On March 8 1910, Raymonde de Laroche of France became the first woman to earn a pilot license worldwide. In September of the same year, Bessica Medlar Raiche, a Wisconsin native, became the first woman to solo an airplane on the American continent.

One hundred year later, to celebrate the achievements of these trailblazing women, pilots introduced 1647 girls and women to the joys of flying in 29 countries on 4 continents. They conducted the flights in balloons, gliders, ultralights, airplanes and helicopters.

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On December 5, Karlene Pettit is organizing a huge celebration event in Renton, WA, with the goal of introducing between 150 and 1000 girls and women to flying.

I am calling on all pilots to show his or her support for Karlene’s effort. Please conduct introductory flights at your local airport on December 5. If you can’t fly, please ask one of your pilot friends to take a girl or women on an introductory flight for you.

Let’s make sure that girls and women worldwide know that we welcome them to our unique world and that we are eager to share flying with them.

Karlene Petitt, Delta Airlines A330 pilot and author, is offering a $100 USD cash reward to one lucky pilot. To qualify for the price, pilots must introduce girls or women to flying between March 6 and December 31 2010 and send a flight report to register the flights before January 6, 2010. One flight = One entry. The drawing for the $100 USD price will be held on January 7, 2010.

In an effort to reclaim women pilots' history, Heather Taylor has researched and produced a documentary to tell the story of the first women pilots to participate in the first U.S. female national derby in 1929.

Twenty young women eagerly signed on for the air race. These pilots pushed themselves, the planes and each other to the limits as well as changed the public's perception of flying and challenged society's image of women.

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.