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Vail Valley pilot set to take off in Jetset magazine contest

Isabelle Moore, pilot, model, is taking a run at Miss Jetset title

Vote for Isabelle
  • To vote for local Vail Valley jet pilot Isabelle Moore in Jetset magazine’s Miss Jetset contest, go to http://www.jetsetmag.com.

Jet-setting Isabelle Moore is a woman of the world in every possible respect. She’s a corporate jet pilot, model and fitness instructor. She was born in Switzerland, raised in Edwards and is fluent in French.

She has been everywhere and wants to go everywhere else.

“I have aspirations to see every continent as well as many countries,” Moore said.



Her long list of future adventures includes travel to Morocco, Seychelles, Istanbul, the Maldives, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Brazil, Tanzania and the Serengeti.

Miss Jetset

The mother of three daughters doesn’t have much downtime but was perusing Jetset, a lifestyle magazine for the private/corporate aviation industry, when she spotted an ad for the Miss Jetset contest.

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“I’ve always modeled, from my late teens and early 20s, on the side as something fun,” Moore said.

She was initially reluctant about the contest but spoke with her modeling agency. They said something like, “You’re hesitating?!? Seriously?!? You should do it!!!”

So she did.

“Now it’s down to the nitty-gritty,” Moore said.

She’s leading the voting in her group, but all that resets this Sunday, Feb. 23, when she’ll need lots more votes. It resets again on Feb. 28. The final round of voting runs from March 6-12.

“It starts with thousands of entrants and ends up with just one,” Moore said.

Paying it forward

The contest speaks volumes to her three girls, she said.

Along with the title comes a $50,000 cash prize, which she said she “hopes to pay forward by giving it those who need it.”

She said some of her friends’ children are suffering with cancer. Her niece has suffered through a long series of horrific hip surgeries.

“As a mother of three children, I have a huge heart and passion for children,” Moore said. “If I was lucky enough to win, I would be able to give back in a meaningful way, to make sure that any child can receive the care they need.”

She would be in good company. In the decade since Jetset magazine was launched, Miss Jetset has donated $663,321.60 to help children and their families dealing with pediatric cancer.

An overachiever takes off

Moore graduated Vail Christian High School in 2002. She was raised in Edwards and decided in the eighth grade to be a pilot. She read a little about it at Berry Creek Middle School, went home and announced her intention.

“Dad, I’m going to be a pilot,” she said.

“Of course you are,” he replied

She graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, “The Harvard of the Skies.” Because she finished Vail Christian High School with so many college credits, she earned her four-year Embry-Riddle degree in two and a half years.

She was just 19 when she landed an internship with Frontier Airlines.

At 23, Moore became one of the youngest female airline captains. Pilots must be 23 years old and have 1,500 hours to get their full Airline Pilot Transport License and become a commercial captain, according to the Pilot Institute.

Moore said she applied days after her 23rd birthday that September, and received her upgrade later that fall. She started flying for Great Lakes Aviation, a commuter airline based in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with a hub in Denver.

Some life happened along the way. Her dad, Paul Maloney, fell sick with cancer, so she stuck close to home, working as a Training Center Examiner for a simulator instructor program and hanging with her dad.

A local family recruited her as their private pilot and now she’s based in the Vail Valley Jet Center. Private pilots are under a confidentiality agreement with their clients, so she cannot say anything about them, other than they’re wonderful.

“I’m so fortunate and thankful. I get to be based at home and work in aviation,” Moore said.


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