USING HER POWERS FOR
GOOD by Mark Miller | photos courtesy of Christina Wong
T
hough she first thought about flying at age 4, it took a chance meeting with another female pilot 27 years later for Christy Wong to become one herself. It was October 2014 when the Lantana resident connected with Heather Dodd, who was selling some things on Facebook and invited Wong to her home to pick them up.
When Wong learned Dodd worked as a pilot for Spirit Airlines, she literally just lit up. “There were all the reasons why I didn’t become a pilot – I’m a female, I’m a mom, married with a family, and here was this girl who was my age, and she’s a captain at an airline with two boys and a husband and a house and everything else,” said Wong.
the flying itself but the landings. I was
always worried [my husband] Steve would be upset. He was forced out of aviation
[because of a corporate layoff], and I was worried about what he would think. If he
wasn’t going to be supportive, it was a nonstarter. So, I kept it inside for two years.
“Finally in October 2016, we were sitting in bed, and he asked what I wanted for
Christmas. I told him ‘Actually I want to learn
So for the next two years, Wong constantly picked Dodd’s brain about flying after which Dodd encouraged Wong to just do it.
how to fly.’ He sat there for a minute, then
“I was very scared for multiple reasons,” Wong said. “Flying was very scary — not
The problem was that flight schools
52 | LANTANA LIVING | JULY 2021
said ‘Okay, let’s see how we can get that done.’ He said you go fly and I’ll stay home with the kids.”
cost about $70,000. So Steve, a human www.LiveLocalMagazines.com
