Kathy Mexted Writing & Photography | Professional service
Kathy Mexted Writing & Photography
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25.01.2022 If you're wondering what I do for a (part time) day job, I edit a magazine for the Sport Aircraft Association Australia. They build Experimental aircraft and kits. The builds can be long and one of the challenges is finding a temperature controlled environment to complete the build, which can take anywhere from a year to ten. The longest I've heard of took 18 years as life got in the way. These guys in WA built their RV in an old farmhouse lounge room. The house needed a ren...o anyway, so the aeroplane came in the front door in boxes and out the front window reborn. The whole district turned up to help out and share the joy. The wings went on in the hangar and it is now gracing the skies of WA in its striking red and yellow finery. Enjoy the video! SAAA's website is saaa.asn.au and they are on facebook and instagram. The Annual Fly-In is at Narromine, NSW and scheduled for September this year.
25.01.2022 Thanks to Plane Talking UK team for getting me up so early on a Saturday morning. It was a great podcast with all these fabulous women pilots.I need to listen to the whole thing now. https://www.youtube.com/watch
25.01.2022 THE URBAN DICTIONARY: With three weeks and three days until lift off, I want to share this snippet with you. There was great mirth about this story of Lyn Gray flying over the Pacific and being forced to ditch due to a fuel malfunction. There was nothing funny about the event, which required great bravery for both Lyn and her co-pilot, Kristian Kauter, to keep a calm head and see the situation through. But when the Americans identified themselves as Cactus Airlines and Lyn ...replied, 'Shit mate, WE'RE the ones that are cactus,' I couldn't let it go. It is one of my favourite lines in the book. So I wrote the next line about her reply being 'somewhat laconic, given the degree of their cactusness.' It has prompted a fair bit of discussion and after saving it from the editor's chop, pleading a case for a 'darling', Lyn and I exchanged some text messages about the validity and usage of the word cactusness. So that it may live on, I've therefore, today, formalised it's existence. Hopefully (if approved) hereon in, you may find this wonderful word in the online Urban Dictionary. You're welcome.
25.01.2022 Some exciting hand bag developments here at ‘book’ head office. We are making some great bags to compliment a few of our women pilots stories. This one involves a dramatic rescue and a bottle of rum. The bags are hand made in Victoria and we think you’re gonna love them. Purchases will go towards donated flying lessons(s) for some lucky woman or girl. E are making three styles, but you have to read the book to truly get the gist. Pat would have loved this one! The black n white representing the tail of the stranded Auster. The rum dropped from the sky in a care package until rescue arrived.
24.01.2022 Lovely review from the U.S.
24.01.2022 https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/in-conversation-with-author
22.01.2022 Today’s Extract. In the wake of the news from London, I share some extracts from Australian Women Pilots to show how Prince Philip’s ‘Dawn to Dusk’ challenge changed the life of Marion McCall.
22.01.2022 This is G for George, at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. I wrote in my book that it is hanging from the roof, and that I sat beneath it one night, my eyes constantly drawn to the ethereal light emanating from the cockpit. But it was a dimly lit room and it was a looooong way up! And no. It sits on its wheels. BUT, even though clever Andy Wright took that bit out and said it wasn't hanging, I had a brain fog and left it in. Nek minit - book gone to print and now I feel like a dill. But, forgive me dear (future) readers. It was a very late inclusion and it sure did look like it was hanging to me!
21.01.2022 Women in aviation history at Fort Lauderdale Beach! Next month's Aviatrix Book Club discussion book, AUSTRALIAN WOMEN PILOTS: AMAZING TRUE STORIES OF WOMEN IN ...THE AIR, is a collection of ten pioneering stories spanning the past hundred years. It's a beautiful book, and I'm so excited to discuss it in the book club, and interview author Kathy Mexted next month. Please join us! Aviatrix Book Club FLYING FOR HER COUNTRY: THE AMERICAN AND SOVIET WOMEN MILITARY PILOTS OF WORLD WAR II is a re-read for me, written by my friend, Amy Goodpaster Strebe, as a comparative history for her master's thesis. I'll talk with Amy next week as part of my Women's History Month interview series highlighting books featuring the women who flew for their countries during WWII. You can find these books, and hundreds more, at the Aviatrix Book Review website. www.aviatrixbookreview.com Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/literaryaviatrix/ #melbourne #nonfiction #victoriaaustralia #australianwriters #reading #aviation #airplane #aeroplane #flying #newsouthpublishing #booksellersofinstagram #bookshopsofmelbourne #bythebeach #strongwomen #feminism #womeninaviation #melbourneauthor #booksatthebeach #academicwriters #womenhistorians #herstory #Womenairservicepilots #JackieCochran #aviationherstory Kathy Mexted Writing & Photography
21.01.2022 Finley High newsletter. It was so lovely to go and visit the school and speak to the kids. Wish we'd had longer.
20.01.2022 Good on you, girls. What fun!
20.01.2022 The good folks at Better Reading have listed Australian Women Pilots. Feel free to leave a review (if you've read the book). (and liked it). https://www.betterreading.com.au//each-story-is-an-exciti/
20.01.2022 As someone who's made a career these last three days of not getting out of my seat while I proofread, I am again gobsmacked by the bravery of Gaby Kennard's 1989 solo around the world journey as I go over her story. Over the icy Atlantic Ocean at night : 'The aeroplane, so secure and stable in calm skies, was tossed about like a toy and cracking lightning relentlessly lit the cabin from all sides. Ducking and weaving between the storm cells, without the aid of a storm scope ...to warn of turbulence, lightning or wind shear, Gaby flew a violent marathon for survival. ... with all the electrics then switched off, the battle continued for three interminable hours. During this time, the Omega satellite system got confused and finally failed. Through it all, thankfully, the engine kept turning. Gaby knew she was only as good as that engine.' (It was a Lycoming, for those that are interested).
19.01.2022 Only thing flying around here at the moment is the cockies, but gee they looked good in the sunset.
18.01.2022 Right! Packing today to go to Broken Hill for the AWPA conference, then on to South Australia next Sunday. Who do I know in SA? I'm keen to chat books and women pilots and experimental aircraft!
16.01.2022 #FTW Don’t Kill my Darlings, pleeease! The editor changed ‘cactusness’ to ‘situation’ but I went in to bat for it. WDYT? Can you use’ cactusness’ in a sentence for me? . Welcome back, cactusness it’s good to see you again.
15.01.2022 A timely bit of footage from Tocumwal. If you’ve read the intro to my book, you may recall Runway 36 and my first solo. This was just posted this morning. Congratulations to the new pilot.
15.01.2022 Can anybody tell me where this has come from?
15.01.2022 Well, there you have it. Straight from the publisher's email mouth. 'sent the files to the printer' I guess we have a book! Australian Women Pilots will be out 1 Nov with NewSouth Books.... AND a huge thanks to Georgia Maxwell for being our cover girl, and to Nicola Gibson from the Daily Telegraph for the fabulous photo. Many thanks to all those that contributed and cheered. Next time I think I'll take myself to a tropical island!
12.01.2022 Ooh Ahh. It comes to this. Proofing first of two finals. Plenty of red bits going on the pages as things get moved or mucked up in the process -- mostly through me using track changes in Word, which can be hard to perfect. Pre-Order through Booktopia available now.... Thanks to the cheering mates. x
12.01.2022 Could be a wee bit excited about this !!! 'Australian Women Pilots' goes to the printer on Monday' (more exclamation marks) !!!
09.01.2022 Thanks to Matt Dowling at ABC Shepparton for his interest in discussing Australian Women Pilots book this morning. It’s at the end after the Paul Simon song. Around 1:02 https://ab.co/33RH8LX
09.01.2022 This looks very interesting and includes Deborah Lawrie, who also features in my book. I can’t wait to watch it.
08.01.2022 I don't want to bore you with book stuff, but I have been asked a few pertinent questions lately about writing a book. One of them was: What was the most exciting part? A: I'd have to say, a couple of weeks ago when I downloaded the 'First Pages'. This is the first look at how the book looks laid out ready for the printers. The huge file was painfully slow to download, and though I knew what was coming, it was still an unbelievable feeling to see it. And it has pictures! Here's the beginning of Marion McCall's story as laid out. Marion also scored a double page spread of maps! She won the Dawn to Dusk Challenge three times, the Half Dawn to Dusk once, the Tiger Club medal twice and was awarded an OAM.
08.01.2022 'Yet work-family balance remains a challenge that burdens women pilots disproportionately. Twenty years ago, had it not been for Southwest’s comparatively flexible scheduling policies, Captain Tammie Jo Shults might have given up a storied pilot’s career. Shults, a former Navy T-2 Buckeye flight instructor and one of the first women to qualify in the F/A-18 Hornet, safely brought down a Boeing 737-700 in April 2018 when the aircraft lost an engine at 32,000 feet and sustained a rapid depressurization. In her 2019 memoir Nerves of Steel, she reflected on the challenges she has faced as a woman in a profession dominated by men.' https://www.airspacemag.com//what-are-us-airlines-missin/
08.01.2022 I handed Bronni the reins of this job at the start of the year and she's taken to it with gusto. I can't wait to see how she's shaped this article. It looks like a good one!
08.01.2022 https://bit.ly/3vKKz2P
07.01.2022 Lunch in Berrigan - the friendliest town in NSW. Less than three weeks and 80 ppl already RSVP’d so I’d best get my notes out and write something - starting with this big ring binder full of knowledge. See you there? PS: it has an airstrip....
07.01.2022 (I came home and all my dead plants were gone!) How's all your gardens looking? We have a wave of Spring weather here and all hell's breaking loose outside! Tractor, mower, window washing, etc etc etc.
07.01.2022 Now a nine-hour drive from Manly to Bourke, in the 1920s and ‘30s it seemed a lifetime away, yet it played a pivotal role in our organisation. By 1931 the first... of our four innovative Travelling Baby Clinics serviced communities along the Bourke, Cobar and Brewarrina railway lines. Seeing the need for air services, Bourke resident Sid Coleman bought an aeroplane, and he and pilot Mr Robinson provided free air transport for medical staff and patients in isolated areas. By 1935 the Aerial Baby Clinic was in its fourth year of service, helping hundreds of children, including 239 babies from the Back o’ Bourke. Mr Coleman served as Bourke’s Mayor and also as our Superintendent for a number of years. During the 1930s, Bourke’s Branch members provided board and lodgings for our Nurses who were stationed in the area. Our Bourke Branch is still proudly in operation, and we thank everyone, past and present, for their wonderful contributions. Here's a photo of (L-R) Sid Coleman, Nancy-Bird Walton, AO, OBE, & Dr Walter John Wearn OBE. Today we still proudly supporting kids and families in the Bourke region. The conditions we now treat may have changed, however the need to provide services remains. We run our Telecare for Kids programs into local schools and preschools, and build local capacity by offering professional training. Thanks to our friends at the CAGES Foundation, and invited by Maranguka as an initiative from Maranguka Early Childhood Working Group, over the last four years our Healthy Kids Bus Stop program has regularly called into town, working with Bourke and District Children’s Services and other local organisations to provide developmental screenings for each young child to identify potential barriers to their development. We’re also proud of being a part of the Maranguka Initiative and the Maranguka Early Childhood Working Group. Thank you Bourke for being our friends throughout the decades.
06.01.2022 It was before even 0-Dark-hundred when I got up on Monday morning to chat with Trevor Chappell at ABC Overnights about Australian Women Pilots. We had a couple of interesting callers and I enjoyed the 40 minute session. Such a privilege to be so well supported by the ABC during this book launch. Thank you. It has really surprised me how many people were awake at that hour and listening to the radio! https://ab.co/2O1Y3Wp
06.01.2022 We are excited to see that Australian Women Pilots is now available in the shop and will be at the market for the Bush Christmas Event. See what else you can find while you're there.
06.01.2022 Thanks to the Airplane Geeks podcast for our chat this week. A wonderful opportunity to share our Australian Women Pilots stories with a US audience. The book is available to download internationally and can be purchased through any bookstore. http://AirplaneGeeks.com/640
05.01.2022 One thing I love, as a photographer, is scrolling Facebook and seeing my photos used. I looked at this and thought, 'great pose' then had a moment of recognition. It is a great pose, Kingsley Just. He just loves being upside down. (Guinness world record holder for the most number of consecutive barrel rolls - total 987 - in one hour).
05.01.2022 Keeping some big company up at Sandy Pages bookstore in Noosa.
05.01.2022 For anybody who heard my ABC 774 interview, we discussed full circle rainbows. It's so timely that this image has appeared now!
02.01.2022 This is such a shame. https://michaels.com.au//the-age-camera-mecca-shuts-for-go
01.01.2022 One month to go. https://mailchi.mp/4471bbf2d8c0/we-have-a-book
