The Sling Squawk – June 2026
7 Jun 2026
“When Linda Sollars, WAI 372, was in high school in the 1980s, she told the career counselor that she wanted to be a professional pilot. “The high school counselor told me I couldn’t do that because I was a girl,” Linda remembers, who today is an Airbus A320 captain for a major airline.
The information wasn’t correct, Linda says, because in 1973 Bonnie Tiburzi, WAI 18, became the first woman to fly for a U.S. airline and that same year, the United States Navy allowed women to train as pilots.
Instead of a career in flying, Linda went to college for a career in finance. It was practical, she notes, and when you have a practical career, there are jobs that pay you well enough to survive and do what you want to do on the side. Then one day, fate intervened.”
-Meg Godlewski (Aviation For Women)
After reaching Cape Town in Part 2, Josh Flowers and Chelsea Smith of Aviation101, along with Chris Lammert and Keelyn Costello, reunite with friends and fly their Sling aircraft north from Stellenbosch through the Tankwa Karoo, before crossing into Namibia and exploring the spectacular Fish River Canyon. From formation flying and the Tanqua Kuru Bicycle Race to fireside celebrations and an off-airport landing in the desert, the journey becomes less about following a plan and more about embracing whatever comes next—because sometimes the most memorable part of flying happens after the engine shuts down.