Mandolyn McAbee (Florida)

May 2017 Mandolyn McAbee (Florida)

Mandolyn McAbee is based at FMY, Page Field Airport, and also RSW, Southwest Florida International Airport, Fort Myers, Florida.

A Corsair Hug

I am a 17-year-old junior in high school. Airplanes are a lifelong passion of mine. The first airplane I ever flew in was a USA 3000 Airlines Airbus A320 and my favorite airplane is the Vought F4U Corsair. I decided I wanted to be a pilot in 2013 when I flew in the right seat of a Cape Air Cessna 402. Shortly afterwards I joined the EAA Young Eagles and started taking flight lessons at Yoanna Flight School at FMY. After high school I plan on enlisting in the United States Navy but my ultimate career goal is to be an airline pilot for JetBlue Airways.

Waco UPF-7

Photography is another big passion of mine and you can probably guess that I like to take photos of airplanes! I visit air museums and airshows whenever I can and I have hundreds of thousands of photos of different aircraft. I enjoy plane-spotting at the airports I fly to as well.

Recently I started my own blog to record my aviation journey. I would love to connect with as many pilots, flying enthusiasts and airplanes that I can. I am hoping that I can broaden my experiences by joining your community.

Me and Juliet

When I was waiting to fly the Tri-Motor earlier this year at FMY, I met a man (whose name I can’t remember unfortunately) who introduced me to Ladies Love Taildraggers. I am glad that he told me about your community because otherwise I probably would’ve never found out about it until much later.

I do not have any ratings but I am currently taking lessons to earn my private pilot license. I train in a Cessna 172 Skyhawk.

My dream taildragger:  F4U Corsair

I love all types of airplanes but taildraggers are some of my most favorites. I’ve flown in two taildraggers: the first was a Waco UPF-7 belonging to Classic Air Ventures and the second one was a Ford 4-AT-E Tri-Motor belonging to the EAA. Someday I would love to learn how to fly a taildragger – especially the Piper J-3 Cub.