From Powder Puff to Powerhouse: Hope Riehle Visits Habitat for Aviation

Written By Beth White

This week, our hangar was graced by a living legend.

At 84, Hope Riehle still carries the spark of a pilot who once raced across the skies — not for fame or fortune, but for the love of adventure, the thrill of flying, and the courage to do something few women dared at the time. She and her son, Dunlap “Deebs” Riehle, visited Habitat for Aviation to share stories, wisdom, and her aviation journey with our team, leaving us inspired and deeply moved.

Hope recounted how she earned her pilot's license at age 29, initially learning to fly at the encouragement of her then-husband, Ted Riehle, a South Burlington legislator and conservationist. “He wanted me to fly, so I did the dutiful wife thing,” she told us with a wry smile. “It took me a while to enjoy it.”

But enjoy it, she did.

She partnered with fellow pilot and friend Dawn Hazelett, forming a dynamic duo where together, they competed in the New England Air Race and the famed All-Woman Transcontinental Air Race — affectionately nicknamed the “Powder Puff Derby.” That 1966 race saw them navigating their single-engine aircraft more than 2,500 miles in 10 days, without GPS, cell phones, or autopilot. “People still say to me, ‘You flew a plane? Wasn’t that scary?’” Hope said. “No. It wasn’t.”

Yet not all of their flights were smooth. Hope recalled a harrowing takeoff in a brand-new Cessna 185 from BTV when the plane jerked hard left toward the control tower. “Ted was yelling, ‘Give it rudder!’ And I shouted back, ‘You give it rudder — your legs are longer!’” She chuckled, remembering the moment not with fear, but with grit and good humor.

Though she no longer holds an active license, Hope still flies for fun. Her copilot and dear friend Dawn passed away in 2015, but their legacy — two women who showed up, dressed alike, flew smart, and held their own in a male-dominated sky — lives on in every girl who picks up a rivet gun, steps onto the tarmac, or dreams of being a pilot. Hope’s visit reminded us that the roots of courage often grow from unexpected places — a challenge, a dare, a race, a friend.

To read more about her remarkable life, check out this article from our friends at Seven Days: Vermont Women Pilots Are Soaring

Beth White

Education Possibilitarian, Artist, Writer, Doula, Mentor, Aviatrix, Breast Cancer Survivor, Pilot-in-Command at Habitat for Aviation


In the spring of 2022, Beth White emerged from a 10-month battle with breast cancer with an idea: to create an apprenticeship program at Franklin County State Airport where youth work alongside adult mentors servicing conventional and electric aircraft. A pilot and airplane mechanic apprentice herself, and with family roots in the trades, Habitat for Aviation provides an taxilane for world learning opportunities for youth and adults who love to work with their hands to enter the FAA’s apprenticeship certification track. Each day she puts systems in place that make real John Dewey’s philosophy that we “learn best what we live” – a deep throughline from her time at Antioch University New England and as Regional Director for Big Picture Learning. Each learning experience is grounded in relationships, relevance, and practice. In October, 2023, Habitat for Aviation launched its Women Build Planes program, where an all-female team of Modern Day Rosies is building an airplane at Franklin County Airport, in northwestern Vermont, to show folks everywhere that despite the fact that only 2.6% of airplane mechanics are female, women BUILD, FLY, and FIX airplanes.

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