Bound by an Aviation Avocation

The love affair began when a 7-year-old girl went on a family outing after church one Sunday afternoon.

Kim Ernst and her family sat snugly in a six-passenger airplane, soaring over Orange County landmarks such as the Disneyland Matterhorn.

“I just remember being so in love,” said Ernst, a Fullerton resident. “I didn’t care if the plane ran out of fuel. I just wanted to stay up there forever.”

She vowed to return to the air, fulfilling that promise years later, when she got her pilot’s license.

Now 44, Ernst is one of 35,000 female licensed pilots in the nation and one of about 100 in Orange County who build camaraderie as members of the 99s, a women’s aviation organization.

The 99s originated Nov. 2, 1929, at Curtiss Field on New York’s Long Island. All 117 American female pilots were invited to gather for mutual support and aviation advancement, but only 99 signed up. Today the organization has more than 6,500 members worldwide.

Some women, like Ernst, had dreamed of sitting in the cockpit since childhood. Many got roped into it because of their pilot husbands. All love flying.

“All the women come from totally different backgrounds,” said Pat Savage, another Fullerton member. “This is the one thing we have in common--that we love to fly.”

So the women gather each month to bond. They talk and laugh together. Some work together, and, of course, many fly together.

The Fullerton 99s spent a recent Saturday flying families on Airport Day, an event that promotes the Fullerton Municipal Airport. For $15 an adult and $10 a child, the pilots took groups on a route over Orange County’s “hot spots.”

The organization used to charge pennies per pound, but some people didn’t like that, the members said, laughing. Their husbands, whom they playfully call 49 1/2s, helped fly too.

Denise Jennings took her Mooney 201 out for a spin. With a bottle of Arrowhead water under one arm and a beige cushion under the other, she crawled into the cockpit. She fastened her seat belt and adjusted her mint-green headphones.

“Are you ready?” she asked her passengers.

“Yeah!” shouted 4-year-old Dakota McFarlane, who rode with his grandfather Lloyd.

After landing, the two chattered endlessly about how much fun it had been. Dakota and Lloyd are veterans at flight and read aviation books almost every night. They’re hooked.

“I don’t know what it is about aviation, but once you’re hooked, you’re hooked for life,” said Sue Ballew, a member of the local 99s chapter.

The Fullerton 99s were the hit of Airport Day, said Jennings, who is Fullerton chapter chairwoman. They raised almost $3,000, which will go directly to scholarships for members.

And that, they say, is perhaps their most important duty--to promote flying among women. In addition to raising scholarship money, they go to high schools and encourage young women to try aviation.

Only 6% of commercial pilots are women, Jennings said, but they are just as capable as men.

“Let’s face it. They only think they’re going to be flight attendants,” she said.

That is changing, said Warren Morningstar, media relations director of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. Now, 13% of flight-school students are female.

“We are making bounds in getting more women interested in aviation,” he said.

The 99s have fostered this interest, Morningstar said.

Andrea Averyt said she wishes she had the 99s when she was growing up.

Averyt began working at Bullwinkle’s in Fountain Valley when she was 14 to raise the $4,000 she’d need for flying lessons. Her parents supported her ambition, but they could not afford the lessons.

After two years of classes, cheerleading and work, the Fountain Valley High School student came up with the cash and got her license.

Averyt got an aerospace degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz., taught NASA astronauts in Houston for a year and this summer landed back in Orange County, where she teaches flying in Fullerton. Averyt enjoys being part of an organization that supports female pilots.

“I’ve had to work very hard, and I’ve felt the pressure because I am a woman,” Averyt said. “It’s really nice to have a women’s support group that says, ‘Yes, you can do this.’ ”