ARLINGTON — Heavy rain and cloud-covered skies limited their flying hours, but it didn’t keep more than 150 women and girls from flying at the Arlington Airport.
Out of the Blue Aviation recruited a dozen area pilots to take aspiring female aviators of all ages into the air on March 12, when the foul weather wasn’t lowering their flight ceiling too much.
“We actually had to turn people away in the morning and ask them to come back later in the day, because it wasn’t safe to go up yet,” said Cathy Mighell, owner of Out of the Blue Aviation. “We were hoping to beat Renton’s record of 200 guest-flights, and without that weather, we probably would have hit 250.”
Mighell and the pilots who volunteered their services that day for the free plane rides were commemorating International Women of Aviation Week by doing their part to get more women into aviation.
“This is a great chance for girls and women who have never had the opportunity to fly in a small aircraft to give aviation a try,” Mighell said.
Arlington pilot Marla “Tomcat” Patterson has been flying planes for 44 years, which is longer than the combined lifespans of some of the mothers and their daughters who went up with her that day. Patterson’s interest in aviation was first sparked by a childhood stint in the Civil Air Patrol in her birth state of Montana, where a flight exhibition left her in awe, but she’s since developed just as much affection for helping to inspire that awe in others.
“I love teaching people about flight,” Patterson said. “I love the freedom of flying. If you want to have lunch in Friday Harbor, going by car means fighting through traffic and coordinating your schedule with the ferries, but going by plane is simple. This is awesome country to fly in.”
Bellevue sisters Joanna and Genevieve Citak were among the throngs of little girls who huddled in the hangar for warmth before dashing out under fat raindrops to get buckled into their own Cessna aircraft. While a number of the girls seemed hesitant to take off, all of them wound up even more reluctant to end their flights.
“That was so awesome,” said Joanna, 10, as she was reunited with her mother, Christina Citak, on the ground. “When we turned in the air, I could feel butterflies in my stomach.”
“I’m plane-phobic, so hopefully they’ll be able to grow up without that issues,” Christina Citak said of her daughters.
Marysville’s Irish Smith had to do more than a bit of coaxing just to get her little girl, Makayla, into Arlington pilot Laith Barnhill’s Cessna, much less in one of the two front seats.
“I don’t want to fly the plane,” Makayla said before takeoff, staring warily at the flight controls in front of her.
After the Smiths had touched down, though, Makayla’s tune had changed entirely.
“I didn’t want to land,” Makayla said, before tugging at her mom’s arm and telling her repeatedly, “I want to do it again.”
“It was an amazing experience,” Irish Smith said. “The aerial views of the town and the rivers were incredible.”
Not only did their shared flight cure Monroe’s Seana Mattson of her fear of heights, but it also gave her daughter Cheryce the goal of becoming a pilot.
“When you’re up in the air, you see everything below you in a different way,” Cheryce Mattson said. “Rain or shine, it all looks pretty.”
