Her accomplishments
include:
- Amelia Earhart Pioneering Acheivement Award recipient (2007)
- Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame inductee (April 2007)
Inducted into the Embry-Riddle Wall of Fame, Daytona, FL
- Wiley Post Commission's 2005 Wiley Post Spirit Award recipient. This annual award recognizes an aviation innovator and pioneer who does not receive government or large corporation funding.
- Current and twenty-three time U.S. Women's Parachuting Champion
- Awarded a specially created Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) Centenary Medal for her significant personal contribution to the development of air sports and aviation (October, 2005)
- Awarded the Diplome Leonardo da Vinci, the world's highest award in aerosports, for her unique achievements in skydiving.
- A total of 30 world records in parachuting. At one time held four different world records simultaneously: a feat no other parachutist, man or woman, has matched.
- First female member of the Army's elite parachuting team, The Golden Knights
- Three time overall women's style and accuracy champion at the military world championships (1991, 1995, 1996)
- Guinness World Record holder for the most parachute jumps in 24 hours by a woman, 352 jumps (November 8-9, 1995). During this endurance test, Cheryl added an additional challenge by aiming for a five-centimeter target on each jump. Despite the cold and wind, Cheryl hit the target a record 188 times: 104 in daytime, 84 at night.
- Over 70 first place women's titles from the annual U. S. National and biannual World Championships in Parachuting and scores of medals from other national and international competitions. Four times Cheryl has been the overall U.S. Champion for men and women combined, most recently in 1998.
- Over 17,000 skydives, the most of any woman in the world
- Master of Aeronautical Science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Pope Air Force Base campus.
- US Airways captain in the Embraer 190 and Boeing 737-200, a first officer in the Boeing 757/767 and in the Airbus. She has flown over 75 different types of aircraft, has over 18,000 flying hours and over 19,000 aircraft landings.
Cheryl began skydiving in Scottsdale, Arizona at age 17 by convincing her mother to sign for permission and loaning Cheryl forty dollars for her first jump. Her father then tried to encourage her in a new direction by paying for her flying lessons. Cheryl fell in love with both activities and set her sites on success in both.
Cheryl continued developing her flying and parachuting while she attended Scottsdale Community College on a tennis scholarship. In 1975, after graduating with an Associate's in Arts, with highest distinction, Cheryl contacted world-renowned skydiving coach Gene Paul Thacker to see if she could work for him at his airport and learn competitive parachuting from him. With Thacker's promise to help her, Cheryl moved to Raeford, North Carolina, with her dog, her parachute gear, and fifty dollars in her pocket. Between flying and maintaining planes for Thacker's skydiving center, Cheryl learned the finer points about her chosen sport. Cheryl focused on competition in the “classic” events of parachuting, style and accuracy. The style event consists of jumping from an aircraft at 7,000 feet and, while in freefall, completing a series of six maneuvers (turns and backloops) as quickly and precisely as possible. The accuracy competition involves controlling the parachute during landing so that the skydiver's heel touches the center of a target (currently, a two centimeter disk) placed in the landing area.
In 1977, after winning her first national championship (1976) and establishing a world record in accuracy, Cheryl joined the U.S. Army and became the first woman member of the Golden Knights, their elite parachute team. She served two three-year tours with the team, winning many national and international championships. During her assignments with the Golden Knights Cheryl won recognition as the leading performer in her sport and did numerous special skydiving demonstrations. Her most memorable was parachuting into the grounds of the Statue of Liberty trailing the American flag. In 2003 the U.S. Army Women's Museum at Ft. Lee, Virginia, honored Cheryl by opening an exhibit featuring her accomplishments in parachuting and aviation. Cheryl retired from the U.S. Army Reserve as a Master Sergeant and was on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Army Women's Foundation.
Besides her success skydiving, Cheryl has excelled in the air as a pilot. After earning her instrument, multi-engine, and instructor ratings in Arizona and gaining experience flying for Raeford Aviation, Cheryl taught flying during her free time while in the Army. She also found time to earn the degrees of Bachelor of Science in Aviation Administration (magna cum laude) and Master of Aeronautical Science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Pope Air Force Base campus. She subsequently gained experience flying medical evacuation, teaching and competing in aerobatics, flying and jumping for Air Show America, and flying for Henson Airlines. In 1986 she was hired by Piedmont Airlines. Now with Piedmont's successor, US Airways, Cheryl has since become a captain in the Embraer 190 and Boeing 737-200, a first officer in the Boeing 757/767 and in the Airbus. She has over 18,000 flying hours and over 19,000 aircraft landings.
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