The latest and greatest news!
When you get to work with your friends, is it really work? What if your work is flying?
As you know our Chairman, Heather, recently earned a promotion to Captain. What you may not know is that another RHS member, Moe (her scholarship primer is worth your time on Jan 27) and Heather fly for the same company and recently had to opportunity to fly together for the first time professionally! Here they are in the salt mines….
Moe and Heather (left to right)
Hello ladies,
I thought I would start off this year by sharing some statistics from the FAA regarding the number of pilots, and how many of them are women as of December 31, 2020. No, that’s not a typo, 2020. The statistics for 2021 haven’t been been published yet. :)
Here’s the big news - as of 2020, women pilots made up approximately 8.4% of all FAA certified pilots. I think that’s the highest percentage yet! Some will say, my, that number is so low! I would offer for your consideration that this number represents a GROWING number! In 2011, it was 6.6%. Here are the overall numbers (estimates) provided by the FAA:
To look at the numbers yourself, please visit the FAA at: U.S. Civil Airmen Statistics
Thank you to RHS 99 Neita Montague for inspiring this post!
The RHS 99s met earlier this month for our annual Christmas Potluck and White Elephant Gift Exchange. As I understand it, a good time was had by all. Here are a few photos from the party. If you missed the party this year we’ll hope to see you next year, you know, in January at our first meeting of 2022!
Per Heather:
The man in the photo is my chief pilot and we had just landed in DFW after my check flight and took that selfie.
When I got back to Dayton, my neighbors at the Airpark threw a little party for me. Moe bought me a bottle of wine and my neighbor had photo shopped the cute picture that I’m holding in my hand.
Congrats to Sydney, who soloed on December 2nd!! We’re so excited to share this most excellent news with you! In the photos are Syd and her family. Don’t you love how technology allows us to celebrate our achievements? Syd’s brother was celebrating with her virtually. Again, Congrats to Sydney!!!
As pilots, we’re blessed to have experienced the thrill, beauty, and joy of flight. A huge thank you everyone who shared their love of aviation with us, our mentors, and the CFI’s who taught us. We wouldn’t be in the sky without you!
I’m sure many of you have heard of “flour bombing” and other similar games relating to throwing things from airplane, balloons, and helicopters; but have you heard of a turkey drop? Back in the day, there was a television show about a radio station, WKRP. Here’s a snippet from their show about a Helicopter Thanksgiving Turkey Drop. WKRP - Happy Thanksgiving Helicopter Turkey Drop
RHS members have been up in the sky, verifying the laws of gravity and physics are still valid. Dani and her hubby flew to Napa to meet friends for lunch . Heather enjoyed some time in her airplane solo, and Karalyn flew the morning of the Nevada Day Parade, and on Veteran’s day! Have you been flying???
Have you heard of the “Night Witches”? They were an all female group of Russian pilots who flew under the cover of night, successfully running missions against the Nazi’s during World War II. Check out the link below for more on these courageous women. There are also a couple of books out there if you’re interested in learning more!
From our Vice Chair, Serena:
Last week fellow RHS member Hannah M. and I flew to Vernon, TX to participate in GIFT week! (Girls in Flight Training)
It’s a week long event for girls/women where the airplanes are charged the operational cost of each plane, (Usually $80-100/hourr wet) and all CFI flight/ground instruction is volunteer based and therefore free to the students!
It is organized to place all the private, instrument, and flight instructor students in their own classrooms with a ground instructor to go over material to prep them for both their written and practical exams. They would rotate all the students into their preferred plane (high vs low wing) and some even got to check off some requirements like their long xc, solos, and night xc.
At the end of the week, they took some of the ladies to the testing center to get the written done, and a couple girls even did their checkride! Depending on available funds, they actually offered to cover the cost of some checkrides. A handful of ladies even got a tail wheel endorsement in the cub!
Hannah and I were working on CFI, so they had us practice teaching by sitting in with the private class and helping them work through the written knowledge. We would also split into our own small group to practice writing and presenting lesson plans. We got to do some flying from the right seat in a couple different aircraft, and took advantage of the opportunity to fly some planes that the other students flew to Vernon in! We got time in a J3 cub, Cirrus SR22, Bonanza V35, and sat in the backseat of a twin Apache to absorb some multi knowledge!
We had an amazing time, and made some really great friends! This organization is always open to hosting anywhere in the country, all they need are some planes to fly at a reasonable cost to the students, classrooms to use, and CFI who would like to volunteer their time. As soon as Hannah and I get our CFI we absolutely plan to travel to their next events to donate our time to other future female pilots.
On Sunday former two former RHS Chairmen, Leah and Dani took to the skies for a Poker Run. They flew from Carson, to Yerington, Silver Springs, Reno, and back to Carson. The buy in was a $100 with a portion of the money going towards flying scholarships! They picked up a different card at each airport (two at Reno). Though they had a pretty terrible hand, it was a great morning in the sky before the storm came in! All the pilots and passengers enjoyed sandwiches for lunch while the hands were being revealed. While there, they also ran into another RHS member Emma, who was helping manage the event! An excellent day of flying for these two 99s!
As you probably know, our Chairman Heather is making it her quest to fly with a different RHS 99 each month. This month she flew with Tina! Have you been flying? Send in your picture!
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
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.