Soaring
Say the words “it can’t be done” to Sarah Kelly and she’ll prove you oth-
erwise. At age 29, she’s the owner/operator of Chilhowee Gliderport in
Benton, Tennessee, a commercial glider operation near the Cherokee
National Forest. Chilhowee’s major draw is a beautiful mountain ridge
whose lift enables soaring pilots to make hours-long flights of more than
300 miles. Kelly runs the show there, and what needs doing, she does.
“I just buckle down and get the job done,” Kelly says, while reminiscing about
unexpected towplane repairs and other problems associated with her operation,
the sort found in any aviation business. Greasy hands and tools are no strang-
er to her because she’s an FAA certificated
airframe and powerplant (A&P) mechanic by Kathleen Winters
with Inspection Authorization (IA) creden-
photography by David L. Smith
tials, and she does her own maintenance.
“I love working on aircraft and find it enormously satisfying fixing planes,” she
admits. She talks freely about major overhauls of her Pawnee and Callair towplanes, as well as the frustrations stemming from a propeller strike requiring an
engine teardown.
But Kelly is also a certified flight instructor in airplanes and gliders, and is instrument rated. She’s a tow pilot too, and during her precious spare time you might
find her racing a sleek, high-performance glider in soaring competitions.
Kelly does not hail from a flying family, or a wealthy one. She funded most of
her aviation training on her own dime, foregoing a college education to work and
save money, although a flight scholarship and grant were of immense help. “It
frustrates me to hear people fuss about how ‘they were never given anything’ or
‘weren’t given the same opportunities.’ If you want something badly enough then
you’ll set your priorities accordingly, and you’ll be amazed at the opportunities that
open to you,” she affirms. “The definition of the word ‘necessity’ would make a
great study,” she continues, “since I now live without many of the things most folks
would consider necessities, yet I do have much more than others less fortunate in
the world.”
Though born in Wisconsin, she was raised in rural British Columbia, Canada,
where she was bit by the flying bug after seeing a neighbor fly his Piper J-3 Cub
from a short grass strip in the valley below her house at the foothills of the Mona-shee Mountains. Every time she and her younger brother, Ike, saw the Cub nose out
of the hangar, they raced down the hill and begged the owner for rides. Her persistent brother got more rides, but Kelly won out in the end: he’s now working for her at
