Saturday, June 15, 2013

It's a small, small world with BIG, BIG news.


By now many of you have probably noticed that I, the founder and Executive Director of Girls With Wings, also known as Lynda Meeks, am posting, tweeting and making other such updates via social media with a strange location tag. That of Hong Kong.

It is true that I have moved to the other side of the planet, but I have no intention whatsoever of not continuing with Girls With Wings. In fact, we are right now in the process of accepting applications for our Summer Scholarship and are posting blog entries from our Spring Scholarship Program winners. Our website is still going strong (we will even begin a transition to our new one soon).

We are also proud to announce that we have a new membership chair, Lori, who has been working diligently to improve our member program. She has been able to find other organizations willing to offer our members discounts with their programs - to be announced soon (let us know if you'd be interested in doing the same). As I have mentioned before, our Pilot Shop was just not financially feasible as it was and we needed to rethink our products and how we offer them. Lori has been getting in touch with current and future members to keep them on board by finding out what is important to them. If you are not a member, visit the sign up page here. You'll start receiving our newsletter so we can keep you posted.

The biggest downside to my relocation is that I will be limited on the events that I can attend. I sadly did not make Sun n Fun and will not make the AOPA Summit or Oshkosh - but I understand the Ninety Nines - an organization of Women Pilots - will be taking over the booth space that we've had for the past few years. This should help continue to promote the mission! We also were not able to do our Aviation Inspiration Day over Memorial Day Weekend near Minneapolis, MN. Next year we will resume all of this and more!


I do fully intend to not only maintain Girls With Wings but also to grow it. Currently we are seeking grant funding for a mentorship program - we will need your help to make this a success! We will of course continue with our scholarships, website, and other outreach activities.

As far as what I'm doing over here in Hong Kong, I am in training to be an Airbus Simulator Instructor for a major airline.  [For those of you who know your cockpits - this is actually the 747 sim used for the interview.] I'm pretty excited about the prospect of teaching people to fly an airplane I've never flown myself. Learning The Fly by Wire technology in the Airbus is quite daunting but the candidates going through their training are truly impressive. They are very hardworking and can usually quote chapter and verse in the series of manuals they need to know to get into the right seat with the airline.

It is because of all of this technology I hope my stay in Hong Kong will be somewhat invisible to the supporters of Girls With Wings. Other than a 12 hour time difference with my home state of Ohio, I should be able to continue making dreams take flight!

3 comments:

  1. Wow... that's amazing. Who will you be teaching working with? Study hard... we need good instructors. Especially on the Bus!

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  2. Where are you in your training Lynda? A330 I think too?

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  3. Yes, actually only on the 330 for the time being. I'll add in the 320 and 340 eventually. And perhaps a 350 for good measure. I'm still in the thick of training. I understand it can take a year or more to get fully up to speed!

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