Our Spring Southwest Section Meeting was held in Bakersfield over the last weekend in April and it was a great way to meet other 99s across the west coast.

Our Chapter Chair, Kate Scott, was in attendance to represent the chapter and she flew up with Laurice and Linda (respectively, the Scholarship Chair and Treasurer of her former Long Beach chapter). On Friday, they departed from Torrance airport and flew over the poppies blooming around Gorman, then fought some gusts coming into Meadows Field. There, the Bakersfield 99s were at the Bakersfield Jet Center to welcome us with a quick lunch and help transport us to the hotel.

At the conference, we attended the Chairs meeting to hear updates from the Southwest Section, and had dinner at Basque restaurant, Noriega’s. It was wonderful to meet women who had all levels of experience – some had learned as a teenager and had been flying for 50+ years, other learned when they were 54 years old! We all share a common passion for flying. At the dinner, we congratulated long-time members, and sang happy birthday to a few ladies. Then, sang Bakersfield’s special song: “Give me my aeroplane, let me go sailing away up high…”  The night devolved into flying paper airplanes around the room, before retiring back to the hotel.

The next morning breakfast was served and we were introduced to the San Gabriel Valley chapter who will be hosting the next Southwest Section meeting in the fall, with a fun theme – out of control (since Cable is an uncontrolled airport). The board and Chapter report meeting was great to announce our new chapter, and hear of the accomplishments that other chapters had done in the past six months. The board installed a newly elected leadership team. Kate Scott and Jennifer Perdigao (of the LB 99s) received a ‘gold star’ award from the Southwest Section Governor for their efforts in re-starting the LA chapter.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone at the next meeting in October, and planning some joint events or fly-ins to visit our new friends!