Mary build is one of those writers who
never really expected she would be a writer,
but she's got a story to tell
about her life in aviation.
She lives in Bridgeton.
She's with us here on 207 to talk about
her new book, finding myself in aviation.
Mary, thanks so much coming in.
Good to have you here.
Thank you very much.
Let's talk just a little bit about before
you got into flying when you were a kid,
you had a childhood that in some
ways was good and in other ways was
kind of a tough one for you, right?
It was a very slow start
and unpleasant. Yeah.
And you overcame some challenges.
And. Moved along, but.
For someone who has written a book
about aviation, you didn't start
flying until you were pretty late.
How old were you? I was 4747.
You had, you had taken a flight that
took you across Western Maine and the
White Mountains of New Hampshire,
Mount Washington.
That was kind of the first time you've
been in a in a small plane, right?
The first time I had been in
Maine in a in a small plane.
Excuse me? First time you've been
in Maine in a small plane, and it
really had an impact on you, didn't
I was looking for something
that I could get my teeth into
because I had left my job to find.
Some inspiration for what I was going
to do with the rest of my life.
And and I thought, well,
I this, I I could do this.
I really needed to do this.
You flew out of Western Maine,
went over the border,
went over Mount Washington.
And before the plane had
come back down to Earth,
you'd made-up your mind, hadn't you?
I asked about taking flying lessons.
Yes. And you took flying lessons
in Freiburg. I did. I did.
And you knew right away that you
had found what you wanted to do.
I I went on to get an instant like when
after I got my private pilots license,
I was afraid that I was a danger to the sky.
So I went on and got my instrument rating.
And then there was a fellow that used
to come to the airport and he said,
what are you going to do next, Mary?
I said Charlie,
I'm not going to do anything next.
And he said, well,
what about a commercial rating?
I said what am I going to do with a
commercial rating at 50 years old he said,
well you'd be a better pilot.
Well every rating that you get,
you're a better pilot.
But I thought he meant I wasn't a good pilot.
So I said I am too.
When I went right into Portland and
I got a commercial rating at that,
at that
time, how many women were
doing what you were doing?
Oh, oh, and the seaplane industry,
I don't know. How about I wasn't
in the seaplane industry yet.
There were probably 5 to
6000 women in the country,
but you were clearly in the minority.
It was pretty unusual for a woman
to be doing that kind of serious
flying with aspirations of of
going higher in the profession.
No. I did when I was 30,
but not when I was 47.
I was just taking the next step,
and the next step kept coming
to my lap when I was ready
to take that next step.
What really gave you a lot of reward
in this field was teaching others. Yes.
What was it about that that really
connected with you teaching others how to
fly, sharing the love of
flying with someone else?
And my students come to me.
I'm not, I'm not teaching students
that don't want to be there.
They don't want to be
sitting in that school.
I'm teaching people who have
come to me because they really
want to learn how to fly.
That's a joy
you write in the book about
how once you started getting
into it in a serious way,
that you wanted to go places,
you wanted to go somewhere.
Where did you go? Well,
I've flown to Alaska four times.
And I've flown. Well, obviously you
go through Canada to get to Alaska,
but I've been all over the country
during air races and judging air races,
and Nova Scotia to pick up an
airplane and Florida to work every
everywhere. You've had all kinds
of interesting experiences.
But as I said, when you say in
the book that you really didn't
think of yourself as a writer,
what made you want to tell your stories?
What made you want to put them down in print?
Well, when I was doing scenic flights,
everyone would ask me.
How did you get into seaplane flying?
Or how did you get into aviation?
And when I tell them my story, they'd say,
ohh, you're such an inspiration,
you should write a book.
Well, I had no idea what they meant
about being an inspiration because
there were thousands of pilots,
thousands of seaplane pilots,
thousands of women flying.
I was just doing what I love to do.
And writing a book was the
last thing in my mind.
And this took me 7 years to write,
so it was not an easy job.
It's easier for me to fly an
airplane than it is to write a book.
You make that clear.
You finally had to give up flying not
long ago. What's that been like for
you? Actually,
I didn't have to give up flying.
I just didn't have anybody
to fly with anymore.
And it was getting very expensive.
It's just a different time in my life. And.
I wasn't aware I had during the pandemic,
I went to work at Hannaford's
to get myself out of the house,
and I'd come home so tired after working
there that I didn't have the energy
to fly and I wasn't flying as often.
I used to fly two or three hours a day, so
to fly once or twice a month wasn't enough.
It just wasn't fun anymore.
Do you miss it?
I don't miss it at all.
I've been asked to teach seaplane flying,
so I started teaching in October.
I had five students in one month.
And now I'm teaching over the Oxford airport.
Airport couldn't be happier.
I feel 10 years younger.
That's a great note to end on.
We should all be so fortunate.
And that's only the latest
chapter in your aviation story.
Very thank you so much for coming in.
Again, the name of the book finding
myself in aviation by Mary build.
You'll find more information
about it and about her and the
207 section of our website.
Stick around back with more right after this.