Miss Pennsylvania is becoming a pilot

Weinstein served as Miss Pennsylvania for the 2024 term, all while pursuing her private pilot certificate. Blending her passion for aviation with a platform built on confidence, grit, and perseverance, she was quick to win over the attention of aspiring aviators and judges alike.

Similar to pageantry, learning to fly requires a great deal of discipline, which is just one of many skills Weinstein found to have been crucial in both aspects.

“Women are the queens of multitasking,” she laughed, rattling off yet another skill required for both.

“When you’re flying an airplane, there’s a lot going on. You always have to put your best foot forward. You can’t be focused on one thing. You always have to be aware of your surroundings and all the different things that could happen. As Miss Pennsylvania, that’s exactly what I [did] every single day,” Weinstein said.

Weinstein comes from a family of aviators, but she has her sights set on becoming the first female pilot in her family. Her dream is to transition from the cabin to the cockpit at Delta.

“When I was a little girl, I had dreamed of working in aviation. I was recently cleaning out my room and found a drawing of me. I was holding a suitcase, and there’s a little airplane flying by me. I was definitely not an artist, but it was crazy to see that even at that young age I knew I wanted to be in aviation,” she said.

“Whether you want to be a flight attendant, a pilot, a dispatcher, whatever it is, never give up, because not only do we need pilots, if there’s something that makes you happy and it’s your dream, you should absolutely work hard and make it. Make it happen because it’s absolutely possible.”

With her reign as Miss Pennsylvania completed, Weinstein is close to earning her certificate. As a Pittsburgh native, she has completed the vast majority of her flight lessons close to home at the Allegheny County Airport (AGC).

Like most aspiring pilots, flight training has had its highs and lows. She recalled one of her favorite memories as taking her mom, a fellow flight attendant, on a flight along with her CFI.

“In the smaller airplanes you can feel every little bit of turbulence, a lot more than if you were in a commercial airplane. So, she was in the back seat, like, screaming,” Weinstein said.

Scheduling flight lessons has been the hardest part of training because of Pennsylvania’s rapidly changing weather.

“You can have four seasons in one day, which makes it quite challenging. One time I tried six times in a row to just get one hour, and every time it was cancelled because of weather.... In Pennsylvania, we can literally have every season every day,” she said.

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