This piece originally ran in the September 2024 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
Mary Pennington-Hoyt, EAA Lifetime 1057675, is passionate about empowering young girls and women to participate in aviation, and each year she gets to dive into that passion at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh and WomenVenture.
“I’m an Air Force brat. My dad was an air traffic controller, so I’ve been around aviation since the early years in my childhood … so I really enjoy being around airplanes,” Mary said. She started her career working as a secretary at the same base where her parents met each other, McClellan Air Force Base. After she successfully balanced full-time work and college, she used her degree in finance to manage construction projects for 20 years. After that, Mary worked as a weapons project manager for the F-35 program at Lockheed, which she retired from three years ago.
“But the passion for little airplanes, general aviation, didn’t start until after I married my husband,” she said. Her husband, Patrick, EAA Lifetime 373507, decided to get his private pilot certificate, but the aviation fever didn’t stop there. Being active and making friends at EAA Chapter 25 in Minnesota, Patrick was inspired to act on his dream to build his own airplane, and so the couple built a Zenith 601. Aviation fever is chronic, as many of you know, and the couple is now building a Zenith 750 Cruzer at their airpark home in Texas.
As annual AirVenture attendees, Mary and Patrick have attended countless seminars and workshops. “I’ve learned a lot, especially when we were building our first airplane,” she said. Though, as the years went on, she found herself looking for something new to do while in Oshkosh. “I thought, ‘Well, maybe I’ll start doing some volunteering,’” she said.
Mary’s first volunteer gig was helping with the first One Week Wonder in 2014, in which a Zenith was built start to finish during AirVenture. She also volunteers as an aircraft greeter, welcoming pilots as they land in Oshkosh, but her interest has found its way to WomenVenture as well.
In 2022, Mary assisted Val Westedt, EAA 535650, to create the first women-only building class during AirVenture to show women how to rivet and more with a generous project donation from Zenith. The class was hosted for its third year at AirVenture 2024.
“Aviation has been primarily a male-dominated field, so this class provides an environment where women can come together, collaborate together, help each other,” Mary said. “To do this build class, without your husband or partner assisting, provides a sense of empowerment for women.”
“I mentored women in construction for a while up in Minnesota. I was part of the National Association of Women in Construction, and we would mentor young girls and do girl power days and those kinds of things,” Mary said. “So, getting back with the WomenVenture group and this women-build class, I feel like it’s coming full circle. That’s my passion.”
For Mary, the best part of AirVenture isn’t the airplanes or the learning opportunities, “It’s the camaraderie that I personally have been witnessing in the last few years, it’s amazing,” she said. “It’s just a lot of fun. I mean, it really is about the people you meet.”
Volunteers make EAA AirVenture Oshkosh — and just about everything else EAA does — possible. This space in EAA Sport Aviation is dedicated to thanking and shining the spotlight on volunteers from the community. Sadly, it cannot capture all of the thousands of volunteers who give so much to the community every year. So, next time you see a volunteer at AirVenture or elsewhere, however they are pitching in to make EAA better, be sure to thank them for it. It’s the least we can do. Do you know a volunteer you’d like to nominate for Volunteer Spotlight? Visit EAA.org/Submissions.