Summer Goodwin could fly before she learned how to drive.
At age 16, secured in the open cockpit of her father’s rare, 1931 Student Prince biplane, she screamed as she took off into the vast sky above a grassy airstrip in Port Townsend for her first solo flight.
“I was nervous and excited,” Goodwin, 34, recalled last week. “It was just a rush. I was so pumped up and confident and happy.
“Nobody ever forgets their first solo.”
By age 17, Goodwin was a licensed pilot. Today, she continues to be part of a growing number of women piloting airplanes.
On Sept. 6, Goodwin will join several pilots to speak about their experiences and showcase their aircraft at the fifth annual Airport Day at William R. Fairchild International Airport in Port Angeles.
The event runs from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and includes seminars by Goodwin, the Tuskegee Airmen and members of the 8th Air Force Historical Society, flight demonstrations by the Navion “Fraser Blues,” Motor Gliders and Black Jacks, free Young Eagles flights for children ages 7 to 17, food, music and dozens of aircraft on display on the grounds.
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The rest of the story appears in Sunday’s Peninsula Daily News.
