S2E5- From Military Medical Disqualification To First Officer For A Regional Airline, Lindsay Cosby

Growing up, Lindsay was considering becoming a military pilot until she found out that her peanut allergy was a medical disqualifying factor.

So she applied for and received a scholarship to get her private in one summer and then went off to train at Embry Riddle, where she finished all her training in an impressive 2 1/2 years by staying on campus every summer and holiday season to work on her flight training. Lindsay shares about the things she did to maximize her flight training and save money while quickly moving towards her goal. We also get to talk about how Lindsay had to overcome a terrible propensity towards airsickness, as she got sick on her discovery flight and continued to struggle with that during her flight training.

Lindsay graduated from Embry Riddle right when COVID was hitting and her school put a pause on hiring instructors. Not only did Lindsay manage to find a jb as a flight instructor, but by the time Lindsay was close to getting her hours, she landed a job with a part 135 charter airline and is now a first officer working on her captain upgrade.

S2E4-Corporate Pilot Flying a PC-12 in the Caribbean, Debbie Nascimento

In this fourth episode of season two of Chicks Who Fly, I get to have a conversation with Part 135 Corporate pilot flying a PC-12 in the Caribbean, who was born and raised in Rio, Brazil, Debbie Nascimento.

Debbie is a first generation aviator who became a flight attendant at 20. While working in the airline, she used to go into the cockpit and ask the pilots questions about what they were doing, how to fly the airplane and how to go about getting her certificates and ratings. She decided to take out a loan so that she could do her training quickly.

Debbie did her entire training part 61 in the insanely busy NYC airspace, while working full time as a flight attendant and she ended up getting ALL her certificates and ratings in an astonishing one year and three month period -private, instrument, commercial, commercial multi-engine, w seaplane, CFI, CFII, AGI, tail wheel endorsement and then went on to get her high performance, high altitude. Debbie is also one of the only 200-300 pilots in the world qualified to fly into St Barths.

During her training, one of the things she struggled with, was a fear of stalls and feeling uncomfortable with steep turns but she found the instrument, her easiest and most fun rating, which is what most people call their most difficult and boring. We talk about the mental shift she made, that had her see her instrument rating from that perspective.

At the time of this interview, Debbie was getting ready to go to her first assigned base in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

S2E3-Coast Guard Helicopter Pilot Turned Writer, Liz Booker, @literaryaviatrix

In today’s episode of Chicks Who Fly, I get to have a conversation with Liz Booker, Retired Coast Guard Helicopter pilot now an author, of two books for young adults, that feature young women learning to fly. Liz now runs a book club, Aviatrix Book Club, where people get together and discuss books they read that feature women in aviation. Liz interviews the authors and releases those interviews on her Aviatrix Book Review Podcast. Liz also runs a club called Aviatrix Writer’s Group, where authors and aspiring authors support each other in their projects. Inspired by the space program, Liz knew she wanted to be a pilot since she was 5 yrs old. Liz had her first flight lessons in a turboprop in the coast guard in Pensacola and moved on to helicopters, where she had to hover the helicopter on her 4th lesson! Military flight training also meant that she was taught spin recovery and aerobatics very early on in training. From boot camp, doing dirty jobs to learning to fly in a turboprop, the Coast Guard was quite a ride. Liz and I talk about the challenge that memorization posed for her while doing her flight training in the military, all while having her first child. We talk about the day she got to do a low pass over the runway at the airport at NASA’s facility in Cape Canaveral, we discuss the crazy drills she had to do in airplanes and underwater, our propensities for seasickness vs air sickness, some of her missions with the coast guard, which included landing on the back of ships, rescuing people from sinking ships, searching for lost divers and even rescuing a stranded surfer in the middle of the night.

S2E2- Santa Fe-Based Flight Instructor, Kristi McFadden with Advice for Flight Training Students

Santa Fe-based Flight Instructor (and MY flight instructor), Kristi Mc Fadden and I discuss common student pilot and new pilot challenges and how to approach and overcome them, how to master landings and how to handle those common issues that students face. We also discuss the problems of flying during a pandemic, the cool experimental aircraft that I saw at our marina and more.