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Now Nancy and Arlo operate Livingston Copters, Inc. in Juneau, Alaska. Arlo is currently president of the Helicopter Association of America; Nancy, international vice president of The Whirly-Girls. They are one of the 34 husband-wife helicopter pilot teams. At the first official "hovering," The Whirly-Girls agreed membership requirements would be a valid CAA (now FAA- Federal Aviation Administration) rotary-wing helicopter rating, or its foreign equivalent. The organization's purpose would be to exchange helicopter information, promote interest among women for helicopter utilization, establish a scholarship fund to help other girls get their rating and provide stand-by pilots for helicopter rescues in emergencies. The group also approved a girl-type helicopter as the insignia. Today, there are 174 Whirly-Girls in 10 countries. They include a teenager, and Australian housewife, a pediatric neurosurgeon, a newspaper editor/publisher, a human factors engineer, a former movies stunt pilot and concert pianist, the wife of a U.S. Senator, several traffic pilot/reporters, grandmothers, a retired school teacher, Great Britain's first round-the-world solo pilot and commercial flight instructors, charter pilots and operators. In 1966 The Whirly-Girls established a scholarship in memory of Mrs. Doris Mullen, Whirly Girl #84, who was fatally injured in an airplane accident on July 24, 1966. The scholarship of $500 (now $1,000) is awarded annually by The Whirly-Girls to a woman for use toward obtaining a helicopter rating. The scholarship is presented each January—at their annual "hovering" held during the annual meeting of the Helicopter Association of America. The first five scholarship recipients all completed their training and are now members of The Whirly-Girls—the sixth is well on her way to winning her rotors. Whirly-Girls don't just hold hoverings, they work at helicopters. Of the current members, 18 are helicopter flight instructors, two hold Air Transport Ratings (ATR's) and three are FAA flight examiners. Informally, in their communities, Whirly-Girls have worked to establish hospital heliports. An official "Judy Short Memorial Hospital Heliport Certificate" has been designed to be given in recognition and appreciation by The Whirly-Girls to those hospitals that establish "a heliport for the utilization of the helicopter as a life-saving vehicle for emergency medical services." A helicopter stops and then lands, an airplane lands and then stops. In a helicopter (unlike an airplane) you can start to land or take off and then stop. You can back up and look again, or just park (hover) in the air. Perhaps that is why girls go for helicopters. It has been said that women frequently change their minds. With a helicopter you can . . . and safely! [[image - photograph]] [[caption]] One of the first Whirly-Girls, Evelyn Bryan Johnson, won the Bronze Medal of the Carnegie Hero Fund for rescuing a downed 'copter pilot. [[/caption]] [[image - photograph]] [[caption]] Aviation writer and Whirly-Girl Page Shamburger has flown everything from this Hughes helicopter to a McDonnel-Douglas Phantom II jet. [[/caption]] FALL 1973 27
