Hi

 

Back when I took a few flying lessons in real life my flight instructor was a pretty young girl and she was half Swedish and hot! Half of me was thinking how can I learn to fly this thing and the other half was thinking how can I get this woman into bed! Needless to say I didn't succeed at both!

 

Pierre

 

That's funny. When I started my first flight instructor was a female also. I was using Midfield Aviation at the time at KAPV in California. I still remember standing at the counter talking to the owner, who by the way could have been a spitting image of the lady who played Pancho Barnes character in The Right Stuff. Anyway as I was paying the money she was looking through her sheet of available planes and instructors when she said "well I have a plane, but I dont have any instructors available at the moment". No longer did she say that when I heard a female behind me say "i'll take him up." I turned around only to spot a gorgeous blond that appeared not much older than me (14 at the time). Of course I was quick to say ok and glanced at my dad who had a huge grin on his face, probably thinking the same thing as me, wondering where did this beauty come from?

 

I ended up using her for the bulk of my training in Apple Valley. We actually became good friends, although dating seemed out of the question since I wasn't even old enough to drive a car and she was a ripe old 19, lol. She was living with an F-4 pilot who flew in the Wild Weasels at what was then George AFB and his wife. She invited me many times to hang out and talk flying as well as talk to the F-4 pilot. Together they were nice enough to get me 5 hours of F-4 sim time at George AFB over the course of the year.

 

Later on I move from Apple Valley to Tucson and we stayed in touch for a while. She ended up dating an F-16 pilot who was at Luke AFB in Phoenix and she was nice enough one summer when she went out to Phoenix to visit him to call me up and drive down to Tucson to spend the day with her and go flying. To this day I wonder what ever happened to her. I know she was interested in becoming an airline pilot but who knows. I took my old log book out one day and typed her name into Facebook to see if I could find her but no luck. I tried googling her CFI number to see if she was still active but couldn't turn anything up.

 

Come to think of it, besides her, I had two other female instructors one of whom was a test pilot for Bell helicopters (Julie Mangold) and was working out of nearby Edwards AFB and turned out to be married to another instructor I had used a hand full of times named Mike Mangold who as I just recently found out ended up becoming a Red Bull Air Race pilot and also an American Airlines 767 Capt.

"I'll certainly toss my name in the ring for it, what comes of that has yet to be seen."

 

Hey; well don't forget to let us know how it works out. Luck!

Well, if it doesn't work out, I'll probably not go broadcasting it to the world, and if it does, my day's of hanging out on flight-sim forums would be well and truly over. So, if you still see me here in the future, my quest failed, if not, life's good in the world...

 

To put this thing back on topic, by percentage of flight crew employed, AFAIK, EIN is the 2nd largest employer of female flight crew, so there's some food for though next time yee're on board one of our a/c.

 

Another little video on Lynn Barton, one of the pioneers in BA for those interested;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urBpxcKN8RY

 

Rónán O Cadhain.

To put this thing back on topic, by percentage of flight crew employed, AFAIK, EIN is the 2nd largest employer of female flight crew,

 

Hi Rónán,

Do you know/can you say who is #1 ?

Bruno

I can't believe what I have read here in sexist remarks.

 

I have just deleted one post, and will begin to moderate the membership of those that continue to insult women.

 

Serious warning: If anyone wants a suspension or ban, this will be the fastest way to earn it without another warning.

 

Fact is Stephen there are plenty of folks here that don't think they need to play by the rules. I know this firsthand.

Hi Rónán,

Do you know/can you say who is #1 ?

Bruno

 

Just found out today, IT'S US!!!! :biggrin:

 

We have the highest percentage now, and the highest number belongs to United airlines with over 500 IIRC, though due to the much greater numbers employed by them that makes sense.

 

Well isn't that something to be proud of,

 

Rónán O Cadhain.

Just found out today, IT'S US!!!! :biggrin:

 

We have the highest percentage now, and the highest number belongs to United airlines with over 500 IIRC, though due to the much greater numbers employed by them that makes sense.

 

Well isn't that something to be proud of,

 

Rónán O Cadhain.

 

Depends on whom you're talking to :

- macho Bruno : Women ! Every time you see a car parked askew, you can bet it's a woman !

- rational Bruno : insurance statistics show, year after year, that women have less car accidents than men.

Take care,

Bruno

Thank you for those wonderfully enlightening video clips, Capt Rónán.

Thank you for those wonderfully enlightening video clips, Capt Rónán.

 

My pleasure,

 

Ró.

Just found out today, IT'S US!!!!

 

We have the highest percentage now, and the highest number belongs to United airlines with over 500 IIRC, though due to the much greater numbers employed by them that makes sense.

 

Well isn't that something to be proud of,

 

Rónán O Cadhain.

 

Which is very evident when you fly with Aer Lingus. Actually my flight school (PPL only for me) in Cork (EICK) has quite a lot of female students. Personally, I think it's great seeing a woman in control of an aircraft, as I said before I would love to see one of my daughters take on a responsible/technical job such as a pilot.

Airbus recently announced that their goal was to recruit 25% women this year. Pretty cool that they have that goal, but also a bit sad when you think about it, that 25% is considered a high number of women. Of course it's about 3 times the percentage of women in my aerospace engineering class.

Airbus recently announced that their goal was to recruit 25% women this year. Pretty cool that they have that goal, but also a bit sad when you think about it, that 25% is considered a high number of women. Of course it's about 3 times the percentage of women in my aerospace engineering class.

 

Isn't that positive discrimination though? I mean, I'm all up for women doing the job, but I always believe that the job should be given to the best person for it, so if Airbus turn around to a better male pilot and say "Sorry mate, but you're a guy, so we're hiring this person who's worse that you because she is a girl so that will fill our quota" then I think this idea is attrocious.

 

There should obviously not be any objection to having women pilots, but to set out and say "We want to hire 25% or our pilots as women this year" is a disgrace, and doesn't leave the job open for those who may be better than them.

 

Just my €0.02

 

Rónán O Cadhain.

Just my thoughts, captain Rònàn.

 

EDIT: my keyboard only has the "ò" and "à" with the wrong accent :D

Just my thoughts, captain Rònàn.

 

EDIT: my keyboard only has the "ò" and "à" with the wrong accent :D

 

My thoughts as well. But usually politicians - or politically correct people - prefer going for quick results. It looks good on their record - and they couldn't care less about colateral damage.

 

And, on the other hand, those who have felt disciminated against say that an injustice is beeing corrected.

 

My opinion : transition creates difficult times whichever way you want to implement it. Only when nobody notices anymore that the pilot is a woman can the merit system become the norm and the quotas become a think of the past.

 

Having said that, and since this is the original subject of this post, I don't think Air France ever considered quotas (thank God, at least they have THAT right !). The only concern I have heard expressed about all-women crew is not about pilots but about the risk for stews of not beeing able to handle an incident with a violent (drunk or crazed) passenger. But then you can expect chivalrous passengers to jump to the rescue !

 

Bruno

 

PS (Murmur) : For Rónán, try ALT 162 and ALT 160. Otherwise, cut and paste works well too !

The only concern I have heard expressed about all-women crew is not about pilots but about the risk for stews of not beeing able to handle an incident with a violent (drunk or crazed) passenger. But then you can expect chivalrous passengers to jump to the rescue !

 

I'd say a fair few of our female flight crew would be much better at putting the fear of god into an unruly passenger than some of our male pilots, they just take a different approach to it. All comes down to the individual Captain I suppose.

 

Rónán.

I'd say a fair few of our female flight crew would be much better at putting the fear of god into an unruly passenger than some of our male pilots, they just take a different approach to it. All comes down to the individual Captain I suppose.

 

Rónán.

 

I see...In fact, I wasn't refering to male pilots but to male stews.

 

In case someone gets violent in the cabin, as a passenger, I'd much rather have the stews (male and female) get involved in a brawl with them than have the captain risk having the light punched out of him by a would-be Rambo - or Rambette ! (Now, if that happened, I am sure the simmers on board would be delighted at the opportunity to land the plane !)

 

Bruno