By Kayla Floyd
Nancy Walters holds many memories, as well as many patches. Nancy has been coming to the EAA fly-in convention since 1980 when she flew to Oshkosh in a Piper Archer and camped in the North 40. Nancy first became interested in aviation because it was a challenge. When Nancy’s youngest boy was 8 she decided that since everyone else in her family was in school, she was going back, too.
She went to her local adult education center where they pulled out a pamphlet consisting of cooking and knitting classes. Offended that she had been stereotyped as a woman, she said she would come back the next day with her answer. Her choices were then narrowed to very few that worked with her schedule, until she noticed one titled “ground school” and knew it was the one she wanted.
Her love for aviation expanded even more when she and her husband took their checkride on the same day of July 6. While it is still an argument of who technically got it first, it was a special memory for them. Their first anniversary was the first time Nancy flew in a small plane, a Cessna 152.
Nancy has done it all at AirVenture. “I’ve worked at the forums, I have welcomed planes, I have worked security for the last five years, and I have worked with KidVenture and the Young Eagles program.” Nancy also took the liberty of dyeing her Warbirds Security shirt her signature pink color (after she got permission, of course).
Nancy has built airplanes, flown the Ford Tri-Motor and the B-17 Aluminum Overcast, and had the opportunity to be a part of both Young Eagles flights and Dreams and Wings. Nancy has previously been the president of the EAA Chapter 13 and is a part of the Ninety-Nines: International Organization of Women Pilots, Women in Aviation International, American Bonanza Society, and more that are represented on her prop cover that holds hundreds of patches (see above photo).
Nancy now flies out of Pontiac, Michigan, with her husband, Ron, of 42 years and said her advice to other aviators is this, “It’s about the kids. It is amazing to mentor kids, to help in schools, just getting involved, giving them a look into aviation. I love working with kids. I give more than 40 families a year a flight on Dreams and Wings, a program aimed to give disabled children a chance to fly a small aircraft. I love what I do, and their faces are priceless, as well as their parents’ gratitude.”