Into the “Wild Blue Yonder”

Women pilots in Sedona

By Tommy Acosta, Associate Editor

SEDONA, AZ (June 5, 2009) - When people say “The sky’s the limit” when it comes to opportunity, growth and fun in Sedona, there is one organization here where that saying is literally true.

They call themselves the Sedona Red Rockettes, a local chapter of an international organization of pilots called the “Ninety-Nines," composed solely of women who know what it's like to pilot planes through the wild blue yonder.

Some retired , some still active, some who served in the Air Force during WWII, these Sedona women pilots have the commonality of having flown thousands of feet up in the air by themselves through the clouds, a life time thrill that can never be forgotten or duplicated.

“That feeling, the experience never leaves the fiber of your soul,” said Jacie Ann Crowell, a Sedona Red Rockette and active pilot. “My solo was so exciting because I realized the fear which gripped me was now gone. I felt reborn.”

Fellow pilots Nell Bright, Kathleen Moore, Barbara Vickers and Lois Neville, echo the sentiment.

“It is one of your best experiences, being up there alone, knowing you gained the knowledge to do so,“ Lois said. “Flying can scare you, unless you have the knowledge. Knowledge erases fear.”

Sedona Red Rockettes insignia.

“The first time I soloed I just laughed the whole time because it seemed so bizarre that anyone would actually leave me alone flying an airplane,” Barbara said.

“Marvelous,” exclaimed Kathleen. “Simply marvelous!”

For Nell, flying was a duty as well as a pleasure.

“People don’t know that women flew airplanes during the war (WWII),” she said. “I started flying when I was very young, 16, and when the war came I enlisted in the Air Force and I was accepted. We had the same training as the men.”

Part of her job was to fly a B-25 and tow targets for her male counterpart-fighter pilots.

Was she ever scared her plane would get hit?

“Not at all,” she coolly replied.

The Ninety Nines is an international organization of licensed-women pilots from 35 countries with more than 5,000 members throughout the world.

The organization is a non-profit, charitable membership-corporation holding 501(c)(3) U.S. tax status located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Virtually all women of achievement in aviation have been or are members of The Ninety-Nines.

The organization came into being November 2, 1929, at Curtiss Field, Valley Stream, Long Island, New York.

In 1931 Amelia Earhart was elected as first president and the group was named for the 99 members that comprised it.

Today, members of the Ninety-Nines are professional pilots for airlines, industry and government. They are pilots who teach and pilots who fly for pleasure. They are pilots who are technicians and mechanics, but first and foremost, they are women who love to fly.

Jacie started flying in 2000 because of a bad experience she had on an airplane and her desire to get over it.

“My husband and I experienced a bad take off on a new 777 which left me very scared of flying,” she said. “I decided to learn how to fly and embrace the fear instead of letting it rule me. I began my flying lessons two months after the ‘incident.’ I did take three years to complete my training because I refused to solo for a very long time.”

She describes the beauty of her flying experience.

“The most enjoyable part of flying is the perspective of our Mother Earth as I look down,” she said. “I now have the ‘Eagle's View’ of life. I like to over fly an area, then drive it on the ground. Being a visual person, I am always amazed how different it all looks from above.”

She said flying allows her the opportunity to see life from a different perspective.

“I also like to fly down the beach and watch the whales,” she said. “When I was training I flew my first cross country in Hawaii. The weather closed me out of all my options to fly back the way I came, so I was cleared to fly thru the southern part of the big island of Hawaii where all the tour operators flew. As I passed the visitors center I lifted up my wing and saw streams of red hot lava pouring down the mountain side in very fine streams, resembling hair. It was the most memorable visual; I still see it in my mind today. What a blessing!”

Barbara, a founder of the Sedona chapter of the Ninety-Nines in 1988, came to Sedona in 1979 and started flying in 1998. She led an effort to save Sedona Airport a number of years ago when some Sedona residents tried to close it down.

“There was a great threat to our airport from a woman who arrived here determined to close it down on her general principles,” she said. “She thought there was too much noise, although we easily provided proof that Highway 89A was far noisier. Unfortunately, she recruited a number of other people who made quite a mountain out of this, despite the fact that the airport, at that time, was bringing over $20 million per year into the local economy – and was far smaller than it is now.”

Taking the matter into her own hands, she developed a plan to save the airport.

“No one else seemed to be doing anything for the airport, so I organized SASA (Sedona Airport Supporters Assn.) with the help of several local 99s (Jean McConnell, Hass Maxson, Bette Fineman, Kathy Moore) which became very large and active,” she said. “Our first project was the first “Airport Day,” with booths by virtually every community organization. We had loads of aircraft, plane rides, the Civil Air Patrol and the Sedona Car Club. There was even a live band. Ray Steele, founder of the airport, attended.

She said community participation turned the trick.

“By fostering more community involvement with the airport, we gained support,” she said. “Then Mac MacCall took over as manager and was so good at community relations, that our group lost much of its purpose. The woman who started the problem moved away.”

Lois said the chapter works to provide yearly scholarships for and recruit young-women pilots into their chapter as “Future Women Pilots” acting as their mentors.

“We are very interested in seeing younger women learn how to fly,” she said. “We also donated a beautiful Compass Rose (direction indicator painted on the surface of the airport runway) to Sedona Airport.”

The Sedona Ninety-Nines chapter is currently looking for scholarship candidates.

Jacie adds their contributions extend even beyond that.

“Like Lois said, we have painted airports, given lectures and encouraged male and female pilots to become aviators,” she said. “Any community benefits having a general-aviation airport near by because people can always be available to over fly an area and get that perspective from above and see things one simply cannot see from the ground. That is useful in the case of a search and rescue.

She said having the airport in the community is a great boon for Sedona.

“Carrying passengers to and from a doctor’s appointment when road travel is simply not an option for the patient is another important use of small airplanes,” she said. “Airplanes are a great way to spread the ashes of a loved one. I have participated in each of these things and know a community is richer with a general aviation airport in the area.”

It is never too late to learn how to fly. Just ask Kathleen.

“I started flying at 50,” she said. “I got my license on Mother’s Day. I learned to fly in Michigan and I’ll never forget my first-solo flight when I took off by myself into the sunset in my Cessna 150. It is unforgettable.”

Jacie said the most difficult part of flying for her was landing.

“For me, landing the airplane was the most difficult part,” she said. “I kept reliving the visuals of falling from the sky from that 777 snafu, every time I tried to land the airplane. I would flair the airplane about 30 feet from the ground. It took a very long time to accept the ground coming up at me when landing the airplane.”

Barbara, who raced planes a number of times at the Woman’s Air Race Classic, said maintaining focus over so many things a pilot has to be aware of, is the most difficult part of flying.

“Every pilot will tell you that the radios are the most difficult,” she said. “Learning to operate both hands, both feet, watch instruments and for other aircraft, listen to the radio instructions was hard enough. When I had to talk at the same time…that was overload.”

Lois, who no longer flies, said the experience of having once flown far outweighs not doing so now.

“It’s better to be a ‘has been,’ than a never was,” she said.