Taking flight: Girls in Aviation event is Sept. 28 in Bridgeport

Sep. 9—If you have a daughter with lofty dreams, Sept. 28 just might be her day.

That's the date of the third-annual Girls in Aviation Day at the Robert C. Byrd National Aerospace Education Center in Bridgeport.

It's an easy flight plan, says the Mountain State Chapter of Women in Aviation International, the gathering's sponsor.

The goal of the mentoring organization and the day is to introduce young women to aviation and avionics, fields that can vector in six-figure paychecks—especially for the people who know how to take the plane off the runway and put it into the air.

Look for a host of interactive activities and more at the center in the day that runs from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., organizers said.

The first 100 attendees through the doors will also receive an official 2024 Girls in Aviation Day Activity Kit.

Visit the Women in Aviation Mountain State Chapter page on Facebook for more information and to register. You may also email the organization at mountainstate.wai @gmail.com.

Bridgeport, meanwhile, is the main hub of West Virginia's burgeoning aviation industry, which also includes Fairmont State University.

Coed pilots there are now taking flight through the university's School of Business and Aviation.

Five women students since 2017 have graduated and become certified pilots through the program, the university said.

A total of 12 more coed pilots are now enrolled in the process.

It's not just about flying in the formation of gender, said Joel Kirk, who directs the Fairmont State program.

The program, he said, is the embodiment of that old-school aviator's credo of having the "Right Stuff " to succeed.

Those enrolled are "exceptional in every respect, " Kirk said.

Meanwhile, Women in Aviation International was founded in 1990 and now boasts some 20, 000 members.

The main office of the organization is in Germantown, Ohio, just down the road from Dayton, where the Wright Brothers grew up and took flight with their first ideas for a lighter-than-air machine.

TWEET @DominionPostWV