There’s a positive force that can be felt in the presence of people who are doing what they love to do.
That force was palpable on a recent gentian-blue, end-of-summer day when the skies over New Lenox played host to the aircraft of the Ninety-Nines Inc., the International Organization of Women Pilots.
“We are women who love to fly,” said Mary Lou Mueller of Palatine, summarizing what the Ninety-Nines Inc. has been about. Founded in 1929, the group turned 70 Nov. 2. The event at the New Lenox-Howell Airport was the Ninety-Nines Chicago Area Chapter Annual Air Meet.
An air meet is any flying competition, which usually is a contest based on speed or estimations and calculations. The pilot-contestants work out a real-life story problem, determining the amount of fuel they will expend and the time it will take them to fly to a certain point and return. The one coming closest to her calculations wins. The winner gets a trophy or, sometimes, cash. The Chicago chapter sponsors two air meets annually.
In this meet, the pilots fly round-trip to Pontiac, Ill., and then try to land their planes as close as possible to a white line painted on the New Lenox-Howell Airport runway. then when they return to New Lenox, they attempt to land closest to that line.
In the distance, the whine of Marge Sundmacher’s Beechcraft Bonanza sounds much like the bees in the air this September morning. Sundmacher, of Deerfield, and co-pilot Madeleine Monaco, of Barrington, land within 35 feet of the line.
And, one by one, the participants touch down and make their way back to an airport meeting room for lunch, where Sundmacher is declared the winner.
“The Ninety-Nines are such an interesting group of women,” said Cynthia Madsen, of Frankfort, chairwoman of flying activities for the nine-state North Central Region, comprising Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin. Madsen, like many Ninety-Nines, owns her own plane, a Cherokee 140 based at the New Lenox airport. Other Ninety-Nines belong to flying clubs or rent the equipment when they fly.
The Ninety-Nines were born at Curtiss Field, in Valley Stream, N.Y. Famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart founded the group to co-ordinate the efforts and interests of women in aviation. Earhart suggested the name for the number of members at the first meeting.
“The name of the group doesn’t represent anything to do with flying,” said Ellen O’Hara of Oak Brook. “But I always like to think Amelia Earhart chose the name over something like Tea and Crumpets or Whiskey Neat.” (The name the Ninety-Nines won out over names such as the Gad Flies and Bird Women.)
Women have to be licensed pilots to join the Ninety-Nines and can do so by filling out an application at a local chapter. There’s also a group for student pilots called the Sixty-Sixes, said Madsen.
There are Ninety-Nines chapters in more than three dozen countries, with a membership roster that surpasses 7,000. The Chicago chapter is the largest, said Madsen, with around 150 members.
The World War II years were a proving ground for aviatrixes, who saw myriad opportunities. Ninety-Nines, along with other women, took on responsibilities as Women Air Service Pilots of World War II, who ferried aircraft and took over stateside jobs to free male pilots for combat. They joined members of the new Civil Air Patrol, and several became test pilots to test the capabilities of newly developed military aircraft.
Past international presidents include Jacqueline Cochrane, the founder of the WASPs, and Edna Gardner Whyte, a flight instructor now in her 80s who owned her own airport outside of Ft. Worth.
The Ninety-Nines include about a half-dozen astronauts, among them Sally Ride and Eileen Collins, as well as some members of Mercury 13, the women’s space project that never got off the ground in the early ’60s.
Jerrie Cobb was one of that group, said Madsen. “She went to work in South America after the program was canceled. She’d still like her chance to go into space as an older person, like John Glenn. I’ve not met her personally but have been at Ninety-Nines events that she has attended, and its just exciting to be around women like her.”
“There are so many of our members who have interesting life stories,” said Lu Hollender, executive director for the Ninety-Nines, who are based at the Will Rogers International Airport in Oklahoma City, where a two-story building holds archival records, memorabilia, personal artifacts and historical information on members throughout the years.
“Flying must be good for the body and soul because we have a number of members in their 70s and 80s still flying. We have 13 charter members who are now in their 90s who are still active in the organization,” added Hollender.
One of the original members is Achsa Donnels of Laytonville, Calif., who learned to fly in 1923 in a Curtiss Jennie biplane.
“It was a single-engine plane made during World War I,” said Donnels. “After the war, they sold them for a few hundred dollars, and my boyfriend and I bought one.”
Donnels knew Earhart. “She was really just one of the girls,” Donnels said. “It just so happened that her husband had a secretary, and we needed the services of a secretary, so that’s how Amelia Earhart became our first president.
“In the early days, there were very few of us women pilots, so when they decided to create an organization, they sent out a letter, and we all really liked the idea.”
The Chicago chapter has a few senior members. One is Loretta Sincora of Brookfield, who, at 72, has no intention of retiring her interest in flying.
“I learned to fly at age 16 at the old Harlem Airport in a Piper Cub,” said Sincora, a Ninety-Nine since 1963. The airport has since become Southfield Shopping Center. “Back in 1946, my girlfriend and I would have to endure lectures from the airport operator about how we should be home learning to cook and sew. We’d listen, then we’d go fly.”
In recent years, through her contacts with the Ninety-Nines, Sincora has realized a few more goals. “I skydived. I have flown a helicopter, a glider and a blimp and I went up in a hot-air balloon.”
Pam Spaniol of Villa Park loves flying so much that in all likelihood, she’ll be one of those flying grannies too. But right now, she’s just begun flying commercially for United Express.
“I have always wanted to walk down the concourse of O’Hare wearing a pilot’s uniform,” said Spaniol, who has been flying since age 14 and was licensed at 19 in 1986 and joined the Ninety-Nines in 1987.
Heading the Ninety-Nines Chicago chapter is Rhonda Buss of Chicago. Buss received her pilot’s license in 1994, learning to fly after having spent a vacation in Vancouver mesmerized by watching seaplanes land on the bay.
She owns a Cessna 172, which she keeps at Midway Airport. “Flying has been life-changing for me,” said Buss, a Ninety-Nine since 1995.
“I knew when I started flying, I wanted to make a difference in the lives of kids, so I got involved in the Young Eagles program and flew 275 kids in three years.”
(The Young Eagles program, initiated through the Experimental Aircraft Association, initiates children to the world of flight, wiht a goal of licensed pilots flying 1 million children by 2003, the 100th anniversary of powered flight.)
“Being involved with the Ninety-Nines has provided me with a central hub and has given me all sorts of outlets to do things I enjoy,” Buss said.
This is part of the expanding mission of the Ninety-Nines, which includes promoting world fellowship through flight, promoting networking and scholarship opportunities for women, along with aviation education within the community, and preserving the history of women in aviation.
Madsen recently received a scholarship sponsored by the Ninety-Nines. “They only gave 15 worldwide, so it was a great honor,” she said. “I applied for it last year, to work toward earning my commercial license. The scholarships are wonderful, as they take into account all costs, everything you need to succeed at what it is you’re attempting to accomplish. What you don’t use is put back into the scholarship fund.”
The National Intercollegiate Flying Association, a sort of National Collegiate Athletic Association for schools that sponsor flying teams, receives a great deal of support from the Ninety-Nines. The association is headquartered at Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss., said Hollender, and “our organization has been supporting them for many years. We have been extremely active in helping put on meets, supporting them and contributing funds.”
Ninety-Nines also participate in Lifeline flights, an Illinois-based organization that arranges for volunteers to fly patients to treatment centers.
Ninety-Nines fly blood and donated organs to medical centers. You’ll also see them in schools, introducing grade-schoolers to flying opportunities through the Air Bears programs. And the Chicago Ninety-Nines are not above stuffing Teddy BAirs–bears cut from aviation-print fabric, in hopes that it will inspire children to reach for their dreams, aviation or otherwise, said Buss.
Ninety-Nines don’t wear a uniform or a hat. But if you come across a radiant woman whose face lights up when she talks about flying, check out her lapel or collar. Chances are you’ll discover a little gold pin there with the numbers 99. In the middle of the pin, you’ll see a tiny propeller that spins, representing something near and dear to the heart of every woman who wears it.
THE NINETY-NINES INC.
– International Headquarters: Will Rogers Field, P.O. Box 965, 7100 Terminal Drive, Oklahoma City, OK 73159-0965; Phone: 800-994-1929 or 405-685-7969; Fax: 405-685-7985; e-mail: 99s@ninety-nines.org.
– Founded: Nov. 2, 1929; Incorporated: 1950
– Founder: Amelia Earhart
– Where: Curtiss Field, Valley Stream, Long Island, N.Y.
– Goal: The Ninety-Nines were formed to coordinate the interests and efforts of women in aviation.
– Eligibility: The organization is open to all women with pilots’ licenses.
– Membership: More than 7,000 in Africa, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Britain, French West Indies, Israel, Japan, Korea, Portugal, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the U.S. The U.S. is divided into eight geographic sections, which include some 70 chapters of five to 80 members each.
– Activities: The Nintey-Nines’ pursuits include aeronautical research; air racing; emergency services in fire, famine, flood and war; Amelia Earhart Scholarships to advance women’s training in the cockpit; Air Marking Program, under which strategic areas and buildings were marked with paint; and humanitarian and medical relief.
– Insignia: A small gold pin, with two 9s, square cut, superimposed with a spinnable prop in the center denotes a Ninety-Nine. A diamond in the hub, denotes a Charter member. Gold numerals “25” attached by guard chain denotes she has 25 years of active flying as a Ninety-Nine. A sapphire in the hub denotes the International President.
Source: The Ninety-Nines Inc.
