EAA Chapter 613 & Habitat for Aviation Celebrates our Grads

Written By Beth White

It is important to regularly gather to celebrate milestones – our graduating seniors are no exception. In true EAA Chapter 613/Habitat for Aviation fashion, we did so with a backyard-style BBQ at Franklin County State Airport with airplanes on the ramp, project planes pushed towards the back, and hangar doors wide open.

We gathered to honor young people who have grown up with us – many spending years learning by doing. This group of badass seniors are already on the move: continuing flight training, starting A&P programs, studying engineering and aeronautics. Recognizing the hours logged in our hangars and in the airplanes and how often they mentored younger builders—made the celebration especially sweet.

The afternoon felt even bigger because of who stood with us. Our EAA Chapter 613 and Habitat for Aviation community turned out in force, joined by friends from The Ninety-Nines International Conference—Captain Lynn Rippelmeyer and our sisters from the Katahdin and Eastern New England chapters. 

Seeing trailblazing pilots and aviation enthusiasts shoulder-to-shoulder with our newest graduates was a living picture of our mission. We are excited not only for these grads to take flight—but to carry our story, our values forward.

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.

Previous

Discussing Our Future Building Plans with VTRANS
Next

When a Trailblazer Lands in Our Hangar: Captain Lynn Rippelmeyer Visits