In Raytown, Missouri, there lives a woman named Theda
Beningfield. She has a husband, two children, seven grandchildren and
a busy life.
What makes this grandmother so unusual?
When I first started flying, many members of the family thought I
had completely lost my mind. I didn't start to fly until I was 48 years
old. In the ten years I have been flying, I got a private licence, a
commercial licence and an instructor's classification. After that first
30-minute lesson, I didn't know whether I would ever get a licence, but
still I wondered whether I could solo that airplane; whether I would
really have enough courage, enough knowledge and ability. When the
big day came and the instructor said, "All right, you can solo," would I
really be able to go off myself or would I just grab him around the neck
and say, "Don't leave me!" ?
Mrs. Beningfield has part-time employment in a doctor's office. Her
job gives her the opportunity to work with people. She also likes to
keep busy by doing work for charity organisations.
Well, yes, I am the president of the Union City Mission Auxiliary.
The Union City Mission has been gathering clothes and food for needy
people in the Kansas City area for 50 years.
Well, back to flying....
I feel that aviation is a real challenging thing; il is a real fun thing. I
tell people that if they want to learn to fly they can learn to fly, if they
really want to doit.
The goal that we all have as flight instructors, of course, is making a
flight safe. And the thing that will be uppermost will be the decisions
that the trainees will have to make: decisions about weather, distances,
deciding that they are familiar with their aircraft. Every time I go into
the air, there is something that I learn, and I do not believe that when
you are flying, you can sit back and let some of these things pass by.
You just have to keep learning. And then I just think, well, how
wonderful it is that someone came up with this airplane that would put
me up here in the air, because it is a beautiful thing to fly, really.
Beningfield. She has a husband, two children, seven grandchildren and
a busy life.
What makes this grandmother so unusual?
When I first started flying, many members of the family thought I
had completely lost my mind. I didn't start to fly until I was 48 years
old. In the ten years I have been flying, I got a private licence, a
commercial licence and an instructor's classification. After that first
30-minute lesson, I didn't know whether I would ever get a licence, but
still I wondered whether I could solo that airplane; whether I would
really have enough courage, enough knowledge and ability. When the
big day came and the instructor said, "All right, you can solo," would I
really be able to go off myself or would I just grab him around the neck
and say, "Don't leave me!" ?
Mrs. Beningfield has part-time employment in a doctor's office. Her
job gives her the opportunity to work with people. She also likes to
keep busy by doing work for charity organisations.
Well, yes, I am the president of the Union City Mission Auxiliary.
The Union City Mission has been gathering clothes and food for needy
people in the Kansas City area for 50 years.
Well, back to flying....
I feel that aviation is a real challenging thing; il is a real fun thing. I
tell people that if they want to learn to fly they can learn to fly, if they
really want to doit.
The goal that we all have as flight instructors, of course, is making a
flight safe. And the thing that will be uppermost will be the decisions
that the trainees will have to make: decisions about weather, distances,
deciding that they are familiar with their aircraft. Every time I go into
the air, there is something that I learn, and I do not believe that when
you are flying, you can sit back and let some of these things pass by.
You just have to keep learning. And then I just think, well, how
wonderful it is that someone came up with this airplane that would put
me up here in the air, because it is a beautiful thing to fly, really.
