173 Women Took to the Sky at KRNT!

"After today, I know anything is possible," exclaimed a little girl.  And tears of joy flowed from a woman after her incredible experience in the sky.  Where do I start?  What pictures to I post? How do I describe the joy and excitement of our passengers, or thank all who made this day a reality?

Miracles happen when great people come together! 

We pulled off an incredible feat today--- nothing short of a miracle. This event could not have happened without our pilots, the ground support of BEFA, the effort in the control tower, the airport manager, and the women who worked non-stop running, documenting, and photographing. 

Unable to post every picture we took of our passengers, I've uploaded them to Face Book.  Please visit my Face Book page and leave your name on your picture.

Today, I'm thanking the people who helped.  I hope we got all your photos. If we missed any, and you have some--- please email me!

Wes, Mireille, Ryan

Wes McKechnie, the manager of BEFA enabled us to use their incredible facility. He moved planes, coordinated our effort and had the faith we could do this, and allowed us to try. He opened the BEFA list and enable correspondence to all, and made sure we were safe.

Mireille Goyer, the woman behind Centennial of Women Pilots drove down from Canada and spent her day documenting and logging our "171" female passengers who flew. What has Mireille done? She's the woman who created the Centennial of Women Pilots.

Ryan Zulauf, the airport manager who opened his door and pulled out his contact book when a crazy lady dropped into his office a few weeks ago, as the snow began to fall, and said, "We're going to make Renton airport the most female friend airport in the world!" He paved the way with the tower, and found two controllers for our event, came by to make sure we had everything we needed.

Shad, Austin, and Happy Passenger

Shad Pipkin, an instructor who gave his day at the dock helping with the float planes. He was the first person we met this morning at 0900, and the last person we said good night to at 1700, as he headed to a plane to take his student flying. He help set up, moved tables, worked all day--- the man of many talents. 

Austin Watson, a board member of BEFA, Boeing Engineer, who knows how to network. When Austin got involved, everything started happening. He spent hours contacting people on our behalf, sending emails, and communicating with the world.  If that wasn't enough, he spent the entire day flying his 172 on floats and making women smile.

Peter with two beautiful women

Peter Morton, our retired Boeing Executive, and Museum of Flight Trustee who loves aviation and continues to share the joy with the Young Eagles was amazing. He volunteered last minute to fly his Cirrus all day. Then he provided a power point presentation for our pilots with a route of flight, contacted the tower and coordinated communications for our group. He turned our touch and goes into a beautiful flight for the women. He organized the actual flying portion of our event, and made miracles happen.

Doug

Doug DeVries joined our group of fliers this morning. This amazing man soared in with his de Havilland Beaver and carried 5 passengers a time, multiple times. What has he done in his life? He invented the home-use ventilator when his father came down with ALS, later sold his company, and dove into aviation.  His adventures never cease. Apparently his plane had been totaled in the movie, 6 days 7 nights, after it crashed during a scene.  Doug purchased it, got an A&P and spent 7000 hours restoring it. He's taken some amazing adventures in this beautiful machine. Click on Great Arctic Air Adventure to read one such trip. 

More smiling faces and Tom

Tom Gwilym has been an been flying for 19 years and instructing for 16. He selflessly volunteered when he realized that we were encouraging men to help introduce women to the sky. Tom flew his 172 all day for us, and flew 33 women. Wow! He would have continued to fly, but someone needed his plane. 

Three really happy passengers and Mark

Mark Gaponoff emailed me yesterday to tell me he was available. He's a member of the Boeing Flying club, and rumor has it the only man who's a member of the 99's. He loves to fly, and he shared that experience with many today. One of our last planes to tie down.

Two happy passengers, Pilot Jay, Pat, and me.

Jay Sakas flew his Cessna 182 from Squim and joined our event. A retired NWA 747 captain, Jay has yet to retire. He's flying charter, instructing at Boeing, and busy rebuilding a Lituanica. An amazing story that will be told. A busy man took a huge part of his day to fly our passengers.

Pat Kassner, my mother. She came out early, donated her pot for cocoa, helped set up the room and greeted and name tagged guests as they arrived. Thank you mom for all your help. I really appreciate it.

Dick and very happy young ladies

 Dick's last Passengers of the Night

Dick Smith was amazing. And the reason this snowball began to roll. He was the first person who I asked if he'd like to fly,  and he said, "Yes! I can do that." And fly he did. All day long. He was the last person bring our three final passengers to safety at the end of the day--- his 18th flight.  These young ladies both foster/ adopted couldn't have been more excited.  Dick technically logged a night landing. He's a retired Alaska Airlines captain, and this morning he came over from teaching in the simulator at Boeing. His wife Linda was with us all day, too.  A wonderful lady who helped anywhere we needed it.

Emily, Karlene, Amanda  

Emily Winter Hiller flew all day and turned many young ladies into future helicopter pilots. She has about 1100 hours flying helicopters and her story is amazing. If you haven't read it, you should. She was last week's Friday Fabulous Flyer  She was our last pilot turning out the night when she flew over to Boeing at the end of her long day. 

Amanda Sargent worked for classic Helicopters, but today she moonlighted assisting loading and unloading all day. The day was beautiful, but it was cold. And Amanda spent it outside walking our ladies across the ramp, back and forth and waited patiently in between. 

And the day cannot be complete without thanking the women helping. 

Jean, me, Jay, Kathy

Jean Jones drove in from Tacoma and spent the entire day working at the desk, signing our young ladies up and assuring they had name tags. Jean is a retired NWA 747 captain and currently in natural health and wellness. 

Kathy McCullough is also a retired NWA 747 captain. She's spends her time writing, traveling and photographing. She drove in last night from Oregon and helped me get everything organized for the morning. She flew everywhere, taking pictures, organizing, loading... nothing she didn't do. 

 Glen with excited flyers

Glen Woolridge flew over from the opposite side of the field. My neighbor, he and his wife Annie joined us, too! Glen has been trying to get me to go flying for three years now. But with reserve, family, weather and a crazy schedule, I've yet to make it. Hopefully he won't give up! Today he helped incredibly by taking a multiple circuits around the pattern.

 Tom on the right

Tom Jones,  Jean's husband, spent the day on the dock freezing! He gave up his Sunday to help our event and loaded our passengers on our float planes. Without him, I'm sure we'd have bodies in the lake. 

Karlene and Bobbie

Bobbie Kahklen worked all day filling out certificates, signing people in and worked tirelessly helping in the command center. Who is this woman who wandered in, off the street, and said, "can I help?"  Bobbie works for the FAA, and at one time she was a controller in cities such as San Diego and Juneau.

Bonnie and Anne

Bonnie Dunbar arrived sometime in the day and stuffed envelopes, donating 20 tickets to the Museum of Flight! I was able to dash in and say hello, but didn't get my picture with this amazing women. Yes, she was our designated astronaut. We're grateful she dropped by and supported our event. 

Anne Simpson, a Delta A330 captain, who is active in everything aviation and science in the Seattle area began making phone calls for us a few days ago. She found Pilots Peter and Doug. Apparently, "when Anne asks," Doug and Peter "Can't say no."  We like that! Ann also donated an "Annual Membership to the Museum of Flight!"  Anne's husband, Charlie was also on the dock freezing. Charlie-- you escaped without a photo, but not without thanks. 

Finally... my family joined our event. I wish Krysta, Torrey, Dylan and Kohyn could have joined us too. 

Kalimar, Kadence, Dick, me, Kayla, Ryan, Miles

My final thanks are to my husband, Dick. He put up with the planning and organizing this event. Ran to my daughter's house to get a power chord for my camera early this morning.  Shopped for supplies. Loaded. Cleaned. And drove people back and forth to the lake. A Super Star!

Thank you everyone for making this an incredible day. You made so many dreams come true, and inspired many young women to take flight.

Mark, Thank you for my card holder, Mireille thank you for the scarf-- I will wear it with pride, and someone gave me a bracelet that says, "Expect Miracles."  Debbie was this you? The day was long, cold, but I wore it with pride. 

Debbie ... "Alias Superstar" 

Tomorrow, a wonderful letter from a future pilot--- Annika Sturgeon. Something you must read. 

Karlene Pilot, with Annika Future Pilot

0230 is approaching fast and I'm exhausted.  What am I doing up? Oh yeah-- blogging. 

Thank you everyone for making this an incredible day! 

Remember to post "what it felt like to fly" comments. Then check Wednesday and see if you won. 

Enjoy the Journey! 

~ Karlene