The First Spark

Third-place winner — EAA’s Pilot Your Own Adventure contest, supported by Flight Outfitters

THE FIRST SPARK. The engagement. The wedding. How do these events relate to aviation? They involve a tired, old airplane that was soon to spread its wings again. This airplane would be the reason that an aircraft mechanic would soon become my best friend, my lifelong partner, my husband.

It was January 2016, and I was determined to participate in the Women’s Air Race Classic, but one big hurdle I had to jump was finding an airplane to race with. I turned to my aviation mentor, Darrell Hillestad, for help. He introduced me to the world of flight and with his many years of general aviation experience, I knew he could find an airplane to race. When I inquired about an airplane to use, he offered his airplane. The airplane is a 1958 Cessna 175 Skylark named Now time was not in flying condition. In fact, she had not flown a solid eight years prior and was collecting dust in a South Dakota hangar. I was concerned about using an airplane that had not flown for so long. What would it take to get her airworthy again? Would she be put back together in time for the air race? Ester seemed to be the only option I had.

Darrell was willing to take on the challenge of bringing his airplane back to life, so I was willing to take the risk. It was the end of February, less than five months before the race, and the renovation began. Darrell, along with a few of his best friends, worked tirelessly day and night throughout the cold South Dakota winter, breathing life back into Ester. She got a full makeover, including a new paint job, new interior, and a fresh-cut avionics panel. After eight years of sitting, Ester finally got to stretch her wings and take to the sky mid-May of 2016. Only just over a month away from the race. Whew, that was close! A few days before the race, I picked up my race partner, Jen Pinkowski, and we were off!

June 22, 2016. This was day two of the race and we were progressing across the route at a good pace. There were some very healthy tailwinds we were taking advantage of! We were about halfway through the day when suddenly we noticed our radios getting scratchy.

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We looked at each other thinking that was weird. I happened to be flying at the time and noticed the electric turn coordinator was showing its little off flag. Not good! Our electrical system had failed. What are we going to do now? We eventually made it to the next stop which was Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Darrell was quick to ship a new generator and voltage regulator while the mechanic, Austen Kiser, repaired the airplane.

Now, you may think airplane’s fixed, ladies finish race, go home, life goes on, right? Well, that wasn’t exactly the case for me. Austen and I kept in touch after he got Ester all fixed up. Our connection grew deeper every day, and a short year later we started dating. I ended up moving down to Huntsville, Alabama, for an aerial survey job and to be closer to Austen. About a year and a half later, Austen bought a house in Woodbury, Tennessee, and asked if I would like to join him, and I gratefully accepted.

Ever since we had been together, I always brought up that it would be so cool to have Ester come back to visit Tennessee. Little did I know he had a trick up his sleeve. It was the spring of 2020, and Austen mentioned coordinating a fly-in at Cedar Glade Aerodrome. I thought it would be wonderful to have a little gettogether and that it would be even better if Darrell brought Ester to check out the place! We had about eight airplanes show up to the fly-in, including Ester !

As we were all hanging out, having a good time checking out airplanes and grilling out, one of our friends, Michael, asked if Austen and I wanted a picture by Ester. As we walked over to the airplane, I noticed that everyone seemed to be gathering around while Michael was getting ready to take our picture. I thought, this is weird. People don’t need to stop what they are doing and watch our picture get taken in front of an airplane.