Women Pilots
 

I've met many male pilots, i know plenty about the lifestyle.. however I've never met a Female Airline pilot, who's well.. straight with family? - have I just been unlucky, or is this career impossible for women with children?

Does flying and starting a family difficult? (I am think long term here, btw)
What are the advantages/disadvanges. thanks in advance.

:p

im not sure about women as pilots as im still doing my cpl.

my instructor is female and married to an airline fo.

if ure looking to start check out the £2000 bursary for females on the oxford aviation website!

good luck

No bursaries for males then?

no sadly not must be too many of us, must be an initiative to train more female pilots.

good on em i say

I think it's the right thing to try and equal the gap between the number of male pilots and the number of female pilots, but they need to look deeper into it. I'm certain the main reason for it being a male dominated industry is simply because on the whole, more males are into it. So by giving females bursaries, it's only really going to help females who already want to do it, and bursary or no bursary, the ones benefitting from it are going to get their licences anyway.

They should really just accept that in the current day, there are more men actually wanting to do the job. But that doesn't mean females who want to do it should be disadvantaged - but I think its wrong to give them an advantage over males.

All this positive discrimination is stupid, people should be rewarded for their suitability and capability, not their gender, ethnicity or sexuality.

Hi Davina,

Both myself and my other half are FO's with a mini-me in tow! She's straight! (There goes my fantasy!)

Anyway, were both on the same fleet and the hardest bit is juggling our rosters, so that at least one of us is at home.

We have 30+ female pilots here, both left seat and right. A large percentage with kids and partners in the airline.

The main problem with the job is the unusual hours associated. On short haul you can either start your duty very early or finish very late. On long haul you obviously end up spending quite a few nights away each week. You'll need either a very understanding partner (not sure if they exist!) or an au-pair/nanny. (Ours always chosen by the other half and with a BMI of 30+)

A large percentage of our female pilot with families also tend to opt for part time conditions.

Other than that, no different from any other job with shift work.

Hope that helps!

Lady pilots...
 

We have a few here in Argentina.
xxx
Most of the ones who are married and have little children, elect to fly short haul, 737 or MD-80s and are not frequently on layovers away from home. Rosters are often made to favor them, such as getting weekends off, matching school holidays and vacation periods. We have a few flying long haul, but they either are single or with older kids.
xxx
The problem is the same as female flight attendants, no difference. Females are entitled to pregnancy and maternity leave. Both at AEP and EZE, we also have airport nurseries operating 24 hrs for children of airline employees up to age 6.
xxx
Just to mention, we have very few "pilot couples". I only know two who are married, husband/wife pilot team, but company policy would prohibit them to operate together as a crew. He is a 747 F/O and she is a 737 F/O. Easy to understand... imagine a domestic argument during an approach...! I like the only female F/O that I fly with occasionally, but hell, I would never date her nor marry her. When she goes out for a drink after a flight with the F/E and myself, all we talk about is airplanes. I personally dont think it is easy to be a "pilot married to a pilot" (nor to a flight attendant).
xxx
I dont think female pilots need "to be different kind of human beings" to have an airline career. My wife was a dancer with a tango troupe with worldwide tours, and was more often "on the road" and logged "more flying time" than my own flying. By chance we had her parents to take care of our kids. So dont tell me about being pilot and not being able to have a family...
xxx
Ladies, my best wishes to you. And some of we male pilot are real gentlemen...!
:)
Happy contrails

I'm a female pilot, finished all my training and getting into the flying work force soon, I've been worried about how it is for females regarding chances of getting work, families etc etc.... I have found these posts really handy and at the same time makes me feel like I definatly am in the right career, although I would have never given up anyway. THANKS!

Hi,hows everyone?Just thought id let you know that we have about 25 female pilots working for us.All the ones i have flown with have come from a commercial back ground,and are now captains or F.o's on the A340 or the B747.Most of them have families of all ages,good luck for the future :ok:

It depends. Timing is every thing.

I got married at 40 and had just finally cracked a good job. At 41 I got promoted to captain and now finally in a position to really enjoy our lives and also put away some money for retirement.
Children aren't really a viable option for us for many reasons. Apart from any thing else, our families are on the other side of the planet and with no support, it would be nigh impossible.

Had I been 10 years younger and in the same position, children might have been an option.

Most of my colleagues with very young children work in the office. I don't know how my colleagues with older children handle it. Child care isn't cheap.

My female PPL instructor now flies Dash-8s in all sorts of far flung places, but has no maternal instincts at all.

Personally I would hate to have to juggle this job with bringing up children - it must be tough.

Wow, some amazing responses.. thank you everyone sooo much!

BelArgUSA - some airports have nurseries for airline crew, thats amazing i didn't know that! Luckily I am already married, he's not into aviation and is far to understanding for his own good sometimes! lol.

nick14 - Oxford give women a £2k bursery, thats amazing!! I had ruled oxford out, but they may be back in the running again!

I've sent you a PM.

It sounds like if you can afford childcare or have a partner who is willing to play half a mom too you can get anywhere!

How does the "Standard Woman" cope with aircraft/space-vehicle controls and flight decks which have all been designed and configured so far for the "Standard Man" ?

I believe the Standard Woman specifications remain to be firmly established. Wouldn't care to be on that committee! How then should designers and test pilots develop a compromise?

Flight control force and feel specifications are of most concern.

Must female pilots wear slacks or are skirts permitted. I presume high heel shoes are a no no!

For how long are newly pregnant women permitted by airlines/regulators to continue flying and how soon may they resume flying after a birth?

Milt,

"Fitting" the aircraft was more of a problem in the C207 type of aircraft, versus the more complex ones. The seats and rudder pedals are all adjustable in the more complex beasties so "fitting" it is less of an issue. An extra cushion solved the problem. Short guys have similar problems while very tall guys have other problems.

Control force/feel is balanced out so that's not a problem. If it's a large aircraft, it's hydraulically powered so it's doing all the work. Either way, the trim's your friend.

I don't think I've ever seen a female pilot wear a skirt whilst flying, it isn't the most practical piece of apparel. Sometimes I wear a tie, sometimes I wear a scarf. Both are acceptable.

With regards pregnancy. Different regulatory bodies have slightly different ideas. In JAA land. You're automatically grounded upon finding out you're pregnant. Then your flight status can be restored after consultation with your doctors. Then you're ok to fly (assuming you're ok) until the 3rd trimester when the risk of early delivery and the bulk of the baby make it impractical.

My perception...
 

I'm career focused and still very inclined to have a family....I dont think it really makes a difference, I never had a thought to give up either of them.

The flying while pregnant is dependent on multiple doctors and a risk case.

I recently was flying with an FO who was in the last week of her third (thingy) it wasn't very comfy for her.

The route was a coporate bus service and the customer was more than happy.

I must admit it does put a new dimension on pilot incapacitation.

^^^^ That was Mrs SkyToddler that mad_jock's referring to, and SkyToddler junior is expected any day now.

My wife's been flying commercially for about 3 years now, me for about 12. I'm currently flying the A330 and she's on the Jetstream. Obviously she's not medically fit at the moment and she has to take a bit of time off now to give the little fella a head start in life, but we have every plan and expectation that within a year or so she'll be back in the driver's seat. To be honest I've pretty much gotten over the whole big-jet head trip myself, and I'm more than happy to take a gap year or two and do the house husband thing when she decides it's time to go back flying. Or, if we can go back to smaller aircraft on a part time roster and fly together like back in the old days that'd be fantastic as well. I have to say there's no chance of both of us working long-haul-big-jets from what I've seen of the lifestyle so far.

Obviously there's a certain element of making sacrifices for the other one, but we work as a team and we'll both have more than our fair share of fun out of this aviation thing before we're finished :)