Oshkosh started with a little excess rain this year. For the first few days, only visions from past Airventure events could fill the space between the few tents on the grass with airplanes. That certainly did not stop five of the participants to the celebration of the Centennial of Women Pilots to respond "present" at our forum, 100 Years of Legacy - Pay It Forward, on Friday morning.

With less than two weeks to go before the beginning of Airventure in Oshkosh, WI, women pilots are getting ready to participate to the world's greatest aviation celebration.

Here is a summary of the key events for women pilots:

• July 25-27 - Women Soar You Soar, EAA's educational experience for high school teen girls (more info)
• July 29, 7:30 PM - Theater in the Wood panel of outstanding women pilots
• July 30, 8:00 AM - WAI's Celebrity Women Pilots Breakfast

I came across an interesting article written in 2006 that is more relevant today than ever. Published by Veer Marketing on their Sport Aviation Marketing website, it discusses marketing strategies for general aviation and more specifically how to grow the pilot population.

The author refers to one of the most popular business book available: Blue Ocean Strategy written by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. According to the authors, “red oceans” are crowded with competitors while “blue oceans” represent untapped market space with the opportunity for highly profitable growth.

If you could not make it to the Women Pilots celebrations at the Museum of Air and Space at the Le Bourget Airport in Paris, France, the recap video has been published. To view it, please click here.

"Sharing our passion of flight with other women is a great joy!" says Joan, the event organizer at the Panama City Airport in Florida and winner of the awards for most women introduced to aviation by a women on March 8 and most women introduced to aviation by a women during Women Pilots' Week. She continued: "We had an awesome time, weather was great. We at KPFN accept the new challenge to introduce 2010 women to aviation in 2010. What a great idea! The opportunities for us to take women, young and old, on a flying adventure has not stopped with March 6-12 week's ending.

As I stand grounded by the weather in Vancouver on this last day of the record week, I reflect back on the flights that I was able to take in Paris and in Los Angeles. I can still hear my ladies passengers in Los Angeles yesterday express their wonder over the headsets. "Oh, it is so pretty!". What a frill for me to have the skills to add this new dimension to their lives.

And I am not alone. As I read the first reports and watch the first photos you sent, I can see the big smiles on every faces, passengers and pilots. The

Women from five continents have registered to take part of the record setting attempt. Europe, America, Africa, Asia and Oceania are now represented.

To celebrate her upcoming retirement (March 31st) and the Centennial of Women Pilots, Capt. Saudamini Deshmukh of Indian Airlines will be flying 10 women non-pilots in her commercial plane to Jamnagar in Gujarat on the Western India which is an hour's flight.  They will all spend a day  in Jamnagar and return the same evening - courtesy of India 99s.

What a way to pay it forward. Thank you Capt. Saudamini Deshmukh.

Hilary Gilbert of Draycott, England, has already made women pilot history by first enthusiastically joining the world record setting attempt but also, by spreading the word to inspire women in her area.

The Cotswold Journal has written an article about her path in aviation and her record attempt. Read the article here.

Avweb, the world's premier independent aviation news resource, published the announcement of the Centennial of Licensed Women Pilots world record attempt today  in AvFlash, their newsletter which is distributed to almost 255,000 pilots, aircraft owners and aviation professional. Check it out here.