AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2019 - 34

PILOT BRIEFING
PEOPLE

|

AOPA'S "TASTE OF
LIVERMORE" WINE
TASTING TOUR IS
FRIDAY, JUNE 21
livermorewine
trolley.com

Vintner likes to be airborne
From the Airbus A320 to her own vineyard
B Y J U L I E S U M M E R S WA L K E R
WE STOP AT WOOD FAMILY VINEYARDS in
the heart of Livermore, California, and are
greeted by Rhonda Wood, who proudly
thrusts her AOPA membership card forward. "I've been a member for over 30
years," she says. "Would you like to try
some wine?" Wood stopped flying professionally after September 11, 2001, but she
still pops over to Livermore Municipal
Airport (LVK) regularly to get into the air.
"It's a beautiful day so I'm going flying,"
she tells me in correspondence later. She
loves the J-3 Cub. "I love propping it in the
morning, jumping in, and flying over the
hills with the doors open and the pure joy
of cruising with a stick in my hand."
Wood has been interested in aviation
since winning a paper airplane contest in the
sixth grade. At age 15 she told her father she
wanted to learn to fly. He introduced her to
a friend and client who flew for TWA. Her

34 | AOPA PILOT June 2019

father, a CPA, got Wood her first flight in his
client's Super Decathlon. "We did rolls and
loops and I absolutely fell in love," she says.
She graduated from Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University in Prescott,
Arizona, and began her professional
career-flight instruction to corporate flying
to airline pilot. Along the way were many
adventures: flying air freight in Chicago in
a Beech 18, single pilot at night, no autopilot.
The Californian "lacked experience flying
in icing conditions and lacked the experience taking what the freight dogs said to me
with a grain of salt...." She flew the Airbus
A320 for USAir. "I didn't think I'd like the
airplane; so many computers. But I loved
flying it and getting to know the systems
and having the side stick control."
She married Michael Wood in 1988 and
the couple settled back home in California.
On downtime and during pregnancy leave

(two sons) she first started making beer and
then wine. She took winemaking classes at
the University of California, Davis and the
couple eventually purchased an 18-acre
Merlot vineyard and home site in Livermore
in 1996. When USAir offered leave for pilots
after the terrorist attacks of September 11,
she left the airline. The winery had been
bonded September 1, 2001.
Wood Family Vineyards bottles 15 different wines from chardonnay to cabernet
sauvignon. They have a tasting room and
event venue in downtown Livermore.
AOPA hosts its second fly-in of the year at
Livermore Municipal Airport on June 21
and 22. Stop in and share flying stories with
Rhonda.
woodfamilyvineyards.com
aopa.org/fly-ins/lvk
EMAIL julie.walker@aopa.org
https://www.livermorewinetrolley.com/ http://www.woodfamilyvineyards.com https://www.aopa.org/community/events/aopa-fly-ins/2019-aopa-fly-ins/livermore
AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2019

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