Going back to last weekend, the flying club I'm president of had our annual Halloween breakfast fly-in. We open up a hangar and serve an awesome $5 breakfast to anyone who flies or drives in.
A year ago was my first time more or less presenting at one of our fly-ins. I had worn a "blind airline pilot" costume to a local trans support group Halloween party, complete with a nice skirt and pumps and a white cane. At the fly-in I wore pants and sensible shoes, since I was going to be flying a plane with a stick, but still had my hair down with earrings and whatever makeup I knew how to do back then. I kept a low profile, but I did out myself to a few people.
At the next fly-in in January I was presenting a little bit better, but still tended to keep out of the way and stay quiet.
This time I'd had enough of remaining in the shadows. For the first time ever - in this life or my former one - I worked the serving line. And it was completely fine. I even got a "thank you, Miss" from one young man. Unfortunately I didn't get any posed pictures, but I did find myself in a few other pictures posted to Facebook.
After our fly-in we closed up and flew to a lunch fly-in at another airport. There we sat across from some guys who were impressed not just that this woman had flown in, but that she'd also done it in a plane she'd built herself.
It was a pretty cool day!
Stephanie
