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Old 9th Mar 2017, 23:10
  #3596 (permalink)  
ShyTorque

Avoid imitations
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
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Whirlybird, I do know you're female (we have met, I visited your house up near the TNT about fourteen years ago). By sheer coincidence I drove past there again only this week, first time since.

I would say that those who say "Oh, flying isn't for me" are actually saying "I don't want to try".

I instructed almost as many female students as male ones during my time as a military UAS QFI. I found that only a few females wanted to do much more than go solo. Once they had done that many lost interest. There were some who went on to become successful RAF captains, but not many. One of my female students went on to fly fast jets (she captained the RAFs first all female fast jet crew), another one went on to fly SAR helicopters.

Strangely, one other memorable female student (not mine) had a hugely inflated opinion of her own flying ability and prospects with regard to joining the full time RAF as a pilot. She had to be curtailed from being let out of the circuit solo because she had little or no spatial awareness, to the point of thinking she was over landmarks to the south of the airfield despite having taken off heading north and flying on a northerly track. I was asked to fly with her for a second opinion and she soon got herself totally lost after a couple of rate one practice turns, despite careful briefing, which is what others had already noted. She wanted to continue further north in order to fly back to base! She was later taken off flying altogether because she could make no further progress on the UAS syllabus (and for her own safety). She took great umbrage to this, claiming she was being discriminated against and wrote an indignant complaint to the RAF hierarchy. She rather reminds me of someone......

On the other hand, my own daughter is a member of a university air squadron; she has recently told me she didn't actually join to learn to fly as her main priority (actually she told her mother, I think she didn't want to tell me to my face after all my efforts to persuade her to apply to join). I have flown with her a couple of times in the past and she has also flown in SEP and gliders as an air cadet. She later said she prefers the VIP seats in the cabin to the ones in the cockpit! Her mother agreed, so does she.
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