Flyin' high

My "kid aunt" Yami (my dad's half-sister, ten years my junior) has reached an amazing milestone, and some familial bragging is definitely in order. Several years ago she decided to take flying lessons, and before we knew it, she soloed, got her private single-engine license, and started working on commercial, multi-engine, and single-engine instructor ratings. Here she is in August of '06, when she took my dad flying in a Cessna 172.



This past winter, Yami surprised us by announcing that she was learning to fly jets. We began to suspect she was serious about this aviation thing. Then last summer, she pulled off a stunning achievement: She was hired as a first-officer trainee at Memphis-based Pinnacle Airlines! Two months and a checkride later, she became an official copilot on a CRJ-200, which looks like this:



The Bombardier CRJ-200 is a 50-passenger regional jet used by short-route affiliates of some major airlines. Pinnacle does much of its business as NWA Airlink, a partner of Northwest Airlines. As a result, Yami is currently based in Detroit, commuting to work from her home in Tampa. (Hey, you do what you have to do.) She e-mailed my dad a few weeks ago from Kalamazoo, on a genuine high from carrying her first load of passengers.

Congratulations, Yami, on your exciting new career!