Note of introduction from the flight deck

Hi there!

My name is Monika Woolsey. I'm a registered dietitian and exercise physiologist, who has always had a fascination with aviation. My grandpa had his own Cessna way back when, my cousin is a retired captain who flew for years with Continental, and my uncle was a military pilot.

When I was a kid, one of my grandpa's favorite things to do on Sundays was take us to the end of the runway at Deer Valley airport here in Phoenix, so we could watch the gliders take off and land. I also remember the big deal it was when the 747 finally came to Phoenix Sky Harbor, so much so that people would come hang out on the top of Terminal 2 just to watch its arrival.

During college I had a summer job at Tucson International Airport, working for Sky Chefs. It was my first reality check as far as how stressful an aviation job can be. Even in the kitchen, a flight delay or cancellation meant last minute changes. And those came on a daily basis. I've never forgotten that, and have always thought there had to be a way to combine my nutrition and exercise training and my interest in aviation.

Full time work in airline catering didn't seem to be my answer, but I never lost my interest in flying. I made it as far as ground school...but I couldn't quite muster up the courage to solo. Even so, my instructor thought I had what it took to become a Navy pilot. He'd never seen me attempt to parallel park, so I chalked up his confidence that I could land a plane on a boat in the middle of the ocean to pure uninformed enthusiasm. I continued my search for a better fit.

My personal aviation dreams are more vicarious at this point. I have several friends who fly for a living, and I really feel for what their career choice brings them in terms of stress. After over 20 years of thinking about launching a business that would provide support to those friends, their friends, and anyone else who might be interested, I finally found the perfect partner to launch that business with. This blog is the first phase in the project.

Hopefully we'll hear back from those of you who we can help--what are your barriers to wellness, what are solutions you've found for yourself, how we can help, whatever you have to share gives us an idea of what we can do to make this a truly pertinent service.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again sometime soon.

Oh! Just for fun, the photo here is a piece of aviation history, this is the plane Jimmy Angel was flying when he discovered Angel Falls, in Venezuela (the tallest waterfall in the world). Actually, he discovered it by crashing his plane right into it. I still don't quite get why he had to navigate right into something that big in order to find it, but I did enjoy seeing both the waterfall and the airplane.