BrittneyM, March 28th, 2013
March was a fun aviation month for me! I did a lot of flying, attended the Women in Aviation Conference in Nashville and even better, I got to introduce quite a few women in my local area to general aviation. Women of Aviation Worldwide Week was held March 4 through March 10 and my home airport, Frederick Airport, participated in a contest called Women Fly it Forward. The goal was to earn the title of “Most Female Friendly Airport” by flying the largest number of women and girls during the week. Tallies are still being made to see who has won, but I can tell you that just being a part of the international event was a blast and really helped to solidify why I love to fly and why I love to instruct. Read More >>
Posted in Airplanes, Aviation Lifestyle | 1 Comment »
Blaine Transue, March 28th, 2013
I'm not going to make you read. It was a spectacular morning.
Mt Diablo looking South East Read More >>
Posted in Aviation Lifestyle | 1 Comment »
Neil H, February 4th, 2013
There's nothing quite like making laps around the Statue of Liberty at 150 miles per hour. Of course, I can't honestly say I felt the wind blowing through my hair, but at 1500 feet the experience is exhilarating enough.
As if flying feet away from the New York City skyline isn't your dream flight, try bringing along a passenger. Better yet, bringing a passenger who never even knew the world of general aviation existed. I think you get the point-- this is a really cool flight. Cool enough that I've flown the Hudson Corridor nine times, and have another flight scheduled for next week.
Read More >>
Posted in Aviation Lifestyle, Private | 4 Comments »
Kristen Seaman, January 30th, 2013
When I tell someone I’m a pilot now, I get so many different reactions. The most common is “Awesome! Who do you fly for?” I always have this feeling that they’re slightly disappointed to learn the small scale on which I fly. Now, I don’t have anything against commercial pilots, but I have no plans now or in the future to pursue a job with the airlines. Being a commercial pilot is a career move, and that is just not in line with my goals. However, please don’t actually ask me what I want to be when I grow up, because I’m still not sure. I love flying and I love the flexibility of doing it on my own schedule. But I also love my job, and being able to fly as little or as much as I want to outside of that is perfect for me. Read More >>
Posted in Aviation Lifestyle, Uncategorized | 11 Comments »
Steve Tupper, December 19th, 2012
As a follow-up to my last post, I though that you might enjoy seeing the video that covers Deadly's first flight. Click on the image above and enjoy!
Posted in Aviation Lifestyle, Sailplanes | 3 Comments »
Steve Tupper, November 14th, 2012
There’s no shortage of reasons to learn to fly. One of the best is sharing flight with others.
I’ve taken each of my kids to the airport since before they could walk. My son, Nicholas (callsign: “FOD”), has known how to operate a flap lever in a Cessna 172 since he was three. My daughter, Ella (callsign: “Deadly”) reached for the throttle with her right hand the first time I loaded her into the left seat of a C-172.
I took FOD up in a Cessna Citation Mustang (a light business jet that seats six) on a demo flight at AirVenture Oshkosh three years ago when he was seven. And I took him up again in a TG-7A motorglider with my airshow team in August for some formation practice. But, up until now, I’ve never taken up Deadly, who's seven now. So I set out to do something about that. Read More >>
Posted in Aviation Lifestyle, Sailplanes | 9 Comments »
BrittneyM, November 1st, 2012
To me, the best part of being a private pilot is flying myself to fun destinations. Just recently, my boyfriend (also a pilot), my Australian Shepherd, Sophie, and I flew to Penn Yan, NY to spend the weekend on Keuka Lake. It was wonderful; what has taken us 5.5 hours to drive from Frederick, MD took us only 2.5 hours to fly! Read More >>
Posted in Aviation Lifestyle, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Blaine Transue, August 24th, 2012
I've been flying so much lately I don't even know what day it is. What I do know is that today put my skills to the test.
Today I was scheduled for the last of my required solos. This was going to be a 2+ hour flight with landings at 2 airports I had not been to before. When I had originally scheduled the flight, there was nothing on the schedule again until 3, so I arrived thinking I had plenty of time to plan and get on my way, but as we know, this is flying, and things change. As it turns out, the Cessna was scheduled again at 1pm and JP had his checkride for his CFII endorsement at 3, so I my no pressure solo just took on a little pressure. No worry, I was there a little early and I already had my flight plan drawn up, so JP just needed to go over it and endorse my log book. Even as prepared as I was however, I didn't get off the ground until about 11:15 which meant at best, I wouldn't get back until about a quarter after 1pm. I checked with Travis and told them I could reschedule, but they wanted me to go ahead and go, even if it meant doing a little rescheduling. Read More >>
Posted in Aviation Lifestyle, Certification, Private | 1 Comment »
Genevieve Beaulieu: Student Pilot, August 14th, 2012
Hi! My nameʼs Genevieve, Iʼm 19 years old, majoring in Aviation Management at FIT, and currently pursuing my private pilotʼs license. I'm so excited to be able to share my experiences with all of you, but before I jump into my flight training and aviation adventures, I feel like I should give a little on my background - hopefully so that if you are thinking of flight training, youʼll be able to know where I come from and say “Hey, if she can do it, I can do it too!”.
Iʼm a small town girl. Iʼve lived in southern New Hampshire my entire life. Thereʼs actually a small private runway in my tiny town of Brookline, but the closest municipal airport is about 20 minutes out of town and closest international is about an hour away. So, I have a different story than most that I see from other student pilots. I didnʼt grow up passing by airports or seeing planes in the sky all the time. I didnʼt attend an airshow until this year. I never used to watch tv specials or read articles focused just on aviation. I even started out in college last year as an engineering major, not in aviation.
With all that said, now hereʼs where I am now and how I got here. I was on a FIRST Robotics team in high school, which when I look back now, it was all more about strategy and business operations within a technical program to me (I was the business lead junior year and a captain my senior year of a team of about 100 people; it really was like running a technical business). Even with my business focuses, I was very influenced to major in engineering, so I started out in college as a dual-major in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. It was all great, but then after a full semester of being exposed to all the different majors around without those influences back home, and after attending my first airshow with some friends already in aviation, I was hooked. I realized the main reason I was doing engineering was for the money, and that even in a technical program like FIRST, Iʼve always been a very business and top-level process- oriented person and that I shouldnʼt hide that talent from the work I get into. I’m just a people person! Aviation Management can get me where I want to be - whether thatʼs working the business/operations side of an aerospace engineering company, or working with logistics, processes, or people interaction for an airport or airline. All it took was the bit of exposure to the field and major to make me realize thatʼs what I love most and it was the absolute best choice for me.
Lesson from this story? I urge all of you reading this thinking about getting into anything aviation-related: just talk about it with someone. If you have a friend with a plane, go up. If you have a friend taking lessons, ask if you can spectate from the back on a lesson to see if itʼs for you. If you know someone that works at the airport, see if you can meet for lunch and chat. If you donʼt know anyone, go to an airshow! Go and talk to some exhibitors and get business cards here and there just to have people to talk to about getting involved in the future. Theyʼll all want to help you because if theyʼre there representing a company or showing off their own plane, theyʼll want to get others into aviation as well. Plus, you get to have fun on a nice sunny day with an ice cold drink watching some pretty spectacular stunts and see some unique planes and pieces of military history. Attending my first airshow, Sun nʼ Fun, while at college in Florida is where I can clearly pinpoint my decision to get into all of this. The next part of my story is how Iʼve recently started taking lessons to become a private pilot, which will be the focus of many of my future posts. I sincerely hope to inspire others through writing about my aviation experiences and pilot training, and help others who are already going through their training by posting tips and resources along the way! If any of you have any questions, no matter what step you are in pilot training or an aviation career, just comment on a post and Iʼll reply and weʼll get in touch!
Blue Skies,
Genevieve
Posted in Aviation Lifestyle, Private, Training | No Comments »
Ariel Talen-Keller, May 29th, 2012
Being a community leader and a role model for others is an important part of being a state title-holder. As my year as Mrs. Alaska U.S. All World Beauties is coming to a close and I am preparing for the national pageant, being active in my community and in my aviation community has played a vital role for my platform GirlsFlyToo. My two community service projects this year include being a Senior Advocate at the Chugiak/Eagle-River Senior Center and as a Peer Mentor at the Covenant House Alaska, a local shelter for teens. In my aviation community I have worked with my local chapter of Ninety-Nines, local EAA Chapter 42, and the Alaska Aviation Museum. Reaching out to our younger generation through being a community service role model speaks volumes. After all, the purpose of being a title-holder is to be a leader and a catalyst for community. This applies to our aviation community as well - encouraging and educating our younger generation to be involved in aviation.
As my national pageant approaches next month, I am ready to compete and bring home the national crown to Alaska! Thanks to all for your ongoing support of GirlsFlyToo! Blue skies and propellers.
Posted in Aviation Lifestyle | 2 Comments »
