Judy Mayorga, is a relatively new pilot in Truckee, having received her Private Pilot Certificate in October 1997.  She says:

 

     “All my life I was interested in aviation.  About 13 years ago, I met Marilyn Sunnergren on Castle Peak on a wildflower hike.  I learned that she was a flight instructor and told her of my dream to fly.  In June 1996, I retired from teaching in the Bay Area and began flying in Truckee with Marilyn as my instructor.

 

     My flying experience has been limited to my student pilot experience in a Cessna 172.  Of course, my most memorable experience was my first supervised solo in the pattern.  We had been flying the pattern, had landed, and Marilyn told me to go over to a taxiway and stop the plane.  To my astonishment she got out of the plane and told me to fly the pattern!  Never in my life had I concentrated so hard; I checked on every little detail on that flight.

 

     Finally, I got to leave the pattern and fly up to Sierra Valley to work on maneuvers.  I particularly enjoyed the cross country flights, especially my long cross country solo, where my first landing was at Davis.  I had attended U.C. Davis and, before I landed, I flew over the campus to check it out.  What a thrill.  My next landing would be Modesto.  I thought I had the airport in sight, tried to contact them, but the repeated silence caused me to look again; it turned out to be Stockton Airport.  The controller there talked me all the way to Modesto, constantly giving me altitudes and vectors.  Finally he told me to look out the window, to the right, 2 miles away.  Sure enough, there was the Modesto Airport.  I was totally amazed!  Being lost turned out to be a real learning experience with regard to working with a tower.

 

     In addition to being Secretary for the Lake Tahoe Ninety-Nines, I am currently Secretary for Truckee Tahoe Airmen’s Association and am very proud of the part the TTAA  is doing by working on our relationship with the non-flying community, and by providing scholarships.  I think this is very important.  If I had had contact with groups such as the Airmen or the Ninety-Nines, I probably would have fulfilled my dream of becoming a pilot earlier in my life.  I’ve also fulfilled another dream, that of becoming a hand weaver with my own studio and business.  So I know what it is to fulfill one’s dreams, and am very pleased to serve the TTAA and the Ninety Nines.”