Thursday, November 26, 2015

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Meet Joy - Amelia Earhart Scholarship Foundation FLY NOW Award Winner

Follow Joy on her journey to receive her private pilots license with the help of an AEMSF Fly Now Award 
Joy and Lin in front of "Baby Awesome"

Joy and I met at a Fly In at Essex Skypark (W48) in the spring of 2015. Of course I went for the kill and told her all about the 99s and how she needed to join to get the support of other women pilots.  A few months later Joy was a student member of our chapter and we started talking about her challenges with finishing her certificate and how a scholarship could help with some of the financial burden as well as get her a mentor assigned.  By early September Joy had a fantastic application submitted to the AEMSF with, surprise surprise, me listed as her mentor. By mid-October she was told she was a recipient of an award!!!

Since her award notification, Joy has been very busy getting "Project Joy" in place:
  • Joy became a charter member of a new flying club at her new home base, Essex Skypark. She now has access to a 1963 Cessna 172D, nicknamed "Baby Awesome". Her flight training expenses will drop dramatically with this new club pricing structure and she now has a plane to fly post certificate that is affordable
  • Joy flew with the Chief Instructor of a very large flight school to obtain an assessment on her skills to date
  • Joy and I  met to review the POH and performance stats for her new training plane and discuss her flight training plan. She is transitioning from a Diamond DA-20 with a side-stick to a traditional yoke
  • Joy has her first flight lesson with her new instructor this weekend (mid-November)
  • Joy is planning her lessons for her remaining flight requirements -- solo cross countries and some dual night flights
  • Joy is so excited about her new home base and the great pilot community at Essex that she is helping to plan a Girls Aviation Day for the airport this spring
Please send Joy lots of good wishes -- and any flight training advice you have!
Joy's new training plane - Baby Awesome