Welcome New Member Cecilia Aragon

Editor’s Note: Ken and I met Cecilia for the first time when she flew “Annie” into Sequim Valley Airport. Accompanying her was Jamie, her son’s girlfriend, who was having her first flight in a small plane. Cecilia is now a 430 member and I asked her to write a short paragraph to introduce herself to 430 members.

My husband of 37 years, Dave, and I just moved to Sequim from Seattle, where I’m a professor at the University of Washington. My airplane is a light sport amphibian, a Super Petrel named Annie, and she just moved into a hangar at Diamond Point. I’m also an aerobatic flight instructor and former competition and airshow pilot. We have two adult children, Diana and Ken, who are both interested in aviation. If any members have aircraft for sale or lease, I’m looking for a Cessna 150/152 to instruct primary students, and a Super Decathlon to do basic aerobatic instruction.

For additional information on her extraordinary life as a pilot, go to her web site https://ceciliaaragonauthor.com or purchase her memoir from Amazon Cecilia was also our presenter at our September 25th EAA Gathering. The following is also published in the current September Minutes:

She mesmerized the audience with her life story where she broke free from low expectations and rose above her own limits by combining math and logic with her passion for flying in unexpected ways. In 1991 she became the first Latina pilot to secure a place on the United States Unlimited Aerobatic Team and earn the right to represent her country at the Olympics of Aviation, the World Aerobatic Championships. She is an author, air-show pilot and a full professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington. Her major awards for research and a stint at NASA designing software for Mars missions, led President Obama in 2009 to call her “one of the top scientists and engineers in the country.” She recently moved to Sequim Bay, and hangars her Super Petrel LS amphibian at Diamond Point (with the help of George Lewellyn). She would love to have a local flight school. Her latest book “Flying Free” has recently been published.