Lakewood's Lynda Meeks Loves Her Job
Her Second 'Job' is Helping More Girls' Dreams Take Flight!
By Sarah Valek, LakewoodBuzz.com Reporter

Lynda Meeks is one of those rare people who loves her job.  She doesn't speak about her career.  She gushes!  When asked what she loves best about her job, Meeks is quick to answer in four words...

“Small office, great view!”

She doesn't work in some cubicle overlooking downtown Lakewood or Cleveland - her "office" overlooks mountains, lakes, skyscrapers and forests.

Lynda Meeks, 38, is a pilot with a private airline.  She works an eight days-on and seven days-off schedule, flying around the country as a self-proclaimed “glorified limo service.”

“It's funny, when people find out I'm a pilot, they're like 'Oh really, how long have you been flying?' as if it's a completely new thing.”

Meeks has been flying for 14 years.

“There are so many things to love about being a pilot,” she says. “Sometimes we have to wake up way before the sun comes up, but that only means that in the windows of our airplane we get to watch the sun rise.”

She hopes her enthusiasm for aviation will catch on, especially with young girls.  That's why she created "Girls With Wings... Dreams Take Flight."

Girls With Wings is a public awareness and e-commerce project.  It's goal is to introduce flying to girls at an early age and to motivate them to create "flight plans not fairy tales."  In fact, this year, Girls With Wings is offering its first scholarship for aspiring pilots.

The website features several games, inspirational stories about women pilots and volunteer opportunities.  It also offers girls' and women's clothing, most in some hue of pink, with messages such as “Yes, Girls Can Fly!”  Meeks sells many of the items at air shows where she comes across young girls who point at airplanes with their parents.

“Girls are so excited about airplanes... just as boys are,” explains Meeks.  “But it doesn't take very long for a girl to realize the masculine aspects of flying and it turns them off from it.  You have to try so hard when they're 11, 12 or 13 years old to get them back and interested.

“Girls With Wings is trying to normalize the pursuit of aviation.”

Meeks' mission also attracts the attention and reflections of many grown-up girls.

“It's amazing how many women say to me that they either wish there had been an organization when they were starting out.  Or, and this just boggles my mind... that they always wanted to be a pilot, but somebody - fill in the blank here: dad, grandpa, uncle, neighbor or whoever - said that women weren't pilots,” she observes. “It's amazing.”

Meeks didn't grow up pointing out airplanes to her parents.  In a middle school test to discover what career best fit her personality, she was deemed to be a future librarian.  During college, she studied history, not physics.  After college, Meeks joined the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps.

“After two years of Army ROTC and spending all my time looking at helicopters and being urged by other Army pilots to get into flying, it still didn't make an impression on me... until someone said that aviation was the hardest branch to get into.”

Meeks decided to accept the challenge.  She says it was a time when determination had to overcome her deficiencies and others' attitudes about her gender.

“I kind of struggled at the beginning.  But, once I had an instructor who respected my abilities and treated me equally, I had a blast!

“You can really do whatever you want, as long as you're willing to work for it,” says Meeks.  “Sometimes you just need someone who has faith in you and pushes you in a good way.”

Girls With Wings is her pushing.

Meeks would like to see the day when women are accepted as pilots, not merely assumed to be flight attendants.  She compares it to doctors and nurses when it was unheard of for there to be a female doctor.

She recalls a talk she had with a woman friend who's also a pilot...

“She and I had a conversation about how amazed we are to still be regarded as pioneers,” says Meeks.  “After so many years of women being pilots, people still look at us as doing something so completely different.  I've had people say to me, 'I didn't know there were women pilots.'”

As a result, she likes to walk around in uniform in airports because it could be the only time a girl might see a woman pilot.  She might serve to be their inspiration.

Inspiration works both ways.

Meeks says her nieces are her greatest sources of inspiration because she wants what's best for them and for them to get the most out of life.  One of her nieces is three years old and wants to grow up to fly helicopters.  She always asks her aunt if she can come to work with her.

Meeks guesses that when she started as a pilot that 4% of all military pilots were women.  She estimates that today it's 11% and credits the military for doing a lot to recruit women.  In contrast, civilian pilot licenses issued to women stands at only 6%, up from 3% since the Federal Aviation Administration started keeping records more than 80 years ago.

If she wasn't a pilot, Meeks says she has no clue what she'd be doing.  She loves working with Girls With Wings because she can positively influence girls and young women.  One woman in New York got accepted into a tough flight school because she had been so active in Girls With Wings, making her application stand out.

It all fits into this Lakewood pilot's philosophy...

“Life is short and you have to do as much as you can before it's all gone.  And I would rather have tried and failed than to live with the regret of never having tried.” she adds.

“I hope to use Girls With Wings to give girls positive role models about what they can do with their futures,” says Meeks.  “They have so much to achieve and it's easy to fall back on what's being done, what's easy.  I hope Girls With Wings can generate some kind of synergy to help girls achieve more.”

By dreaming and taking flight.
 

LakewoodBuzz.com is pleased to note that in June of 2007, Lynda Meeks was inducted into the International Forest of Friendship during ceremonies in Atchison, Kansas.  Pictured are Lynda and Forest Co-Chairman Lin Wells congratulating her.  The Forest is a living, growing memorial to the world history of aviation and aerospace and was a bicentennial gift to America from Amelia Earhart's birthplace, the City of Atchison; and from the 99s, the International Organization of Women Pilots.  Lynda was inducted and recognized for her "many contributions to aviation as a military aviator, commercial pilot and educator."

You can learn more about Lynda's educational mission (and shop for gifts for a young skyward girl in your life) by visiting the Girls With Wings website.

We also recognize Lynda as the founder of the Lakewood Entrepreneur Group and for her ongoing leadership and involvement with Lakewood's business visionaries who have dreams of their own to share... you can learn more about LEG by visiting LakewoodBiz.com.