The date has been set for the 2013 Women’s Soaring Event. It will be held on August 10 at the Innisfail Airport and hosted by the Central Alberta Gliding Club.

Chics Take Flight finally happened yesterday and was, judging by the grins of all the future pilots, a great success! From the first eager flyers, who arrived at 7:45am, to the last flight of the day by organizer Judy (lasting 1.5 hours and touching down at 8:30pm), it was a true celebration of aviation. The flight simulator was in almost constant use and we heard very interesting stories from our guest speakers. Most importantly, though, we got over thirty people of all ages into the air.

Thank you to everyone, both participants and staff, who came out. It would not have been as successful without you! Check out the event photos here!

Today’s extended forecast for Black Diamond shows Saturday with a high of 24C and sunny, no clouds, and 0% chance of precipitation – WOOOO! In aviation we call a forecast like that “CAVU” – Ceiling And Visibility Unlimited. So remember to bring your water bottles, sunscreen, shades, and hats!

We’ve made a slight change to our schedule. Registration still opens at 8:00 and it’s first-come, first served. Ground school will now start earlier, at 8:30! Flying operations will start at 9:00, so you’ll have time to do the first couple of ground school sessions before jumping in your airplane. There will also be some single-seat gliders on static display that you can take a look at while you wait for the action to begin.

The organizing committee met again this week, and we’ve got more exciting developments.

First of all, we’ve confirmed a few more guest speakers. I don’t want to give away too many details (where’s the fun in that?) but we’ve got tentative agreement from a 22-year-old who has already made captain at a small airline on the West Coast, and confirmations from three more women. On July 21, you will be able to meet and talk with…
-an Air Cadet instructor who will help you fly the Cadets’ advanced simulator;
-a flight instructor and Transport Canada examiner; and
-provided her leave doesn’t get cancelled, a CF-18 pilot!

Second, some flight details. We are currently planning to offer TWO very exciting ways to get into the air. One is the normal aerotow, where a powered airplane tows your glider aloft for a nice long intro flight where you will get to try out the controls (the instructor will do all the tricky parts of course). The other is the very exciting winch launch! This is a much shorter flight, which means we can offer it at a considerably lower price, and boy is it a ride. Have a look at this video, taken last summer by some members of our hosts, Cu Nim Gliding Club.

Our website went live yesterday and we’re pretty excited about that! We’ve been talking about this idea with our pilot friends for a few months now, but until now we haven’t had enough information to go public. This week, though, we’ve confirmed some great news:
-our poster is almost ready for us to begin papering the town with
-a local Air Cadet group has offered the use of their advanced flight simulator for the day
-this website, of course, which was only a gleam in my eye a mere two weeks ago
-perhaps most exciting, another wonderful Alberta gliding club has offered the use of their towplane, one of their gliders, and a handful of their instructors! This could be the busiest day at the Cu Nim airfield in months!

Keep visiting regularly for more updates, and extra content here at chicstakeflight.ca.