With only days before her big aerobatic performance at the Toledo Air Show, Jacquie Warda of Jacquie B Airshows spent an evening of downtime meeting and inspiring aspiring aviators at a Perrysburg coffee shop.
Ms. Warda and Lt. Col. Becky Ohm were the aviation stars of the Women in Aviation Meet & Greet at the Flying Joe on Wednesday evening, which was attended by people young and old.
“Part of our job as human beings is to inspire young people to do something,” Ms. Warda said. “To inspire people, not just young people, old people need inspiring too. Middle-aged people, everyone needs inspiring to go do something.”
As a pilot, Ms. Warda wants to inspire people to look into the aviation world.
But Ms. Warda is not just any pilot. With more than 3,400 flight hours and 1,100 air show performances under her belt, she is going to be a main event at this weekend’s Toledo Air Show when she flies her EXTRA 300 — a two-seat, mid-wing aerobatic monoplane.
“I am going to tumble it in front of the crowd at very low altitudes and I’m going to fly in a very small box in front of you. And that in itself is going to take all the energy I can find,” Ms. Warda told The Blade.
After earning her private pilot certificate in 1987, Ms. Warda began acrobatic flying in 1997. Three years later she began flying in acrobatic competitions and air races — falling in love with the loops and spins — and joined the airshow circuit in 2003. She is the first female pilot to enter the aerobatic business at the age of 50.
“Flying is an evolution. You learn something new every day and it evolves into what I’m doing right now. I didn’t start doing this day one. This takes a lot of years of training, but learning anything is a process,” she said. “Learning should be constant.”
Lt. Col. Becky Ohm, who also hosted the event, was a fighter pilot in Toledo’s 180th Fighter Wing, flying more than 1,200 hours in the F-16 Fighting Falcon. She was the first female fighter pilot in the Ohio National Guard.
Along with her husband, John, Ms. Ohm also opened and runs the Flying Joe, the aviation-themed coffee shop that was home to Wednesday’s meet and greet. In honor of the event, the cafe served a special menu that included Flyover Fruit Smoothies, Aviation Martinis, and a Flying Fizz gin.
“A lot of the times you get women or young girls that don’t know what opportunities are out there for them. So they may not ask the questions or be in an area where they can ask the questions,” she said.
This meet and greet and other similar events provide a “low-stress environment” where people can ask questions and look for guidance, she said. Upon meeting people who are young and know they want to fly, Ms. Ohm is eager to give them guidelines or “hints” and to make sure that they know what the expectations are.
Anna Nickeson, 7, who attended the meet and greet, is going to her first air show this weekend.
“Meeting Jacquie was really cool. I’ve never really met a girl pilot before,” said Anna, who has met four other pilots who were all male.
Her brother Ezra, 9, told Ms. Warda that he chose to learn about fighter jets as a “passion project” in school. But when asked about if wants to be a pilot, he still has mixed feelings.
“I mean yeah, it’s cool. But who knows? Maybe it’s scary when you are chosen to fight — it’s like life and death here,” he said.
Senior Master Sgt. Beth Holliker, who is the 180 Fighter Wing Public Affairs Superintendent, also helped organize the meet and greet.
“I didn’t have a lot of female role models growing up so I sort of fumbled around a little bit and joined the military when I was 21. I got a lot of female mentorship then, which sounds surprising in the military because it’s a pretty male-dominated world,” said Sergeant Holliker. “I had a couple of really, really good female commanders who sometimes gave me tough love, but sometimes were also really inspiring,” she said.
Attendee Riley Cross, who is Sergeant Holliker’s niece, is currently in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program at Colorado State University.
“Watching [my aunt] do what she does is just super empowering for me. I’m doing [the ROTC program] because of her,” Ms. Cross said.
Tomorrow, Ms. Cross is flying in the backseat of Jacquie B’s plane.
“You want to talk about inspiring someone?” Sergeant Holliker said. “[Riley] has made the choice to jump into the military world, but now she is going to experience flight — with someone who sees the world and has been flying forever. She’s hanging out with two of the coolest women.”
First Published July 11, 2019, 1:30 a.m.
