Men vs Women

[Elin Scheffers]

My male (pilot) friends used to tell me that if god wanted women to fly he would've painted the sky pink. What do male pilots actually think about female pilots? Comments please.

[Approaching_the_minimums]

I know a couple a girls with a CPL, some are absolutely great pilots, some are absolutely not. I know a couple a guys with a CPL, some are absolutly great pilots, some are absolutely not. Catch my drift? Gender doesn't really matter, but I did notice that the majority of female pilots are not the shy giggly type.

Oh and one more thing: i find a girl in a pilot uniform a real turn-off, but it's a real turn-on when she takes it off

[G SXTY]

Ahh yes, nice to have a debate about the things that really matter . . .

My 1000hr instructor is very talented, very professional, and very female. Flying is no different to any other walk of life - I've been driven by people of both sexes who I was convinced would kill me.

And women's RT is generally clearer as well. Don't ask me why, perhaps I've just learnt that not paying attention when the missus is talking can be painful.

[QNH 1013]

All pilots have demonstrated their skills and knowledge to become pilots. There are good pilots, there are satisfactory pilots, and there are exceptional pilots (I've met very few of those). Whether they are male or female doesn't enter into it.
I worry slightly when someone assumes that the sex of a pilot is relevent to their ability to fly.

[Roc]

I know I will catch hell for this, but, in my experience (Military, and Major US airline) I've found that the women who make it this far are usually very good pilots as able as any man! However, Women definately leave the business much more than men,I've known alot of women, who went through the rigors of Air Force Pilot Training, only to quit to have kids and never return, or like one did, she opened her own shop in Colorado selling aromatherapy supplies! My theory is these women enjoyed the challenge of learning to fly, getting on with a major airline etc...but then it became "work" and wasn't "fun" any more. Most men can't just quit like this, too bad!! probably many of us would like to at this point in aviation's history. Also I can tell you from an instructors POV that women tend to fixate while flying and at times seem to lose the "big picture" more often then male pilots. Give me a second to put on my helmet and jump into the foxhole!!!!!

[Whirlybird]

Roc,

Since only 2% of commercial pilots are female, at least in the UK, on how many people are you actually basing your comments? Is it enough for them to be statistically significant? And we can't all leave jobs when the going gets rough; some of us need to earn a living if we expect to eat, even if we're female. Incredible generalisation if I may say so.

In this month's "Flyer" is a report on a recent US study of GA pilots involved in incidents. It was found that women had more accidents involving mishandling, men more involving poor decision making such as flight into bad weather. What was that you said about not seeing the bigger picture?

[DesiPilot]

I don't have too much experience but I have been instructing for past 3 years. We've had many female students in our school and IMHO I saw one thing common with all the female students. They were all perfectionists. Nothing wrong in improving yourself and seek perfection but in aviation everything is fluid. No two landings are same, no two approaches are same but they all wanted greaser landings everytime. They all wanted to do the maneuvers better then last time. Again nothing wrong with it as long as it doesnt become a hurdle.
As for guys, I guess we go there with a big ego. Even if we have hard landing, just to nurse our ego, we would say it was a safe one.
At the end of the day it doesn't matter whether you are male or female they all make good pilots. It all depends on the individual's capabilities rather than their sex.
We have one female instructor working out of seven and I wish we had more cuz she is a great instructor

Jatin

[BEagle]

My experience of lady pilots under training was that, apart from a small minority who were never going to make it (much as some male pilots), they would usually be much keener to do well than their male colleagues. Say to a bloke "That was an average trip" and he'd think "Good enough - I'll go to the pub tonight"; say the same thing to a lady and she'd think "I can do better than that!".

We had a very 'girl-shaped girl' who flew excellent aeros and formation and had to choose between the RAF and the airlines, having had offers from both. She now graces the flight deck for Britmidlandish Internationalbmi!!

[Whirlybird]

DesiPilot and BEagle,

Us girlies never forget that anything a woman does she has to do twice as well as a man to be thought half as good. And although this is not difficult, we do work hard to make absolutely sure.