September 1, 1933 Sixteen-year old Marion “Babe” Weyant wrote to Amelia Earhart asking how she could become a pilot. Earhart responded “I believe that if you are not afraid to work very hard and really wish to enter aviation, you will be able to do so some day.” Weyant did work hard and she did become a great pilot. She’d gone up the first time when she convinced her 87 year old grandfather to attend an air circus to win the oldest attendee prize. She earned flying lesson money selling soda pop to pilots and eventually qualified as a flight instructor herself. She was inducted into the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame in 1988.