What century is this?

[Whirlygirl]

Haha - had to laugh last night... worked a night shift on the Air Ambulance with another female pilot, which doesn't happen that often, since there are only two of us, out of about 30 pilots.

Landed at the hospital in Campbell River, BC at 3:00 am, only to have one of the local paramedics blurt out: "Wow - two girl pilots? Is that safe?" Now - don't get me wrong, I've been doing this for ten years, and am used to being an "anomaly" in this industry, but was actually a little shocked to hear a comment like that from a fellow "professional"! To top it all off, when we landed in Victoria, the boyfriend of the pregnant 18-year-old we were transporting, informed us that "Wow - girls really CAN fly!" I felt like reminding him that, yes, we can VOTE too! HAHAHA

Anyhow... just had to share... Good thing I've got a thick skin and a good sense of humour!

 

[wrightme43]

Just keep doing what you do. Arent females able to stand more G force before grey out than men?

Helicoptor flying kicks ass.

 

[Hellgate]

Pretty funny. My cousin, female, used to fly 747s for United in the late 80's and early '90's until she passed away from breast cancer at age 36. She was 5'3" and 95 lbs soaking wet. She got all kinds of crap until the males saw her fly. They never said a word after that! She taught me to fly her father's Piper Super Cub. She could slip that thing down the tail, amazing. I think I just puked!

 

[yukon_alex]

...Campbell River...To top it all off, when we landed in Victoria, the boyfriend of the pregnant 18-year-old we were transporting, informed us that "Wow - girls really CAN fly!"....

Hmmm. Campbell River, you say? Backward, chauvenistic, sexist? Really? Did you ask if the boyfriend was also her brother?

Don't get me wrong, I am sure that some nice people live in Campbell River, no, really. You just got 2 for 2 in the bonehead count! Good for you! Sometimes they can be hard to spot!

 

[VEGASRIDER]

We have quite a few female helicopter pilots where I work, but they strictly do tours. They haven't built up enough seniority to do any utility work, fires or fly the newshelicopter yet. Speaking of all female crews, I was flying home from Miami to Las Vegas on American Airlines, a 6hr flight, and it was an all female flight crew. Captain and 1st officer were females along with the 5-6 flight attendants:Flash:

 

[CMHrider]

my best flight instructors were females. You probably would have totally amazed them if you told them you rode a motorcycle too. I guess some don't realize physics doesn't care if you're male or female.

 

[HavBlue]

I guess I could understand the frustration women face in a number of endeavors but in flying, there have been some truly gifted pilots and I am not referring simply to the likes of Amelia Earhart. For those of you that are old enough to remember Chuck Yeager, he had a female side kick so to speak and her name was Jackie Cochran who was one of the most inspirational women female aviation has ever known.

During WWII she was a founding member of WAAC and WASP. She also flew for "Wings for Britain" and won the Bendix Trophy. Her contributions to woman's aviation are huge and she currently has a number of airports named after her as well as being the first woman to fly a bomber, reach Mach 1 and 2, land and take off from an aircraft carrier and earn the Distinguished Service Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross. She won 5 Harmon Trophies as the world's most distinguished female pilot. She is also the "only" woman to ever be President of the Federation Aeronautique International.

The first licensed woman pilot in the United States was Harriet Quimby in 1911. The Navy, not the Air Force, took the first step in 1974 when six women earned their wings and became the first Naval aviators. The Army followed suit in 1974 and trained female helicopter pilots. During Desert Storm the first woman pilot gave her life while flying in a combat zone. Major Marie T. Rossi died at age 32 on March 1, 1991, when the Chinook helicopter she was piloting crashed near her base in northern Saudia Arabia. Another of the first American woman to fly in combat in the '90s was Lt Col.Martha McSally, ranked as the top female Air Force pilot. Lt Col McSally was among the first women trained by the Air Force as a fighter pilot. During a 1995-96 tour of duty in Kuwait, she became the first woman in military history to fly a combat sortie in a fighter aircraft. She also flew more than 100 combat hours on an A-10 Warthog attack plane over Iraq in the mid-1990s, and served as a flight commander and trainer of combat pilots. The 2006 the Air Force Thunderbirds team includes first female pilot. Major Nicole Malachowski, of the 494th Fighter Squadron at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, joins the team as the first female demonstration pilot on any U.S. military high performance jet team. At present there are roughly 50 female fighter pilots while there are about 460 male fighter pilots in the US military. They have been allowed to fly combat missions since the early 1990's.

 

[OneTrack]

Haha - had to laugh last night... worked a night shift on the Air Ambulance with another female pilot, which doesn't happen that often, since there are only two of us, out of about 30 pilots.

Landed at the hospital in Campbell River, BC at 3:00 am, only to have one of the local paramedics blurt out: "Wow - two girl pilots? Is that safe?" Now - don't get me wrong, I've been doing this for ten years, and am used to being an "anomaly" in this industry, but was actually a little shocked to hear a comment like that from a fellow "professional"! To top it all off, when we landed in Victoria, the boyfriend of the pregnant 18-year-old we were transporting, informed us that "Wow - girls really CAN fly!" I felt like reminding him that, yes, we can VOTE too! HAHAHA

Anyhow... just had to share... Good thing I've got a thick skin and a good sense of humour!

I'm sure you knew going into your profession that you would be considered to be "swimming upstream" even by some other females, never mind the occasional "NO GURLZ ALOUD" male.
I'm from a generation that was taught stereotyping on steroids, so have had to "adapt" rather quickly to stereotype smashing, rather than bashing.
Working in my own field (Automotive), just 15 short years ago I would have been surprised (pleasantly...) to discover a female working at a Service Counter in a dealership.
Today, my finest Service Managers and Advisors are female....and I don't mean that to be taken in the same context as "some of my best friends are female" . I find female Service staff to be better organized, willing to learn without the "ego" getting in the way, and generally....well....smarter. The "tough guy" female in our industry is becoming as much of a dinosaur as the "tough guy" male too, btw....Both were a pain in the butt, quite honestly.
Campbell River...? ....Try being the only guy wearing a tie there....
So, inquiring minds need to know...do you refer to your helicopter as "she" or "he"..?

 

[Doorag]

You should try working in the UK. They are about 20 years behind the US. Not a single day goes by that a male does or says something so inappropriate that they would be fired on the spot in the US. I'm constantly amazed.

However - when done in a nice way, the ribbing and joking around can be quite fun. I think the US has lost a lot of that.

 

[Nooj]

My Aunt was a flight engineer in the ETPS (Empire Test Pilot School) at Boscombe Down which I think is pretty cool, flying on loads of tirals, testing new stuff, also being chucked into the North Sea with a small blow-up lifeboat for search and rescue trials.

 

[keira]

I'm glad you can brush it off with a sense of humor. That kind of discrimination can go both ways. I am always amazed at how backwards some of our youth are - I had two students (High School) tell me yesterday that I would make a good counselor because I'm a girl, and girls are more caring like that. My internship mentor (and one of the finest counselors I have ever met) is male.

Someday, people will be treated the same at work regardless of their sex.

 

[Doorag]

Men and women tend to have different stregnths and weaknesses, but in most circumstances should be equal.

Riddle me this - I have always wondered why women don't compete equally with men in non-physical events like darts and billiards (snooker) and chess and... and... and... I can understand things like the marathon and weight lifting, but anything else shoul be contested equally.

 

[CanadianFZ6]

I wouldn't worry about dumbass people like that... the bigger insult is that they don't pay you enough for what you do....

Remember what doesn't mean squat after takeoff (mostly for fixed wing...)
1) The runway behind you...
2) The sky above you...
3) The fuel you left on the ground....

 

[Fred]

Whirly,

The sad part about those incidents is that if you had taken either of those guys and stuck him in the left seat of your helicopter, he wouldn't have had the first clue what to do. (I say left seat because the term '****pit' is clearly outdated.)

But they're fine with rendering judgment on YOUR ability. Monday morning quarterbacks is all they are.

Fred

 

[Whirlygirl]

Thanks for all the comments, guys and gals - I really hope I didn't come across as some whiny, chip-on-her-shoulder "girl pilot" - haha! Trust me, I have been doing this for way too long to ever be offended by the odd off-hand remark... I have worked in the far north, fought fires, and been the only female in a camp full of loggers, so there's nothing I haven't heard or seen. For the record, most people - even those who were a little surprised to see me show up on the job - have been professional and given me the benefit of the doubt. Those that weren't, I was always able to win over with a combination of humour and professionalism myself. Honestly, I'm a big fan of the good-natured male-female ribbing on the job - keeps things entertaining!

I just thought the comment from the paramedic was funny, considering no one has ever said anything to me when I've been flying with a male co-pilot... Guess they figured there was always a "man" there to bail things out if I'm suddenly overtaken by a PMS-induced nervous breakdown...

And yes... it WAS Cambell River after all... otherwise known as "Darwin's Waiting Room"... :justkidding:

 

[Hellgate]

Thanks for all the comments, guys and gals - I really hope I didn't come across as some whiny, chip-on-her-shoulder "girl pilot" - haha! Trust me, I have been doing this for way too long to ever be offended by the odd off-hand remark... I have worked in the far north, fought fires, and been the only female in a camp full of loggers, so there's nothing I haven't heard or seen. For the record, most people - even those who were a little surprised to see me show up on the job - have been professional and given me the benefit of the doubt. Those that weren't, I was always able to win over with a combination of humour and professionalism myself. Honestly, I'm a big fan of the good-natured male-female ribbing on the job - keeps things entertaining!

I just thought the comment from the paramedic was funny, considering no one has ever said anything to me when I've been flying with a male co-pilot... Guess they figured there was always a "man" there to bail things out if I'm suddenly overtaken by a PMS-induced nervous breakdown...

And yes... it WAS Cambell River after all... otherwise known as "Darwin's Waiting Room"... :justkidding:

Hey I had female Caliber .50 gunners in Iraq. "Iggy" could nail them center of mass at 300 meters, free gunning from a HUMVEE with iron sights, she was 19 years old at the time. No one else in my Infantry Company could shoot like her, including me!

 

[Whirlygirl]

Hey I had female Caliber .50 gunners in Iraq. "Iggy" could nail them center of mass at 300 meters, free gunning from a HUMVEE with iron sights, she was 19 years old at the time. No one else in my Infantry Company could shoot like her, including me!

Awesome! It just reinforces the point, which someone else mentioned, that there are so many activities that shouldn't be considered gender specific, whether it's flying, shooting, or billiards! I don't deny the physical differences between men and women, but seriously, you don't need the ability to pee standing up to be good at a lot of other things! Hahaha

 

[OneTrack]

Awesome! It just reinforces the point, which someone else mentioned, that there are so many activities that shouldn't be considered gender specific, whether it's flying, shooting, or billiards! I don't deny the physical differences between men and women, but seriously, you don't need the ability to pee standing up to be good at a lot of other things! Hahaha

Except putting out campfires, of course.
It's all a matter of "conditioning"; it's like the old 60's "riddle" about the surgeon who couldn't operate on a boy because "he is my son, but I'm not his father". The surgeon was, of course, his mother....Back in the 60's, although there were tens of thousands of female surgeons around the world, most people (male and female, btw) still thought of a man when they thought "surgeon", so were baffled by the "riddle".
The biggest clanger I dropped in my job was meeting a Dr. Smith at a Dealership about 15 years ago....I approached the couple and extended my hand to the man and said "Good morning Dr. Smith". His wife icily replied "I'M Dr. Smith". I never made that assumption again.

 

[Fred]

Hey I had female Caliber .50 gunners in Iraq.

I wonder if it's the same .50 gunner that I dated for a bit last year.

Probably not, she never mentioned a nickname.

 

[Hellgate]

I wonder if it's the same .50 gunner that I dated for a bit last year.

Probably not, she never mentioned a nickname.

Probably not, her first name is Jennifer, last name starts with an "I". She lives in the Dallas area, the part of the state I don't visit often.