The yearly high holy event for all balloonists occurs in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the International Balloon Fiesta.

This year, our favorite balloon pilot Karalyn is there flying, and so is her son! Bonus points if you can identify the balloon her son is flying….

From Grace:

Day 1 of the SW Section meeting in Ventura CA and we (my mom and I) took a boat ride with the 99s group to Santa Cruz Island (Channel Island National Park), saw over 1,000 Dolphins (!!!) along the way, hiked 2 miles overlooking the water, road home on the ferry and saw whales, and ended the night socializing at the hangar party! These are usually pretty fun but this one’s been extra fun! Lots of years of flying and air racing experience and generally nice women to meet and greet 😊

The local chapter of Women in Aviation hosted their 2nd Annual Girls in Aviation Day. Members from the Reno High Sierra 99s and the Reno Area 99s (and maybe the Lake Tahoe 99s?) all participated!

The Reno High Sierra 99’s ladies were out tearing up the skies today in this beautiful September weather! Tara completed another amazing solo cross country for her Private Pilot license going from Reno to Susanville, Lovelock, and back to Reno. Hannah was out working maneuvers with the Civil Air Patrol in Silver Springs over that famous dry lake bed at around 8,500 feet. Grace finished up her biannual flight review today showing off her skills between Minden and Carson. Finally, Stacie made a cross-country trip from Carson to Hawthorne working on her teaching skills for CFI.

RHS99s and visiting 99s

RHS 99s and 49 1/2 Jere

Come by and visit us at the Reno Air Race Association memorabilia shop! We’re selling pins, posters, old programs and more!

We’re excited to see anyone, but we really love seeing sister 99s, like Carol from Emerald Angels in the Gulf Coast. She’s a Ninety Nine from Mobile, Alabama!

From left to right: RHS99 Ashley, Emerald Angels 99 Carol, RHS Chairman Rhonda, and RHS Treasurer Stacie

Our member Karalyn was flying, and many of our members were present either attending or crewing. Here are some photos!

One of our semi local aviation heroes is Betty, at Hawthorne. I don’t actually know the full story, but I do know that she is a huge supporter of general aviation, and welcomes pilots at the Hawthorne airport. (That’s HTH, not to be confused with that other Hawthorne in California) Pictured below is our treasurer, Stacie, and the legend, Betty.

This Sunday RHS99s caught a baseball game and spent time discussing aviation. We were playing the Las Vegas Aviators. We love aviation so much, and our members are so dedicated that there was evening some studying going on at the game! Nothing like a sister 99 to help you study for your upcoming checkride!

Tara studying hard!

Staci helping Tara study!

Rhonda, Staci, and Tara at the Reno Aces vs. LV Aviators Baseball Game

The RHS 99s are on fire this year! Congratulations to Christine who is a freshly minted CFII!!

The hot topic of conversation this past week in the local General Aviation community and our Chapter was the POTUS’s scheduled visit. RHS99s were scrambling (pun intended) to reschedule flights around the TFR and of course all training flights were cancelled. BOO!!

Staci and Leah sneaking in a flight before the TFR kicked in.

That being said, of course we HAD to check out Air Force One…. Thanks Ashley for the photo!!

Air Force One at the Reno Air National Guard

Aviation photos are our favorite!

Tara on a morning flight.

Karalyn’s Balloon over Prosser, found on another person’s social media. Karalyn has a few balloons, I’m partial to Citrus myself…

Several of our members made it out to Oshkosh. Here are some of their photos!! Also included is 49.5 Jere! Can you name that RHS 99???

RHS99s Heather and Dani have been trying to schedule a flight to breakfast for about 3 years and finally made it happen. Here they are at the Columbia Airport!

Dani, her husband M., Heather and J.

Departing Columbia Airport. On the right side of the grass strip, about half way down, is an amazing airplane camping spot!

As some of you may know, our new Chairman Rhonda is an amazing artist. Here is some of her work she’s prepared for Oshkosh!

Congrats to Angela who earned her Private Pilot Airman Certificate!!!

The RHS 99s and their families met on July 9th for an BBQ and very short meeting in which we officially welcomed Rhonda as our new Chairman, and thanked Heather for leading us there last two years. Officers were gifted with prints of Amelia Earhart, Bess Coleman, and a small piece of wall art with an Amelia Earhart quote.

The best part of the day however, was spending time together talking aviation, checking out Heather’s and Laura’s respective planes, and eating some delicious food.

Many thanks to Heather for hosting our BBQ in her hanger, and double thanks for Laura for bringing her strawberry pretzel salad again. If you haven’t had it, trust me, it’s delicious and worth every single calorie.

Sometimes the most interesting things happen at the “after party”, and our BBQ was no exception. With three remaining couple wrapping things up, it came up that Heather’s inflatable pilot/plane Santa was broken. This of course necessitated it being taken out, examined, partially disassembled, analyzed and finally reassembled after it was determined that a fuse needed to be replaced. Naturally the fuse and replacement fuse were located in the plug, making the disassembly and reassembly unnecessary but hilarious. The important part of this story however is that this Christmas, make sure to drive by Heather’s to see Santa flying in her front yard! (PS, in case you didn’t know it, Heather LOVES Christmas).

Members Ashley and Dani coincidentally met while crewing for a mutual balloon pilot! There’s no better way to spend a morning than around beautiful balloons!

Ashley and Dani

Crewing for Wolf Spirit