When I first became a pilot I hadn't a clue women aviation groups existed. I was more focused on becoming a pilot for the U.S. Air Force. Unfortunately, my time was cut short due to a medical disqualification. (You can read more here about my aviation story.)
While I was picking up the pieces of my life, because things rarely happen in ones, I decided to join some aviation organizations. However, I still did not know about the all women groups. It wasn't until a number of years later that I came across information on The Ninety-Nines. (Although, I don't even know how I found it. Search engine, maybe?)
My first chapter meeting was in Jackson, Mississippi. I drove through a line of thunderstorms, on horribly potholed back roads (never claimed to be a good navigator), and managed to get there late. Which prompted a concerned call from the chapter chair. Luckily, the dinner meeting was wonderful and made me quickly forget about my drive. It was also the first time I had the privilege to be in the company of all female pilots and student pilots. As some of you are quite aware, female pilots are difficult to find, especially, in some parts of the country. I've found more women pilots closer to larger cities. However, after a few years, in smaller cities and towns, I will usually find one or two female pilots.
Roughly a year into my 99s membership, we had to move for my husband's work. Since my husband and I own an airplane, we always know we will have a built-in friend system at our next home airport. But once again, finding other female pilots would prove challenging, or so I assumed. I made it a point to go to the next southeast section meeting in Mississippi. This was also a memorable trip driving from South Carolina to Mississippi. Ten minutes from my house, I had to promptly pull over at a rest stop to nap -- I was pregnant and in my first trimester. At the beginning, I struggled with extreme exhaustion. (The main reason I chose to drive instead of fly, so I could pull over and take a nap.)
The Mississippi 99s pulled off a spectacular section meeting to include a beautiful late afternoon - evening at a grass airfield, Shade Tree Airport, where some received free flights in tailwheel aircraft, we ate dinner inside an immaculate hangar with nods to the early years of aviation, and watched a movie under the large canopy of a live oak tree--the field's namesake, I assume. This is when I realized the importance of not only attending chapter meetings but section meetings. I've met many amazing 99s and their 49 1/2s. After each meeting, I can say I have new contacts and new friends which I would not have met just hanging out at my home airport.
As my belly grew so did my apprehension of my future as a pilot. Prior to our move to South Carolina, I flew as a contract co-pilot for a private individual in their Citation. Now I wondered what would happen once our daughter arrived and living in a new location in which I had yet to exercise my commercial privileges. My daughter was due about a month after the next southeast section meeting. Fate would have it that the meeting was in my new hometown. (I'm sure my doctor appreciated this so late in my pregnancy.)
This is when I learned being a 99 = instantaneous friends. I was now a member of the Kitty Hawk chapter. The chapter chair and I were sitting next to each other during the meeting. When we had a break she asked me if I would want a baby shower. My first thought was no because we had decided not to have any. However, she then mentioned about having it at a local airport near me and both the Kitty Hawk and Carolinas' chapter members would be invited to fly or drive down. Uh, yes, please! How cool is that? We decided to hold the shower after the baby arrived.
Our daughter arrived at the beginning of the first week of June. My last flight in an airplane, where I was the pilot, was at 40 weeks...well past my daughter's due date. The first month, flying was not much of a thought. We were in survival mode--my daughter and I recovering from the birth process, my husband and I trying to figure out how to handle the every two hour feedings, finding time to sleep, and an unexpected RV trip to Pennsylvania to visit my dying grandmother with a week old baby... Even in the midst of the chaos, when the days seemed to go on forever, July eventually showed up. Tragically, my grandmother succumbed to pancreatic cancer on my husband's birthday in the middle of July. Her funeral was planned for the day after my baby shower. I was torn. I really was looking forward to the shower. Luckily, my family was understanding and mentioned my grandmother would have wanted me to go to the shower. So I missed the viewing, but was able to celebrate the birth of my daughter with an outstanding group of women. I was humbled and floored that all of these women had traveled 40 minutes to hours via car or plane to bring a gift and meet me and my family for the first time (for most of the ladies). The baby shower is what cemented in my mind and my heart that regardless of the future I will always maintain my 99s membership.
The Ninety-Nines are so important to me because they have helped me through a couple of tough transitions in my life. I am not sure those that have helped have even realized this.
I want to return this support through my work with Mommy Pilots of The Ninety-Nines. It is still a work in progress and less than perfect, but I believe that is what makes it perfect. There is no cookie cutter answer to life but we all need someone to lean on at some point in our journey. That is what the Ninety-Nines and Mommy Pilots are all about--meeting you where you are in your journey as a woman and a pilot. I believe this is why you should join The Ninety-Nines. We need you and you may need us some day.