Kathleen M. Snaper attended flight school in Las Vegas where she earned certification for Commercial Pilot, Ground Instructor, Flight Instructor, and Airline Transport Pilot. Also, she is CFIAI Airplane Single & Multi-engine and Seaplane rated. In June 1977, she became a full-time flight instructor operating out of the North Las Vegas Airport. She went on to become a Chief Flight Instructor at Southern Nevada’s first FAA 141 certified flight school as well as Chief Pilot of FAA 135 compliant charter operations.

On July 9-12 1976, she completed the last All-Women Transcontinental Air Race, better known as the Powder Puff Derby, covering a course from Sacramento, CA to Wilmington, DE. She had requested and received Racing Number 101 in honor of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division her husband had served in. The Derby discontinued after the race because of long-term financial losses, but the aviators rallied together to create their own Air Race Classic in late 1976 that continues today. On June 24-27, 1978, she completed the first Air Race Classic covering the course from Las Vegas, NV to Destin, TX. Her last Air Race Classic was on June 19-22, 2007, from Oklahoma City, OK to Saint John, NB, Canada. She also flew in four Hayward Proficiency Air Races, the Palms to Pines Air Race, Pacific Air Race and Shirts & Skirts Air Race. She recently stated, “I flew in as many races as I could afford.”

In late 1978, she contacted the required authorities to obtain an official sanction to establish a world record for endurance below sea level and distance in a closed circuit below sea level, choosing Death Valley, California as the venue to accomplish both.

On January 15, 1979, she flew a stock Cessna 172 from the Furnace Creek Airport and proceeded to the marked closed circuit at the lowest point in Death Valley. Enduring rain and turbulence, she flew below sea level for four hours and twenty-two minutes and covered 520 statute miles.

In 1984, she was one of the founders of the American Medical Support Flight Team (AMSFT), a non-profit organization that began as an alternative to the Arizona, California and Nevada Highway Patrol providing transport of fresh whole blood and blood products across state lines and from/to areas with emergencies. The AMSFT also transported needy patients and their families to hospitals and clinics in the southwest for specialized treatments.

For her record-setting flight below sea level as well as her efforts in the area of general aviation flight safety, Kathleen Snaper earned inducting into the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame.