We have a good bunch of lady pilots in our company (bmi), and although not a huge number in percentage terms there are enough of them to have changed the work environment and atmosphere in the company very much for the better.

As to competence, my experience is entirely the same as for my male colleagues, most are very good, some are really excellent and a few have struggled to make the grade, most struggled successfully and one or two didn't.

I agree with some of the posters above, there is no reason at all why a woman can't do the job just as well as a man but there are probably just fewer women who want to do it and that is almost certainly not going to change. It is, at the end of the day, a good job if you are interested in aeroplanes and aviation but with the hours and long periods away from home it can be a pretty strange way to earn a living and doesn't suit everyone, male or female.

Nashers

Like soooo many men, you seam to have it in for women wanting to persue their dream jobs. As for your coments about women pilots clogging up the taxi ways. Only last week whilst I was with my student taxiing to the hold, a male pilot of a business jet somehow found himself at the wrong end of the runway. Not sure how that happened, maybe he was to embarrased to ask for directions ???

I often find that my female students are far more focused and situationally aware during their flights than their male counterparts who just wanna fly fast........

It's less stereotypical than some of the facile comments from the men on this thread! What's sauce for the goose eh?

Cheers

Whirls

Situational awareness and informed decision-making in the cockpit has nothing to do with sexual orientation or gender. :D

WP

To cite the article at the top of this thread;

"In the old round-dial days, both pilots had to form a picture in their heads of what the three-dimensional flight situation was"

So now with glass cockpits it would seem situational awareness is now redundant:ugh:

Very different animals, men and women. In my FI days it was usually the blokes that clammed up once in the aircraft. Women are usually much more at face value although most of my "little surprises" have been presented by women, most notably releasing the controls, then saying "you have control" as we drifted serenely towards the grass. All this in a medium jet!

Women are allegedly better at multi-tasking and language skills are usually stronger. I can eat a sandwich while looking out the windscreen but not sure if counts as multi-task.

Mate of mine is a psychologist, and he was telling me how women can go to the shops with no apparent plan and come back having spent a small fortune. It goes back to when primitive people were simple hunter/gatherers. Women would set off not really knowing what they were expecting to find and thus would select many different things as they went along. Men on the otherhand would know they were looking for an Antelope but would disregard or not notice all the other flora and fauna around them.

Incidentally two of the best commercial pilots I ever flew with are women and one of the greatest test pilots ever was a woman. Hanna Reich. They do have babies though.

Yeh just look at Amelia Earhart the first woman to fly solo across the atlantic.

Theres even a film being made about her

The Official Website of Amelia Earhart

Not sure of your point there Ali; she also went missing, presumed dead, during a circumnavigational flight.

However, she wasn't the first person to fly solo across the atlantic, she was the first woman. If Amelai Earhart hadn't done it, another woman would have.

Cheers

Whirls

Well none the less she was an inspiration.

I didnt say she was the first person to cross the atlantic i said she was the first woman.

''If Amelai Earhart hadn't done it, another woman would have'' well that's like saying if Neil Armstrong hadnt have walked on the moon some one else would have

i dont see your point:confused:.

My point is, if Amelai Earhart had been the first person to cross the Atlantic, then that would have made her achievement all the greater; as it was, she just did something that a man had done before her. To be the first person to do something is more of an achievement than to be the first woman, the first gay, the first black, the first ....

Granted, in the age and time at which she did she would have fought more prejudice from society than women now, but, sooner or later, a woman would have made the same achievement.

Your anaolgy with Neil Armstrong fails because Neil Armstrong's achievement was down to hundreds of scientists and engineers and major Governemt funding in order to get mankind on the moon. Yes, if Neil Armstrong hadn't been the first, then someone else would have been as the NASA would have made sure of it!

Cheers

Whirls

I'm not sure if i agree with you there, you shouldnt say that just because man did something before her, means that man is better at flying.

that is absolutely not true

Please read what I am saying Ali; I am NOT saying men are better, I am saying that men and women are equal (in standing) and that it only because of previous societies, prejudices and even religion, that women have been held back. But when we are in a state of sociological flux, changes in inequalities are inevitable.

Cheers

Whirls

''But when we are in a state of sociological flux, changes in inequalities are inevitable''.

lol

skysiren, chilax! i was kiddin!! my cpl instructor was female and i thought she was great!

still think were better at parking than u girls though!:p:}

Situational Awareness
 

Mona Lot, from my perspective, situational awareness is more than the three- dimensional picture you mentioned. It is the "BIG PICTURE" based on several factors that determine the options we have available for maintaining a high level of safety during the duration of flight. Glass cockpit definitely enhances decision-making but has not made situational awareness redundant.:=

WP

World pilot

That was my point and I totally agree with you. The BIG PICTURE is so much more then spending all day staring at a pretty multi coloured EFIS or ND display. I was being flippant and I apologise.

Anyone who thinks that the flight deck authority gradient is a function of the instrument fit is talking out of their vent and needs to spend some time on line. Authority gradient is more to do with the personality of both crew members and has very little, if anything to do with instruments and even less to do with gender!

Is the mumbo jumbo in this article seriously suggesting that graduates of modern FTOs cannot reliably and accurately interpret a good old fashioned HSI or RMI. And if they can they will be at the bottom end of a very steep authority gradient?

All this crap about the cost of women becoming pregnant is just rubbish.
What about the cost of a bloke having a heart attack?
What about the cost of a person leaving after a couple of years for another company?
It's still a cost.

Women better than men? Women worse than men? Who cares. Men being worse than other men. Phht. Non event.

batle of the genders
 

very well said, redsnail

I have flown with women also and just like men, some are damn good, and some are not so good.

I can`t believe that ideia came from such an organization as Oxford academy... bull****! Crap!

Being a pilot is much more as for any other job, it`s not a question of gender but having the right qualities all together.

I think if you trained 100 random males and 100 random females to be pilots, the males would be better at it. But that doesn't mean some females cannot be top pilots too.

I think if you surveyed 100 random 23 yo males and 100 random 23 yo females, the males would be chauvinist idiots. But that doesn't mean some males cannot be top blokes too. :ugh:

Why didn't you just say "Boys are better than girls ... nyah nyah!" :suspect: