"Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious ...."

What is a Shakespeare quote doing on an aviation blog?

Well, it HAS been a long, dark winter here, wings too heavy to fly. We're ready to see it end. This winter has seen many changes, the hardest being the loss of my Chief Pilot who has been with me through thick and thin and ups and downs. Difficult as it is to say goodbye, I wish him the very best of blue skies ahead.

With the coming spring weather, we're ushering in new changes here at Out of the Blue. The newest addition to our line of events is our Girls fly Free Weekend. We're joining up with Women of Aviation Week to offer short free flights, on March 12th, to girls and women who have never flown in a small aircraft. I've coordinated helicopters and gliders and jets to join us to provide a great day to encourage girls to "give aviation a try." This is very near and dear to my heart and I am so excited about it!

The four males in my household argue that "girls just aren't interested in flying or adventure as much as guys." I think it is still very much a matter of role models - who do girls usually see behind the aircraft yoke and who do they see behind the kitchen stove? This is what they normalize. It's changing, but slowly!

And being an idealist, I keep trying to help change the world - one day at a time, one person at a time.

Affectionately, Cathy