In this episode of "Chicks Who Fly,”Inaia has an inspiring conversation with Jen Shull, a pilot whose chance encounter dramatically altered Inaia’s career path. Inaia recounts how driving for a rideshare company led to meeting Jenn, a newly minted Part 135 pilot braving LA traffic. Their conversation ignited a love for aviation in Inaia, who followed Jenn’s advice to become a pilot and ground instructor.

Jenn shares her own non-linear journey into aviation, highlighting her tech job background, Air Force experience, and initial dabbling in flying for fun. The conversation delves into her transition from enjoying general aviation (GA) to becoming a professional pilot, discussing her experiences with Part 135 operations and eventual move to a Part 121 major airline.

Jenn offers valuable insights into the aviation world, discussing hurdles like the complexity of flight systems, the challenges of commuting, and the importance of community within smaller operations. She emphasizes the transformative power of aviation milestones and talks about the sense of connection when flying passengers on pivotal life journeys. Inaia shares a bit about her experience working at her previous Part 121 cargo airline and how she rode in the flight deck of a 767 to rescue a dog in Puerto Rico.

Jen offers advice for aspiring pilots: get a medical certificate first, ensure a good fit with your flight instructor, soak in the wisdom of experienced pilots, and never quit even when facing tough challenges. 

In today’s 14th episode of Chicks Who Fly, I get to have a conversation with Sammi McQ. Sammi is a Private Pilot with an Instrument Rating, who started flying while she was in high school, shortly after her dad accidentally purchased an airplane. Sammi is currently working on her Commercial Certificate.

In this conversation, Sammi and I discuss the challenges she faced during her instrument training, the impact of an incompatible flight instructor on her training process, the cool way she learned to always hit her wake when performing steep turns, her aviation bucket list and taking the FAA written exam in the midst of pandemic-related closures. We compare her experience at a Part 61 vs Part 141 flight school and Sammi also shares her experience volunteering at an event where little girls were being taken up for their their first flight.

LA 99s member, Civil Air Patrol member and Private Pilot with a complex rating, Kate Scott and I get to discuss how a breakup propelled her into taking on flight training, the ups and downs of flight training, dealing with impostor syndrome, how her solo cross-country flight helped her confidence as a pilot, flying for Civil Air Patrol, juggling work and flight training, joining a flying club, the importance of talking through the maneuvers and procedures you are performing during lessons and check rides, preparing for FAA written exams, the challenges of radio communications, and standing for the diversification and expansion of the aviation community.

In this 10th episode of Chicks Who Fly, I get to have a conversation with Emmy Award-winning journalist, KTLA reporter and private pilot, Christina Pascucci. We talk about how she learned to fly in order to overcome her paralyzing fear of flying in small planes, We talk about how she learned to fly in Palm Springs and documented her flight training and her first solo for a TV show. We talk about the news story Christina got to do where she was able to grant the wish of a 99-year-old WASP who wanted to fly once more. We talk about dealing with self-doubt, the time that Christina lost comms in her aircraft during a flight, and about the power that comes with taking on challenges in the service of something bigger than just yourself, how Christina is inspired by the idea of empowering women to face their fears and challenges head on, flying to OshKosh, how aviation can serve the community and the confidence that comes with flight training and getting your pilot certificate among other things.

In today’s episode of Chicks Who Fly, I get to have a conversation with Tamara Griffith. Tamara’s certificates and ratings include being a Multi-engine ATP, a Commercial single-engine land and seaplane, CFI, CFII, MEI, AGI, IGI and an A&P and she has her Inspection Authorization.

Tamara is the daughter of Mary Latimer and her husband, Lawrence who founded and run GIFT (Girls In Flight Training ) Academy and whose goal is to identify and to address the various issues that may be causing women to abandon flight training, and to assist them earning their pilot certificates. Tamara has been a freight pilot, a corporate pilot and a mechanic, chief inspector, among other things and serves as one of the head flight instructors for GIFT Academy which was presented with an AOPA Honor Roll for excellence in training 2013.

In this episode, Tamara and I get to talk about the support, community and camaraderie that is part of the GIFT Academy flight training experience, flying in different countries such as Dubai, Turkey, Italy and Mexico and the attitudes towards women pilots in each culture, flying for different charity and relief organizations, flying with her dog and how he reacted when she had an emergency, flying with her family and what it was like when having an emergency during a flight with them and how flight training can help with other jobs and life situations.

In today’s Episode, Kristyn and I talk about what it was like to do her flight training as a teenager on a military base, survival training in the freezing cold and snow in Canada, about the challenging twists and turns that had Kristyn step away from aviation for years while she built a successful and rewarding business that allowed her to get herself and her children in a good situation where she was able to become an aircraft owner, get back in aviation, build her hours and get ready for what’s next in her aviation journey, which will soon include an aircraft ferrying service. Kristyn is all about inspiring and empowering women and girls in pursuing and achieving whatever they want in their aviation careers.

In this 4th episode of the Chicks Who Fly Podcast, I get to speak with Jesse Hutchison. Jesse is a student pilot based in Phoenix, Arizona. In this episode we get to talk about the highs and lows of our flight training paths and the difficulties experienced when Jesse hit a snag in the process of getting her FAA 1st Class Medical Certificate. We get to share about our favorite flight training stories, aviation films, YouTube channels and podcasts and we talk about how we both manage to keep moving forward in our training when we hit some bumpy air along the way.

Chicks Who Fly-Episode 1 with your host Inaia, a student pilot interviewing CFI, CFII, commercial, multi-engine pilot Alejandra Newport, who is currently based in Las Vegas. Music, footage and back-seat passenger shenanigans by Diego Jinkus.