where are
they now?
cagnolatti helps other women
FulFill their dreams
For Nicole Cagnolatti, a life devoted to aviation was destined when her family moved from Florida to California when she was
nIcOLe
caGnOLattI
young. However, her pursuit of an aviation career was made easier
through Women in Aviation, International scholarships, and rather than just take the
scholarships and move on, she decided to give back to the system that helped her by creating
her own Women in Aviation, International scholarship that
she awards to someone as deserving as she has been.
Long Beach Airport (LGB) figures prominently in the life of
Nicole Cagnolatti. Not only did she grow up three miles from
the airport so that she says, “I always saw airplanes,” but her
JOHn rIe DeL
“if you can dream it, you can do it” 2006 winners Kimberly
Kelsey (left) and maria weybracht with donor cagnolatti
first job was as a tour guide at the airport. “My mom found a
brochure about volunteer guides.” She was just 15.
She had the job for seven years, guiding everyone from kindergarten classes to senior citizen groups. “Long Beach Airport is a historical airport,” she says, “it was the home of Earl
Daugherty, a barnstormer, who founded the airport.” He is
credited with founding the country’s first flight school in
1919 at the site of the airport. There is a mini-museum, with
Daugherty’s pilot’s certificate (#87) signed by Wilbur Wright.
Cagnolatti started flying in 1993, when she was in high
school. She learned at Long Beach Airport and she calls 25
Right her “hometown runway.” Funding her flight training
herself, it took her two years to earn her private certificate.
She recalls, “ 25 Left goes over my high school and I’d tell
friends to watch for me. I’d waggle my wings, and my friends
on the track team would all wave.”
Next stop was an associate’s degree from Long Beach City
College. She continued as a tour guide, but added two more jobs.
One was with a ground support equipment company, the other was as an “airport operations assistant.” She explains, “That
means I sat in a van and monitored aircraft coming in as part of
the airport’s noise abatement program.”
Cagnolatti joined Women in Aviation, International in 2000
when she was enrolled in A&P school at Orange Coast College,
and got involved in Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance as well. She applied for,
and won, her first WAI scholarship, which was from SimuFlite
for a maintenance typerating for Cessna Citations. In the same
year, she also won a scholarship for a Learjet type rating. She
says simply, “That got me a job.” The following year, she won a
scholarship from Pratt & Whitney for maintenance training on
the PW530/535 turbofan engine.
She decided to pay back the Women in Aviation scholarships
by providing her own. Her first scholarship was for $500 and
she required the applicants to write an essay. She said, “I knew
what I was looking for. I would read the essays and critique
them.” In giving back, Cagnolatti says she loves turning a person’s attitude from “I don’t know if I can win” to “I won?”
In 2009, Cagnolatti gave her fourth scholarship. The amount
of the scholarship has fluctuated depending on her own personal financial situation. “The money comes out of my own
pocket, just from my paycheck,” she says. “Giving these scholarships has become a passion for me.”
Her scholarships aim to empower women to believe in their
aviation dream. That’s why she gave her scholarship the name
“If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It.” Cagnolatti is willing to
help fund any aviation dream a Women in Aviation member
may have. She says her own attitude has been to assume success is in hand. For example, when she would write her own
scholarship entries, she’d tell herself she’d already won. She
says, “I want other people to say ‘I can do this’ or ‘I can do
that.’ I want other people to see there’s more out there.”
Today she is an aircraft mechanic for Horizon Air, working
in Seattle, but living 150 miles away, near Portland. She commutes by airline every night, four nights a week. “My scholarships all led to something else,” she says. And that’s what
she hopes she can do for other women. To check out Cagnolatti’s scholarship and others available for a wide variety of
purposes, visit the Scholarships section at www.wai.org. ✈
by Patricia Luebke
