Kathy Jaffe was President of IAC Chapter 52 in the late 90's. She was also contest director for the chapter's "Contest in the Catskills" held for several years at Sullivan County Airport in Monticello, New York.
Harley Carnes writes, "Kathy was one of the most exuberantly, happily determined people I've ever known." She earned the love and admiration of many in the chapter, primarily due to her unstoppable enthusiasm for all of aerobatics and the people in it. Says Ron Saglimbene, "She had very little to do with organized aerobatics until she became Prez', but she was special. She threw herself into it and kept us all together. She had more ambition and guts than anyone I've ever met."
Kathy died while practicing aerobatics in her Pitts S1S, N29GS near Andover, New Jersey. Chapter 52 recognizes her contributions, and the place she holds in the hearts of the people who continued the chapter after her death, by establishing the Kathy Jaffe Spirit of Aerobatics Award and by holding our annual contest in her name, the "Kathy Jaffe Challenge."
Kathy was born and raised in Minnesota as the middle of three daughters. She raised two sons in her home in Maplewood, New Jersey. Her son Sean writes of her death, "It was blue skies and a field and pure, limitless freedom; perhaps a half second of panic, and I think... No, I know. A familiar twinkle in the eye. Then nothing. She was no victim, no martyr ... My mom was one of the last great American 'bad asses.' She was an aerobatic pilot."