13th chapter members Coraline, Neita, Lynn and her 49 ½ Tom, future chapter member Samantha Lanz, and Truckee EAA friends Charlie & Diane gathered at the Nervino Airport in Beckwourth, CA and began to paint. The morning was crisp and calm and the panting crew moved right along. Just before noon the wind started to increase. After a quick lunch break it was decided to continue on. The project of 10 ft. letters & numbers [CTAF 122.8 and ELEV 4900] and 20 ft. letters [NERVINO] was completed by 3 p.m.. At the time of completion, the wind was 19 gusting to 25 and the temperature was 81 degrees. This date was chosen after the May date turned out to be a snowy weekend! You never know about the weather in the mountains. Thank you to those who participated. Another Plumas County airport airmarked.

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For more information on the 99s and air marking, please click this Link.

First things first, we had a in person meeting / BBQ!! Thank you to Jean S. and her husband Ron for hosting, and all of the attendees! Not only did we finally meet in person for the first time, but we brought along our spouses and enjoyed some delicious hamburgers and hotdogs, along with numerous side dishes. We welcomed new member Tina, made some decisions about RARA, and overall, a good time was had by all! This was also a special meeting because we welcomed our new Board of Directors! Our new Chairman is Heather M., she’s a professional pilot with a beautiful little Dakota!. Our new Vice Chair is Serena M, a Flight Attendant well on her way to becoming a professional pilot. Karalyn M., our new Treasurer is balloon pilot with a commercial rating, and is the director for the High Sierra Balloon Camp which starts on Sunday. When she’s not flying balloons, she’s a teacher! Last but not least, our new Secretary is Syd W. Syd who is well on her way to earning her Glider certificate and received a scholarship to earn her single engine land certificate. Syd is a full time HS student. Dani R., stays on the Boards as our Past Chairman and holds her private pilot certificate; she’s recently been enjoying crewing for Karalyn’s ballooning adventures.

Here’s a photo from our BBQ. Not pictured in the photos because they were doing paperwork (BORING, we know) are Dani R., Melody L., and Karalyn M. In the photo below from left to right: Kristi, Elizabeth, Heather, Coraline, Candy, Sue, Jean, and Tina.

From April 20, 2021

Meet the worlds youngest and smolest pawlot! this 2 DAY old pup named Dobby was born with a cleft pallet. Dynamic Duo Dog Rescue needed expeditious transport to @cleftpupbrigade where he could get life saving care and learn how to live his best life. He had to be transported with a hot water bottle to stay warm This was my and Aly’s first Pilots N Paws mission, and we couldn’t be more honored to have helped in his journey

Edit to add: The woman who runs this rescue is incredible. She’s saved over 700 pups! She tube feeds them until they can learn how to drink from rabbit feeders and then helps them eat solid food. She rehabs them so that they can function without needing surgery. She even sometimes finds homes for them that have children with cleft pallets so they have a special bond AND she works a full time job while caring for these special babies!

http://www.cleftpupbrigade.org/

RHS Scholarship Committee Chair Elizabeth C. has had a busy spring, and earlier this year met a handsome fellow name Rio. Though this is “old news”, we’re sharing it here now!

From the streets of Antalya to the mountains of Lake Tahoe, as promised, this is Rio’s story:

Rio was found on the streets of Antalya, in southern Turkey. Through a network of rescue people he journeyed north and ended up with our friend Emel, who is one of the most amazing rescuers a dog could ever meet. Rio stayed under Emel’s care for a couple of months, getting healthy, socialized, and waiting...

I traveled to Turkey as a flight volunteer for Rover’s Retreat.

When I first saw Rio, sitting in the sun with his paws crossed, I think my heart stopped. He “chose” me, in that undeniable way that only a dog does. After a couple of days of accompanying Emel as she rescued and transported dogs, and spending time at what must be the equivalent of Doggie Heaven (Emel and Siyami share their home with dozens of lucky dogs and cats rescued from the streets and other bad situations), we started the long journey to America, first a long drive to Istanbul, then a 14 hour flight to LAX. In Istanbul, Rio charmed his way through the airport. In LAX, I navigated through customs with the 5 crates and 5 excited dogs I brought back. The other 4 dogs went immediately to their foster homes. Rio and I hitched a ride to Hawthorne (thank you Nancy and Bruce), where JP waited for us in the trusty Bonanza. We flew to Petaluma and the next morning flew to Truckee. Rio is a great flyer, and apparently, like his mama, likes everything from the B777-300s to C-180s. I know he will be a great cub flyer.

You’re home now, Rio! He’s a Tahoe dog, loves and has made friends with an extended community of people and dogs. Rio’s beautiful coat of gold, which at one point was completely shaved, has grown in thick and soft. He has a few scars, but his heart is pure gold. He loves snow, is a great companion on walks, hikes, skis, and trips to the beach. He is sweet and calm, great with dogs, cats, kids, and people, and he strikes fear into those wicked birds, squirrels and bears! This boy may never be an ultra-runner, but there are so many adventures in store for us. I think he likes it here, though the water’s a little cold for a guy used to the Mediterranean.

So many people helped to make this happen, and we are eternally grateful to all of you. The experience of going to Turkey and bringing back these dogs who are so deserving of their new lives, is rewarding, fulfilling, interesting, exhausting. If you might be interested in helping out, or if you are interested in going over as a flight volunteer, send me a PM. I can not recommend more highly Rover’s Retreat and the people who give so generously of their time and resources to help these sweet pups.

Love at first sight. He was quite convincing.

How you bring 5 Goldens/golden mixes home from Turkey

He charmed everyone in the airport. My little golden retriever ambassador.

I’ll just sit here while you change my ticket from cargo to business. (This lovely ticket agent loved him and may very well have done it!)

The trusty Bonanza and Captain John made it all work

Mutt muffs handed down from the best flyer, Jaxie!

He loves his duck!

Yup. He wants to stay.