LadiesLoveTaildraggers

What? Still not enough snow for skis in Lisa Martin’s part of the world. Amazing! Doesn’t matter, she’s still a very busy girl! Thanks for your note and pictures Lisa!

Still waiting for enough snow for skis in the Big Horn Basin (Wyoming), but I might actually have John talked into just hauling them up to a friend’s ranch strip so we can put them on there and try them out. He’s about got me convinced that we need a set with retractable wheels. Know any for sale?

Lisa & Bailey

And would you look? I found (well with the help of Judy and LLT) some ladies here who like to fly enough to be pilots themselves. I’m so enjoying the companionship of women pilots right in my home town, Worland, WY. This picture is me and Bailey. She has some great scholarships for flight training in college and dreams of being an aerial applicator. There’s some gumption for us!

I threw in one scenery picture. Sunrise in the Wind River Basin on my way home from dropping John off in Lander, WY to get his helicopter home before a winter storm settled in.

Finally, me and Mary Ann who I met through Judy and the LLT site. She just moved to town and was looking to connect with other, the other, woman pilot in town. She’s a very experienced and accomplished pilot and we are having so much fun together.

Me and Mary Ann - lunch in Thermopolis

She talked me into joining the 99s, which she has been a part of for a long time and so now there are, I think, 9 of us in Wyoming. First time we went up and looked at the elk, a herd of about 1500 in the Big Horn Mtns. Today we flew west to the main Rocky chain, over the 15 mile herd of wild horses and elk, by Amelia Earhart’s old stomping grounds (Kirwin, an abandoned mining ghosttown) and then on to Thermopolis (the world’s largest mineral hot springs) for lunch at Las Fuentes. Dog-gone-it, we didn’t take a picture of the courtesy van that got us to town. We could have hauled a baseball team!

Lisa

Olivia Henwood is based at Te Kowhai Airfield on the North Island of New Zealand.

Quick pit stop at Taumaruanui on the way to the mountains

I am 20 years old and am a university student. I am learning to fly in my parents’ 1957 Super Cub and am currently half way towards obtaining my Private Pilot’s Licence.

Touch down on my first solo flight, January 2010

I am loving the challenge and sense of achievement you get from gaining new skills in the aircraft, as well as meeting other interesting and enthusiastic pilots!

On a scenic flight with dad to the volcanic plateau of the Central North Island

I love to fly and am lucky to share my parents’ interest and have access to a great aircraft and instructor (dad!). I enjoy taking in the beautiful New Zealand scenary and how much you can see from the air.

The beautiful blue crater lake at the summit of Mt. Ruapehu, at 9000ft - a much easier way to get to the top!

We are just over the hill from the West Coast, and it is a favourite flying destination on a perfect summer’s day.

Looking south back towards the crater lakes

I think it is time we got another plane otherwise dad won’t be able to come with us haha!!

Mum and I on our first flight together after she got her licence

I love reading about all the other girls flying adventures and hope to fly to some amazing places one day soon.

Cody and I on the way back from the beach in the DHC-1 Chipmunk

Thanks very much and I look forward to being a part of your group, and will hopefully meet some of you in my travels!

Cheers,

Olivia Henwood

I have say it – - – I just love all the men that check out LadiesLoveTaildraggers! What, you say? Men – on a LADY taildraggers site? You bet! The men always know all the cool girls. Well, sometimes they come just to see if lady taildragger pilots really do exist but when they know taildraggin’ gals, they send them our way. It’s a beautiful thing!

Take Philip Jones of South Australia for example. He not only knows four women who fly taildraggers in Australia, he’s forwarded them links to the blog and bought them all lady taildragger t-shirts. So far we’ve registered Donna Trigg, Dianne Hart & Susan Bolton of the ‘Downunder’ group. Phil tells me it’s really difficult to get all the ladies together in one spot at one time but he did manage to get Donna & Dianna together for a quick photo op.

Donna & Dianne look lovely in their new t’s and I’m a little jealous – it’s summertime in Australia!

Donna & Di at Mick & Di Hart's hangar, Port Lincoln

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Di (left) & Donna (right)

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Now this is a nice set-up!

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Let me introduce you to Philip Jones & his fine Supercub. Philip's got a project in his future; he's waiting on new Supercub kit to arrive and hoping it gets there before Christmas.

Thanks Philip and keep on recruiting for us Downunder!

Judy

Oh, I love this one Lisa! You and Wendy and Victoria flying out for a  girl’s flying/camping weekend in Colorado — all of you in your own Cubs — you’re the envy of all of us. Beautiful Cubs, wonderful adventures, great fun! Good one girls!!

Lisa, Wendy & Victoria

From Lisa Martin;  Three of us from the Ladies Love Taildraggers group met at a private airstrip near Marble, CO for a fall camping weekend.

Crystal River Canyon about 10 min from Marble

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Marble Air Strip just past the pond

We had people driving, hiking and flying in to say “Hi” to “the Ladies Love Taildraggers”. This group seems to be gaining quite a name for itself!

The Super girls' Cub Club

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It takes an interview, a signed liability form and verbal permission from the owner to land on this private strip

We hiked, helped a poor guy who’s cub was damaged by a ground loop, was invited to supper at a lodge with a group of vacationers that included several pilots, was investigated by a local fireman seeking information about a reported UFO sighting, sat around a campfire and watched space junk falling from a crystal clear mountain sky.

Wendy and Victoria

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Sunrise at Marble

It was awesome. I’m just being silly about the “Super Girls’ Cub Club”…we are Ladies (who) Love Taildraggers!

Touring the Marble Mill Site

Lisa Martin

Dee Holm is based at (KGEU) Glendale Municipal Airport, Glendale, Arizona.

I’ve been flying since 2002, mostly Cessna nosedraggers. I just started taildragger lessons in SuperCubs. Now I know why it’s better to learn first in a taildragger–every other GA plane is less demanding and perhaps a little boring. Someday I’d like to fly our Kitfox IV Speedster!

I’m a 99 and member of the Phoenix Chapter.  I will be passing this blog on to other 99s I know.

Gwen White lives at Willow, Alaska and flies a Supercub.

Gwen White from summer 2010

We moved to Alaska in the 90′s. I fell in love with the Supercub so we bought one. I received my license in 1997. I love the taildragger. It is the only aircraft I enjoy flying. It makes flying more challenging.

I love flying in Alaska, the country is amazing and there is plenty to see. We have our Supercub on wheels, floats and now wheel skies. So we enjoy it in all the seasons. God has truly blessed me.

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Wow, I love your site. I can’t believe I am just finding it. I love seeing all the pictures. Awesome website. Really enjoy it. It is nice to know there are women who love the Taildragger like I do.

God Bless,
Gwen White

Joy Smith just sent us pictures taken today of her first Supercub flight on skis – this year – from Alaska! (Joy, I found your email tonight right after I got home from watching another episode of ‘Flying Wild Alaska’ with some friends. Great timing!!!)

Yep, them’s skis!!

“Finally got the skis on my Cub this week and made my first ski flight today. What fun, and it is great to have the Cub sitting on the lake in front of the house now.”

“Looking forward to going across the Cook Inlet and finding some good places to land on the West Side.”

Posted November 28, 2010

Joy Smith is based at a private airstrip in Alaska and flies a Super Cub and a Cessna 180 Skywagon.

I have a Super Cub and have been flying since ’92. When I got my pilot’s license, my life was reshaped and flying became everything to me.

I fly as much and as often as I can. My favorite is flying and camping, but also enjoy flyins, flying to meet up with friends for breakfast or lunch, or just touch and goes in the pattern.

I just moved to Alaska this summer, and look forward to ski flying starting in a week or two.

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Thanks, and look forward to participating in Ladies Love Taildraggers.

Joy

Darlene Rudisill is based at Moose Pass, Alaska in the summers and flies on the west side of the Kenai Peninsula the rest of the year.

My friend, Joy Smith, sent me the link to this web site.  This is really awesome.  I’m very excited about being a part of this community.

Darlene & her Luscombe

In 1975 my Grandfather taught me to fly in a Luscombe, off of a dirt strip in San Diego, CA.  I have had a passion for flying all of my life, especially taildraggers.  I got my CFI in 1980.

In the beginning I taught in all Piper singles including a Super Cub and also in a Bellanca Scout.  As time went by I flew and taught in anything I could get my hands on.

I still have the Luscombe that I started in and finished a full restoration on her in March of 2008.  Her maiden flight was out of Chino, CA.  Last May I flew her from Southern California to her new home in Soldotna, Alaska.

I have made aviation my lifetime career.  I love most all airplanes.  I have done Charter and Corporate flying in Lear Jets, but I really love being a flight instructor and that is all I do now. I have a CFII MEI Land and Single Engine Sea.

The Wilga I flew from Canada to So Cal for someone and checked out some other pilots in it.  It is an interesting beast.

I spend my summers teaching float flying in Super Cubs out of Moose Pass, Alaska and in the winter I live and fly on the west side of the Kenai Peninsula.

These last four pictures are from my wedding, Sept. 19, 2009.  My husband Allan and I got married at one of my very favorite places on earth, at the dock in Moose Pass, Alaska, where I teach in the summer.

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Looking forward to getting to know some of the other ladies.

Allison Wheaton is based in Angola, Indiana.

Hi there, I grew up flying taildraggers & love love love that you’ve got a group together to share stories.  Those crusty boys get to have groups, nice that there’s one for us too.

Meet Allison Wheaton, poochie & Cub

My first solo was in a Super Cub, then my dad got a Cessna 170, which I loved dearly.  I received a grant from college which I used to buy fuel & my dog & I flew it across the country & back camping along the way.

After college I went down to FL for flight school in nosedraggers for a couple months then taught @ Brown’s Seaplane Base in Cubs on floats for a year & a half.

Then I went to Seattle & flew floats for Kenmore, taught in the Super Cub then flew the Beaver on the line, way fun.  Each spring I would return to help Brown’s during Sun n Fun, where I met my boyfriend & then moved to Fort Wayne.

Now I get to fly recreationally, which I really enjoy & do friends’ flight reviews, which usually provides some tasty payoffs.  We have a Maule which is on floats in the summer, wheels in the fall/early spring & skis in the winter (which is lasting longer than I’d like right about now…).  We also have a Cub that is on tundras in the summer & skis in the snow.

I’ve been very blessed to have aviation in my life & enjoying sharing it with others.  We do a lot of rides for Young Eagles & people in our community.  Good will goes a long way in combating airplane noise…

Aviation provides a wonderful perspective on the world that I think more people should see.  Especially when experienced from a classic (classy) taildragger.