Her legacy has only just taken flight
Details about the Virtual RendezVous Event with astronaut Nicole Stott | Wednesday, August 5th, 6-7pm MST
For many families—particularly of the baby-boomer and Gen X cohorts—vacations meant piling into the station wagon for a long drive. The Pfisters weren’t like other families. When Art Pfister wasn’t ranching the Lazy Chair Ranch on Buttermilk, he was a traveling salesman who piloted a Piper Comanche. (Later, as the family grew, they purchased a larger twin-engine Cessna 320 Sky Night.)
But it was his wife Betty, (who he met in an Aspen lift line) that was the true pilot in the family. Besotted during an airshow while at Bennington College, the then Betty Haas fell in love with flying. She trained in the Navy, specifically the Womens Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) which was a highly selective and elite program. She flew in the war and then dedicated the rest of her life to aviation (and raising her family.) She raced. She became an avid helicopter pilot. She was a fierce advocate for flight infrastructure and safety in the valley, spearheading an FAA control tower as well as the air rescue unit and helipad at the hospital.
She also loved to fly balloons and founded the Snowmass balloon race.
Our good friend Suzanne, Betty’s daughter, was kind enough to answer some questions about what it was like growing up with a mother whose head was always in the clouds …
Can you describe flying with your mom? Was it like piling into the station wagon, except with your family it was into the airplane or helicopter?
My sisters and I took a lot of weekend trips with my mother while my father was happily working on the ranch. It was not unusual for my mother to greet us on a Saturday morning with the aviation maps spread across the kitchen table and a big grin on her face. “Where do you want to go today?” she would ask. I recall vividly thinking, why oh, why can’t we be like normal kids and just stay home and watch cartoons? But no, we had to go load up in the hot airplane and fly off to some Indian reservation in Utah or goodness knows where, all the while being more or less constantly embarrassed by my mother. It is only now looking back that I see what a rare and unique childhood I was privy to.
As a family we would make our annual summer pilgrimage to visit our father’s relatives in Wisconsin. Just as you envisioned, this would involve piling the whole family into the plane. I would always ask to sleep in the back with the luggage. It was very cozy back there with my book and the clouds floating by. On occasion I would crawl up front and my father or mother, whoever had the yoke, would let me take over and “fly through the clouds”. This is my single favorite childhood memory.
Were your parents good co-pilots or was there maybe a little cockpit competition?
I don’t recall anything of that nature. My mother loved to fly. She wanted to go up in anything that flew - gliders, hot air balloons, helicopters, literally anything! My father saw flying as more of a matter of convenience. He needed the plane to get to work and he wanted to get places in a hurry. I think he had such a challenging time flying during the war. The joy wasn’t there for him. Neither of them liked to drive so flying suited them both for different reasons.
Betty judging a helicopter competition in Russia in 1979
What is it about flying that captures people so? How does BettyFlies find its girls who may never have thought about it before?
Flying gives pilots a feeling of freedom that is hard to explain unless you’ve experienced it in the cockpit. The BettyFlies Foundation’s scholarship applications are open to all genders. We do, however, collaborate with several female pilots who support other organizations working to increase the dreadfully low number of women in all aviation fields. At present we find our students through the Aspen Flight Academy at the Aspen High School. We hope to broaden our focus and our reach as we grow. Our intention is to sustain my mother’s legacy and to inspire young people to follow in her footsteps. I always say that if Betty could achieve what she accomplished in the 1940’s, certainly we could be inspired to emulate her today.
Today, the Pitkin County Airport seems like a given, but perhaps the story isn't that simple. Can you speak to your mother's role in that history? Were there considerable forces who thought it was either bad for Aspen or simply not feasible?
Betty’s valley-wide aviation related contributions were remarkable. Her efforts brought a heliport to the Aspen Valley Hospital, and the control tower to the Aspen Airport, both daunting tasks in those times.
When I was young the airport was small and much more dangerous than it is now. My mother would call my father if she thought she would be coming in after dark. He would round up a group of friends with their jeeps and trucks and they would drive out and light the runway.
More important even than lights on the runway was the installation of the control tower.
Betty loved the mountains but her primary commitment at all times was to flight safety. Persuading the FAA to construct and staff a control tower required a huge effort of persistence. Betty literally went to Washington and camped out on the FAA’s doorstep until they agreed to her demands.
As a woman living in a time when it was not fashionable to be persistent or forward thinking, she insisted on being both. She loved our mountain community where she came to build a life.
What would you say to a parent with a young daughter who asks, "Why should she consider flying lessons? What would she learn, apart from the act of flying itself? Don't you have to be a millionaire playboy to fly planes? Is it dangerous?"
I respond to the “millionaire playboy” question thusly: The BettyFlies Foundation offers both need and merit based scholarships geared to students on a pro-pilot track. We help students who could not otherwise afford it take the first step towards a career in aviation.
As I am not myself a pilot, I sent this query out to two of my most esteemed pilot friends. Both women were kind enough to provide me with a more complete answer to the other parts of your question. (We are an amazingly collaborative team here at BettyFlies!) The following answer is from Kate Short, a pilot and flight instructor and the Director of Aviation at the Aspen Flight Academy:
“Aviation is a field that women have been discouraged or even barred from participating in historically. As a result, the number of female pilots remains low for both private and professional pilots. The actual percentage of women pilots in the world is only 6%.
As we can see from your mom’s great example, women make great pilots and it is so important to give young girls and women the opportunity to explore aviation as one of many possible hobbies or careers they may be interested in!
Learning how to fly a plane may be the gateway to a new career or may simply give a young person confidence to pursue their goals. Nothing creates confidence like knowing you can land an airplane!”
This answer is from BettyFlies Foundation Advisory Board member Jill Meyers, a pilot and internationally recognized aviation consultant:
“Learning to fly not only teaches young people to fly the airplane they train in, but it also instills confidence and helps with communication skills. The ground school training is also very thorough and teaches things like weather! Learning to fly is expensive but organizations like BettyFlies provide scholarships, as do many others. Flying planes is no more dangerous than driving a car. In flight school, you learn all you need to learn to fly safely.”
