Lydia Kamps, EAA 1125904, an avionics technician in the U.S. Air Force, can trace her successful career in aviation back to her inspirational, hands-on experiences at EAA’s Women Soar You Soar program, which she attended as a teen. She grew up fascinated by airplanes, and although she wasn’t raised in a household that had any real connection to aviation, that didn’t diminish her desire to get in the sky.
Living in western Michigan, Lydia was well aware of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh but never had the chance to attend. Then she received a flyer in the mail outlining the Women Soar You Soar program at AirVenture 2015, a four-day camp offered for girls in grades 9-12. Seeing the opportunities the program offered for young women interested in aviation, Lydia jumped at the chance to apply.
Over the four days of Women Soar You Soar, Lydia and other attendees had a jam-packed schedule that connected them to many people in aviation and avenues to consider for a future in the industry.
“We had different lectures on leadership,” Lydia said. “We got to learn about scholarship opportunities. Of course we got to be on the grounds watching the air show [at AirVenture]. I got to take a welding class — that was super cool. We got different tours. We got to hear from different speakers, all different women who’ve had success in aviation. There was a test pilot from Boeing who came and spoke to us and that was super cool. We had the Women in Aviation luncheon that was open to any females in aviation that signed up for it. It was mainly connecting with people. There was just so much we did in that short amount of time.”
During her time at AirVenture, Lydia said being able to see military aircraft in person and meeting her mentors at Women Soar You Soar were huge sources of inspiration for her for what would become her future career.
“The biggest thing I guess was just going to the air show and actually seeing the aircraft, especially the fighter aircraft,” she said. “Just being around the jets and everything. I had heard about them, looked stuff up, but it’s not the same as actually sitting there and watching them. The people I got to meet, especially my mentors — hearing their stories about their success in aviation, all the different careers they had. I was like ‘Wow, I really want to pursue this now.’ I had wanted to pursue it before but it just amplified it.”
Lydia did pursue it, and is now an Airman 1st Class in the U.S. Air Force, has her private pilot certificate, is working on her instrument rating, and hopes to one day be a fighter pilot. Following her participation in Women Soar You Soar in 2015, Lydia earned her pilot certificate in 2016 and enlisted in the Air Force in July of 2017.
“Right after high school I started as an electrician and I did that for a couple years,” she said. “It was all right, but again I had this desire to get into aviation. It just kept pulling at me and I looked at the Air Force. I just started talking to a recruiter and she introduced me to all of the jobs on the enlisted side.”
After basic training, Lydia was stationed at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas, training for her job as an avionics technician. Now she’s at Luke AFB in Arizona, working primarily on F-16s.
“Our base is mainly for training pilots, so we send out the pilots every day when they go out in the jets,” Lydia said. “Like how your car needs maintenance, we maintain the jets. We make sure they’re good to go, that everything is fully functional on them. There’s specific components that we check, like the radio, the radar, the different weapons systems.”
Lydia said she eventually hopes to get in the cockpit of an Air Force jet, not as a technician but as a pilot, and is already considering the path she’ll need to take to get to that point.
“Right now I still need to get through the process of learning my job and getting proficient in that,” Lydia said. “To be a fighter pilot, you have to have a bachelor’s degree, so the Air Force leaves a lot of opportunities for that, and I’m not sure what one I’ll pursue yet. I have a lot of college credits, so I could go to school on the side of my job and finish up my degree that way. Or apply to the [Air Force] Academy again. There’s the preparatory academy as well. We have a lot of different options. We have a lot of schools around base.”
Lydia said attending Women Soar You Soar and experiencing AirVenture had a direct impact on her pursuit of an aviation career, and she’s happy to point out that her experience there was definitely a turning point.
“What it really did is it made my dreams more realistic,” she said. “Obviously having no ties to aviation it was kind of like, ‘I don’t know how to get into this; it seems so far-fetched.’ Right away after Women Soar You Soar, I went and got my pilot certificate. It was inspiration — the final ignition of the spark of interest that I had.”
Photos courtesy of Luke Air Force Base