I hope you all understood my music reference there, but even if you didn’t, CONGRATS to RHS member and new Treasurer Stacie G.! After a Loooooong hiatus away from flying, she’s jumped back into cockpit and is taking back to the skies. Here’s what she had to say on July 9:

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Today was a good day! Getting back to flying with an amazing instructor to help peel away the rust! I’m so excited to get back to doing what I love!

RHS Member Staci G.

The plane Staci G. is currently flying, based out of the Carson City Airport.

Dani here again -

4 years ago I was working hard to earn my private pilot certificate, flying all the time. My flight training was almost equally split between a Cessna 172 flying out of Reno, followed by a Cherokee PA-28-140 flying out of Minden. I loved that little Cherokee, which is what I ultimately passed my check ride in.

My husband flew our plane Pokey down to Minden today to chat with our A&P. Since I work in Carson, I was able to pop down to meet him for lunch at the Tail Dragger. The food was better than I remembered, and I had a delicious wrap. As always, the views of the airport are superb.

It was nostalgic being at KMEV, watching the gliders get tows. After lunch we decided to walk around and check out the planes. My heart gave a little jump and I fondly smiled when I saw the plane I passed my check ride in. It was like running into an old beloved friend I hadn’t seen in years.

Not only did I see my beloved 66Romeo, I also ran into my old flight instructor Andrew! We had a nice chat before it was time to head back to work.

What plane do you have fond memories of?

First and foremost- hopefully this photo is foreshadowing for Miss Lainey, our former Chairman Leah’s daughter. Fingers crossed this will be the “before” picture…

Secondly - Laura brought a delicious dessert called a Strawberry Pretzel Salad. Many of us wanted the recipe. I found a recipe that also has a video: Strawberry Pretzel Salad . Thank you Laura (I think?) for introducing us to this mouthwateringly tasty dessert that I want to make, but not share with anyone else.

This past holiday weekend, Dani Rhoda and her husband flew in their 182 from KRNO - KCCR. Here’s her account of the trip:

The first thing that made the trip exciting was of course the weather. Reno was nice, but KCCR (Concord, California) was marginal VFR and breezy. We knew the weather was supposed to improve, and there were airports along the way we could land at to wait if the weather hadn’t improved sufficiently. So, with our alternate airports identified, we made the decision to go.

Looking south to Lake Tahoe, just west of Truckee

On our way down, the weather improved though we ended up slightly altering course to avoid some clouds. The trip down overall was nice with Renoesque winds in Concord (16 gusting 23).

The channel of no clouds we ended up following into KCCR.

I love technology - our flight track from Flight Aware. Notice the jog close to KCCR where we followed the "channel” into the airport.

We landed, picked up our friend O. who used to be an A&P, and headed north towards KCIC, Chico for lunch.

Northern California farmland between Concord and Chico

This is when the trip started getting exciting - our alternator stopped working. In the past, it’s come back after a few minutes (yes we’ve talked to our A&P ). So we waited a few minutes, but it didn’t come back on. We decided to return to KCCR (rather than potentially be stranded KCIC) and notified ATC of our change in plans. We always use flight following. ATC is good, they responded to our notification that we were returning to Concord with, “So…..did you change your mind or is something going on?” We explained and they asked if we wanted to declare an emergency, which we declined. After a few pass off’s, we had the airport in sight when we lost our Garmin 430. I had my stratux up, so we could still had some info, but it was odd not seeing the 430 on. We were able to contact the airport and get clearance to land and notified them that we were on battery power, we’d lost our 430, and that if they stopped hearing back from us, it was probably because we lost coms. Tower also wanted to know if we were declaring an emergency, which we again declined. The plane was working fine, other than the loss of our alternator and our battery draining…. neither of which is necessary to fly the plane. Just after we landed and were handed off from the tower to ground, we lost our coms. But…. dun dun duuuun! We had a handheld radio. I contacted ground via our handheld to get our taxi instructions. Side note - using a handheld radio in an airplane without a headset is loud and difficult. If we were to buy another handheld, it will have a headset jack.

No GPS Navigation anymore…but we had the airport in sight and my stratux.

We parked and the guys (did I mention our friend O used to be an A&P?), popped the cowling off, and found the alternator belt was not where it was supposed to be.

Unfortunately it was 4th of July weekend and nobody was at the shop, but the office gal called the owner and voila, we had a mechanic. As in, the owner came out to take care of us. TWO thumbs up for Sterling Aviation at KCCR! They took excellent care of us and had Pokey (our 182) buttoned up and ready to go Sunday morning.

The folks at Sterling Aviation at KCCR were great! The owner working on our alternator belt.

With our plane grounded, we went to lunch and called some other friends who live 5 minutes from the airport and stayed the night with them. Sunday morning weather was again a factor, but by 2pm we could see plenty of blue skies and headed home. The flight home was 100% uneventful.

While we didn’t have an emergency, the flight was certainly a departure (ba bum bum) from a normal flight with our battery giving us every last bit of energy it had left. It was really comforting knowing that we had a handheld radio and stratux for backup. We have the stratux because for a while I was flying planes that didn’t have receivers. Then we found that our GTX345 has a limited number of bluetooth connections. Why is this a problem? Because when you’re flying with multiple pilots in the plane, every last one of them wants to be connected! Pilots, a group of semi control freaks. Who knew??

Overall, a great trip where we got to fly, visit friends, eat, drink, and be merry.

The best part was being at lunch with co-workers today and telling this story and the two gentlemen at the next table leaned over and said, “Hey, we usually have to have lunch at the airport to hear airplane stories!!”

June 3, 2022 - Social gathering of dinner and a movie!

From Great Basin Aviation:

Have you ever flown a plane wearing a pair of 5-inch heels? Well, Kaitlyn Lera has and as of today, she is officially a Private Pilot!

•Not only did she solo less than a month ago, this incredible aviatrix has been flying and doing ground lessons upwards of 4 days a week. Today, her hard work paid off! This local realtor drives from Minden to complete her lessons, and is always dressed to impress, and many times, is seen preflighting as the best dressed person on the ramp. But, not afraid of some oil or avgas. Avgas and jet exhaust, her new signature scent. Kaitlyn is super dedicated, enthusiastic, and passionate about aviation, and it shows! As she moves on to the next leg of her journey, continuing her flight training in Florida, we wish her the best and can’t wait to see how her career takes off

Congratulations to Kaitlyn, and her CFI Ethan Chinowsky!

A fun evening discussing aviation and learning about each other!!

She is now a licensed pilot

Laura Starkey: “Just completed our 40 hour Phase 1 yesterday and our experimental plane is now free from restrictions!”

Picture taken April 2, 2022 at Minden after celebratory breakfast!!

Congratulations CAPTAIN Moe Makowski!  (Moe is a Captain with Superior Air Charter flying the Phenom 100 jet)

Heather McCoy and Stacie Goodwin went flying!

“I picked her up in Minden and we spent an hour or so flying around and getting to know each other better. This truly is the best part of being a member of the 99s - fellowship with other women pilots!’ Heather

Our Secretary has been busy flying and recently completed her first solo cross country from her home airport, Truckee, to Fallon Muni Airport. Where have you been flying? What are your accomplishments?

Syd after her first solo cross country!

Why is wintertime the best balloon time? Because Sunrise (aka launch time) isn’t until 7:24 am…. you get to sleep in!

As RHS Secretary Karalyn puts it - ballooning is the BEST REASON EVER to set an alarm clock in the morning, and she just might be right!

This past Sunday, Karalyn was flying her balloon, “Don’t Tell Mom” (so much cooler than using her N number) and took RHS member Dani up for a glorious 40 ish minute flight over Carson City.

One of the most fun things about ballooning is that you often fly low over neighborhoods and people will come out to say hello! Dogs bark, kids squeal, and everyone is excited, because oh my gosh there’s a balloon over my house! Also, you never know where you’ll land! Sunday we landed in clearing smack in the middle of an apartment complex. People started coming out to see the balloon and the kiddos were especially excited! Karalyn tied off her balloon and gave probably 15 kids their first taste of aviation, with tethered balloon rides. Sorry, no photos of that - we were too busy managing the balloon and the kiddos for me to snap any.

Crew- ballooning in particular is heavily dependent on crew. We had 3 people on the tether lines to help keep everything safe, and that doesn’t even touch on setup, chasing, deflation, and putting the balloon away. If you ever want to see a balloon up close and personal, we know a pilot…. ;)

Preparing the Aircraft

Karalyn preparing her aircraft for flight!

Fire! (aka, where it’s warm when the temperature is in the high 20’s….)

RHS Member and Balloon Pilot - Karalyn, RHS Member Dani, and crew member Ms. D.

View of Carson City facing south, north and west of the Capital. Can you identify the Governor’s Office?

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!

Congratulations to our Chairman, Heather, on becoming a Captain!!

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!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

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