Armed with 50 gallons of paint and a thick manual of instructions, the 99s began the tedious two-day task of "air marking" a compass rose at the Coeur d'Alene Airport on Friday.

The five women pilots who began the process on Friday finished the 99s logo in the center of the already existing compass calibration pad. The logo consisted of 12 directional lines in a 360-degree circle. They then began outlining circles and the points jutting from the center, with the four cardinal directions of north, east, south and west more prominent than the others. They prepared to paint the compass rose in the standard blue and white colors on Saturday when a few more 99s showed up to help.

"The hard part is figuring out what colors go where," said 99s member Elsbeth Roach as the group checked the manual and used chalk to carefully mark which areas would be blue and which would be white.

The hot sun beat down on the paved area where they painted Friday and Saturday near Empire Airlines on Atlas Road. Amber Phillips, sub-assembly team lead for Quest Aircraft Company in Sandpoint, was "in charge" of the project because she is not only a pilot and 99s member, but leads a team at Quest that builds small components for Quest's world-renowned Kodiak airplanes. The other 99s praised her for being "good at what she does," and how much she has accomplished at age 28.

The purpose of the 80-foot diameter painting is to allow pilots to calibrate their navigation equipment, because over time the calibration of the compasses gets out of alignment with true north. The pad is located off the taxiway so planes can pull in and correct any error in their equipment.

An engineer is hired to survey the area prior to the painting of the compass rose in order to find true north, meeting Federal Aviation Administration requirements. The man who calibrated the pad in October works for the United States military, so 99s member Liz Jones said it can be used by anyone, including the military.

"And because the surveying is so precise, we have to be very precise," Roach said.

The airport supplied the paint, and the women supplied the labor. All of the compass roses around the world are painted by volunteers from the 99s.

The 99s are an international group of women pilots with several chapters around the world. The local chapter from the Panhandle region of Idaho is the Intermountain chapter of the Northwest section of the 99s. Roach said the 99s have been planning on painting a compass rose at the airport for several years, but it is difficult to find just the right place.

"You can't have any magnetic interference with the planes that swing their compasses off the rose," Roach said. "So there can't be any wires, metal, underground stuff or close-by buildings — so this is perfect."

Jones explained that the 99s are women pilots from all over the world. It began in 1929 with Amelia Earhart. That year, 20 women pilots competed in the first Women's Air Derby, most commonly known as the "Powder Puff Derby" as dubbed by comedic actor Will Rogers. The women flew from the coast of California to Cleveland, Ohio.

"Afterward the women said, 'well we should start a club,' and at the time there were 117 women pilots in the United States and 99 of them joined," Jones said. "That's why they are called the 99s, and Amelia Earhart was the first president," Jones said.

Today, there are more than 3,000 members around the world, and 34 members in the local chapter.

"Our whole mission is to promote aviation for, specifically women and girls, but for anybody really," Roach said. "We want everybody to know that there is an airport out here and it's fun."