EAA Sport Aviation - December 2011

MEMBERCENTRAL THE BILL BRENNAND BOOK

IT WASN’T LONG AFTER
Jim Cunningham, EAA
594611, met famed
air race pilot Bill
Brennand, EAA 13078,
that he knew Bill’s story
must be told. Jim was
working on a book about
Bill’s former boss, Steve
Wittman, at the time.
“In the course of that, it
became obvious to me
that Bill had done a lot
of stuff in his own right,”
Jim said, highlighting
accomplishments such
as winning the 1947

National Air Races without ever having flown a racecourse
before, running his own airport, and creating the EAA Seaplane
Base on Lake Winnebago. “This all needed to be documented.
Bill deserved his own book.”
The project began in December 2009 after Bill agreed to
share his stories and photographs with Jim. After a series of
face-to-face interviews and multiple e-mails, writing began
in the summer of 2010. Photos for the project were no prob-
lem at all as Bill often carried his own camera from 1945 on
and documented everything, even recording races on 16 mm
film. The book was finished just in time for AirVenture 2011,
where Bill and Jim spent a couple of hours at Authors Corner
signing autographs.

“It has been an honor to get to know Bill and be able to work on the project,” Jim said.

To order a copy of the book, e-mail david.smith@ronsmith.com. Cost is $24.95 per book, plus $4 shipping.

EAA MEMBER HONORED WITH AOPA’S LET’S GO FLYING AWARD

ON SEPTEMBER 24, AOPA honored Mireille Goyer, EAA 404457, of Delta, British Columbia, Canada, with the 2011 Let’s Go Flying Award for her worldwide efforts to draw women into aviation. The award was presented during the AOPA Aviation Summit.

Mireille Goyer, a regular presenter at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, originally began flying for the pure enjoyment of it. But it was not long before she earned her flight instructor certificate to share the joy.

In late 2009, she was search-
ing for events marking the Centennial of Licensed Women Pilots
(March 8, 2010) in which she could participate. To her dismay, she
found none. Determined to not let this important milestone for
women pilots go unnoticed and uncelebrated, she launched a world-
wide campaign and encouraged pilots everywhere to introduce a
girl or a woman to flying as a salute to Raymonde de Laroche earn-
ing her pilot certificate in 1910. As a result, more than 1,600 girls and
women in 36 countries on four continents discovered aviation.

Realizing that the small number of women pilots could have con-
tributed to the centennial oversight and that the need to promote
aviation to women would continue beyond the end of the centennial
year, Mireille launched the annual Women of Aviation Worldwide
Week initiative in 2011 as the world celebrated the 100th anniver-
sary of International Women’s Day.