Flyword Puzzles .jssszz - Ninety-Nines

NINETY-NINENewsMagazine o f theInternational W omen PilotsJuly 1991Vol. 17, No. 6BO A R D o f D IR E C T O R ST he N inety-N ines, Inc.President: Marie ChristensenVice President: Pat ForbesSecretary: Lu HollanderTreasurer: Louise WhiteDirector: A lexis EwanchewDirector: Diane CozziDirector: Joyce W ellsDirector: Mary Lou WaiteNon-voting Advisor: Barbara Sestito,Past PresidentEditorial Director: A lexis EwanchewEditor: Ann CooperE d ito r’s m ailing address:131 Hillside AvenueBerkeley Heights, NJ 07922908 - 464 - 8175By overn igh t express:131 H illside AvenueBerkeley Heights, NJ 07922SE C T IO N R E P O R T E R SIndia: Mohini ShroffAustralia: Marcia HremeviucEast Canadian: Kathryn Gamble-LerchnerWestern Canadian: Barbara MeredithNew England: Meta PolitiNew York!New Jersey: Barbara MeadMiddle East: Evie WashingtonSoutheast: Lee OrrNorth Central: M yma StephensSouth Central: Margaret CosbyNorthwest: Carol SkinnerSouthwest: Kathleen BrowneThe NINETY-NINE News is published byThe Ninety-Nines, Inc., a non-profit organiza tion engaged in education, charitable andscientific activities and purposes.Non-member subscriptions are available for 12 per year.Please send subscription monies and changesof address to:Loretta GraggExecutive DirectorThe Ninety-Nines, Inc.PO Box 59965Will Rogers World AirportOklahoma City OK 73159(405) 685-7969PHYLLIS WELLS,Another Dynam ic Ninety-Nineby ALICE G. PALMERPhyllisWells, SouthC entralSection,P ikes PeakC hapter,flie s theG roh TwinAstir.P hoto byA lice P alm erWhen a bright red Citabria in ElbertCounty, Colorado, takes to the airtrailing a training sailplane at the end ofa 200-foot rope, there’s a good chancethat 99 Phyllis Wells is either flying thetowplane or occupying the instructor’sseat in the sailplane. With her activepursuit o f improved skills and newratings, one might think Phyllis is ateenager hoping for an airline career.But at age 55, she has retired fromsuccessful careers in nursing andparenting and now instructs and towsat Black Forest Gliderpark for the funo f it— not as a way to build time andm ove on to higher goals.Phyllis grew up near Wickenburg,Arizona, where her father worked asan aircraft mechanic during WorldWar II. “My father w asn’t a pilot, buthe used to fly some o f the airplanesafter hours when no one else wasthere,” she says. “When he buzzedour house, he set the aviation seed inm e!” N ow Phyllis is busy teachingher students not to buzz houses!After high school, Phyllis decidedto pursue a career in surgical nursing.As a RN, her patience with painstak ing disassem bly, cleaning, andassem bly o f some o f the surgicalequipment paid off. Soon she was anactive member o f the prestigiousopen-heart surgery team at GoodSamaritan Hospital in Phoenix.She married her first husband,Jerry W ells, before finishingnursing school and dove into hercareer as w ife and the mother o ffour with the same enthusiasmshe put into her medical career.She saved time for some fun, too.She and her husband becameinvolved with a local musicaltheater and Phyllis became thestage manager. “I spent a lot o ftime looking for interesting andcheap props at junk yards,” sheremembers.When asked how she managedsuch an active career as well as ademanding family life, she saysshe never felt overloaded. “Nurs ing school instilled in me the ideathat as a nurse, I was committedto care for others.” She did admitto being tired occasionally. “Iused com e home after work, plopon the couch, and announce tomy kids that if a man came to thedoor offering us a m illion dollars,I w asn’t even going to the door.”She laughs. “O f course, thatnever happened!”As a result o f her dedication,Phyllis was promoted to Operat ing Room Supervisor at a newhospital in Sun City, Arizona.She had the opportunity to giveinput in the design o f the hospitalcontinued on next page

PHYLLIS W ELLS, continuedand its operations. She also beganwriting and lecturing on infectioncontrol in the operating room andmade a name for herself in thefield.In 1964, her husband discov ered flying. Not wanting him tohave all the fun, she joined him toobtain their private licensestogether. The expense o f flyingbecame an issue and Phyllis had toput her passion for flying on hold.commercial, and her glider flightinstructor ratings as well.In 1981, they both retired fromthe Dupont Company and madethe m ove to Colorado where theycould continue to enjoy their loveof flying. Phyllis began a success ful independent nurse consultingbusiness and formed the NurseConsultants A ssociation duringthis time with a core group o f 30nurses. The organization hasSuper Cub and a M ooney that theyuse for frequent travel all over theUnited States. “I’ve alwayswanted to gad about,” she ex plains. “Flying is an extension o fmy love o f traveling. I enjoy thefreedom o f hopping in a plane andflying somewhere and the feelingo f accomplishment after a success ful flight.” Recently she flew to St.Louis to attend the W omen inAviation Conference, and had theLeft: P hyllis W ells post-fligh ts a soaringsession with student, D ale Calender.Right, W ells discusses landing attitudesan d techniques with student, DougDornseif.Photos by Alice G. Palmet. Interestingly,Alice is a writer and member o f the PikesPeak Chapter. She holds commercial andinstructor certificates in gliders, a privateairplane rating, and is also an airframe andpowerplanl mechanic.When hospital procedureschanged to accommodate newMedicare requirements, Phyllisfelt the nursing field was becom ing less people-oriented. Herhusband passed away and her lifechanged dramatically. With herchildren grown, she decided tom ove in a different direction. TheDupont Company knew o f herexpertise in infection control andhired her as a consultant. Shemoved to W ilmington, Delawarewhich gave her the opportunity toget back into flying.Phyllis met another Dupontprofessional, Dick Seaman— apilot and an experienced instructorin airplanes and gliders. With theircomm on interests, it’s no surprisethat they were married in 1978.Dick became Phyllis’ mentor andsupporter. He helped her with herprivate license, her instrument,grown steadily in the last 12 years.W ell-known among her flyingfriends for her organizing skills,she saw the need in 1984 for a 99schapter in the Colorado Springsarea. She formed the Pikes PeakChapter and served as its firstchairman. With her participation,the chapter has sponsored a sec tion meeting, a USPFT com peti tion, and has won several awards.She’s also been heavily involvedin organizing ground schools andpromotional events for the flightschool, Soar Black Forest, whereshe has worked as towpilot andinstructor since its inception threeyears ago.Phyllis’ first love now isinstructing. She has always lovedto teach others, and enjoys thecontact with people that shedoesn’t get while flying thetowplane. She and Dick own achance to meet many well-knownwom en pilots. Along with herteaching and traveling, she man ages to find time to be a docent atthe Fine Arts Museum in ColoradoSprings where she pursues herlove o f the arts.Phyllis never lacks for a goal.Currently she aims to earn herinstructor’s rating in airplanes andShe and Dick plan to do a little“barnstorming” in the Super Cub,visiting sailplane contests and flyins around the country.In the meantime, with Phyllis’encouragement from theinstructor’s seat, the dipping andbobbing o f sailplanes on towbecom e smoother and more stablewith each passing flight. Soonanother o f her students takes to thesky alone and shares the fun o fflight with Phyllis W ells, anotherdynamic Ninety-Nine.

SO VIET HERO INES, G. RASTO RG UEVA and L. POLYANSKAYA— T h e y’re 99S!b y M a r y L o u N e a leWhen I read in their letter thatthe official Soviet comment onGalina Rastorgueva and LudmilaPolyanskaya’s record-breakingflight was, “They fly like m en,”there was instant kinship. O fcourse, their record-setting flightswere in 1975 and there is littledoubt that the Russian board o fexperienced test pilots, an allmasculine panel, intended thatsuch a pronouncement was highpraise. The Soviets even affection ately called the women“chebarashki,” a funny toy resem bling a little teddy bear. Can youimagine any one o f them thinkingo f Yuri Gagarin in terms o f somecute little stuffed animal?The way to success in aviationis still uneven if not often dow n right rough— and far more so inRussia. The military is not open towomen, in spite o f the recognizedheroism o f the WWII femalefighter and bomber pilots. Thewomen told that, “After victory, itwas, ‘Go home now. The kitchenawaits.’” As before WWII, theonly way to learn to fly wasthrough a flying club which wasoften beyond the means o f theaverage woman. If one did suc ceed by doing this, in G alina’swords, “The responsibility wasgreat. If one woman pilot happensto make a mistake, it is like aheavy stone which will pull downthe rest o f them. In aviation,women have no right to makemistakes.”The records set by Galina andher navigator, Ludmila, wereimpressive. On July 16, 1975, theyset the speed record for wom en o f341.32 kilometers per hour (km/hr)over distances o f 15 to 45 kilom e ters. T w o days later, over a 100 kmcourse, they flew at a speed o f334.023 km/hr. But the best wasyet to com e. They broke the m en’srecord and set an all-time high amonth later on the 500 km triangu lar route at 331.623 km/hr. Theprevious best had been 273.507! Ascant tw elve days later they flewover a triangular route o f 1000 kmN ew 99 Ludmila Polyanskaya (left) withM ary Lou and R ay N ealea t the M oscow A viation Academ yMuseum. M ary Lou is a WASP an d 99.at a speed o f 322.646 besting them en’s earlier record o f 258.66.That was the first time in thehistory o f aviation that wom enestablished a helicopter record andit was done during the InternationalW om en’s Year. The helicopter wasthe M i-24, the newest at that time,and the wom en fell in love with it.They wrote, “N ow there were threeo f us, rather than two, because itseem ed to us that our helicopteralso had a soul. It sure had charac ter because a 4,500 horsepowerhelicopter commanded respect. Itwas as if our dream came true.We appreciated its perfect flyingcharacteristics immediately afterthe first flight.”The road leading to the recordsetting flights was arduous. “Ittook us only 28 hours to establishthe records,” mused Galina, “butit took us every hour all our livesto confirm our right to do this.”Galina was 8 years old in 1944when her father, VictorRastorguev, let her stow away onone o f his test-piloting flights. Hewas killed a year later, but he hadalready bequeathed a love o fflying to his daughter. Victor, aSoviet hero, had left a heritage ofnote and one o f the craters on themoon was named after him. At17, Galina entered the M oscowAviation C ollege and became amember o f an airclub. A yearlater she graduated with a di ploma o f pilot-instructor, yet shewas not allow ed to fly for aliving. She worked on the line asan engineer on jet planes for fiveyears, earning the badge o f“Excellent Worker o f Airfleet” in1965. She continued flying on herown and obtained a helicopterrating. She was finally admittedto a flying school in Kremenchugan

trivia with FLYWORD PUZZLES - a 40-page book of all-new crossword puzzles created especially for the aviation enthusiast. Special club price only 6.95 (postage paid). Send check to: Flyword Puzzles, P.O. Box 37527, Omaha, NE 68137