Question: Career as a Female Pilot?

Lea Marie Medina

Lea Marie Medina

Filing Flight Plan
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Dec 26, 2016
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6
Location
Forest Hills, NY
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Display name:
Ywgen
Hi, all. I'm new and happened to join a few days ago after pilots I knew didn't reply to my messages. I am in junior in high school and it's the time for me to start zoning in on a major I want to pursue. I fell in love with airplanes at an early age (thank the good ol' History Channel), and I said to myself at the age of 10 that I wanted to become a pilot. My father thought of it lightly, back then. He tried to convince me to be involved in a field that isn't so dominated by males (and I do see it changing; I'd love to show him wrong at some point :p ), but I still held fast to wanting to fly as a career because I didn't feel as if the work he set me out for would be fulfilling nor make me happy. Well, I am now 16 and I am at the controls of my own life-- much to his chagrin. He gave me one challenge: to talk to at least two female pilots and ask them about their lives and careers as pilots. I, personally, am interested in being a CFII at my local university with a four-year aviation course after graduation. My father still wants me to ask for a story from at least one person who flies for an airline. I would love it if a female CFII were to tell me about students and teaching methods... let's not forget the necessity of teaching the right things.

So please-- I know some of you are out there. Can you tell me about your pilot lifestyles, home/social lives, the paths to your careers, your experiences in flight school, any difficulties in finding work, relations with your counterparts, and any means of help you turned to? Me being able to attend this university is literally on the line. I will take my SAT in March 2017 so I can apply for the course early to ensure a seat in the class. I would also greatly appreciate it if we Skyped/ called over phone!

GRAMERCY!:oops:
 
murphey said:
For starters, go find the local 99s and/or WAI (women in aviation) chapters. If there's a local university with an aviation major, then one or both organizations will have chapters there. Where are you located?

www.wai.org
www.ninety-nines.org
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I'm located in Forest Hills, NY. The place I want to go to is a SUNY. I'll check those links out.
 
First off, I'm not really digging your sexist remarks.

That said, Ive worked with female pilots, and no one gives a crap, tow the line, do your job and weather you have a penis or a vag, black or white, get the job done and it's all the same.
 
James331 said:
First off, I'm not really digging your sexist remarks.

That said, Ive worked with female pilots, and no one gives a crap, tow the line, do your job and weather you have a penis or a vag, black or white, get the job done and it's all the same.
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To be frank, I was writing it with a bit of apprehension. I'm actually thankful you pointed out the sexist tone. I've read of some women having it rough in their jobs due to some harassment and some cases of shunning as some happened to think "she might do work better than me, that's scary." I didn't mean to be sexist. But thank you for saying that it really doesn't matter; it's quite a relief.
 
Stay away from the "aviation colleges." Get a degree in something else you enjoy. If for some reason you can't fly (medical issues), then you'll have that to fall back on.

Get your private, instrument, commercial and CFII during your breaks. You can start on your private now if the money is available. In fact, if the bucks are available, there's no reason why you couldn't have all that prior to your first day in college. Do the CFI'ing during your off time. That will help to reduce, or even eliminate your education loans. Going into aviation debt free will be a bonus.
 
I am not a female, but the female pilots and instructors I have met along the way, including CFIIs, were all top notch professionals.
I think females do have a bit more challenge to make it in aviation, if only because they are typically in a minority, but once they prove their worth they seem to advance and get promoted quickly.
Good luck to you!
 
Not gender related: make sure you meet the medical requirements for being a certificated pilot. A common stumbling block is a diagnosis of ADHD or depression (or being prescribed medication to treat either). Better to know now than find out later those two diagnoses are deal breakers and can be expensive to overturn if they were made in error.

It also goes without saying to have a clean criminal and driving history as well.
 
Lea Marie Medina said:
To be frank, I was writing it with a bit of apprehension. I'm actually thankful you pointed out the sexist tone. I've read of some women having it rough in their jobs due to some harassment and some cases of shunning as some happened to think "she might do work better than me, that's scary." I didn't mean to be sexist. But thank you for saying that it really doesn't matter; it's quite a relief.
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Don't mind him. He can't help himself.

Welcome to POA.
 
I'll second the thought that a major in something to fall back on is the way to accompany a pilot career. Unless you want to be a test pilot and need an engineering degree, most high-end aviation jobs require a degree. No major specified.
 
Don't spend your money at Vaughn college. They don't teach anything useful, and just take your money. As it has been said. Get a real degree that has some value. Consider that you spend your time and getting a degree in professional pilot program, at the age of 30 something happens and you lose your medical. Well now you have to hope the airline can get you a position that keeps the pay checks coming.

And for the record I did not see any sexist remarks.
 
TommyG said:
And for the record I did not see any sexist remarks.
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It may be that the sexism is on the part of the parents and not the OP.

Meanwhile -- for the OP -- Go somewhere like Purdue or Ohio State. Major in anything you like and get the flying going while you're there. Going all in on at aviation university may limit your options.
 
TommyG said:
Don't spend your money at Vaughn college. They don't teach anything useful, and just take your money. As it has been said. Get a real degree that has some value. Consider that you spend your time and getting a degree in professional pilot program, at the age of 30 something happens and you lose your medical. Well now you have to hope the airline can get you a position that keeps the pay checks coming.
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When you are 30 and lose your medical, an 8 year old bachelors in 'something' is not going to be of much use. Knowledge is perishable, lets say you got a an accounting or finance degree, its not like you can just turn that into a job without going back to school.

A good reason to get a non-aviation degree is that credits at a community or general state college are often cheaper than in the aviation programs.
 
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Lea Marie Medina said:
Hi, all. I'm new and happened to join a few days ago after pilots I knew didn't reply to my messages. I am in junior in high school and it's the time for me to start zoning in on a major I want to pursue. I fell in love with airplanes at an early age (thank the good ol' History Channel), and I said to myself at the age of 10 that I wanted to become a pilot. My father thought of it lightly, back then. He tried to convince me to be involved in a field that isn't so dominated by males (and I do see it changing; I'd love to show him wrong at some point :p ), but I still held fast to wanting to fly as a career because I didn't feel as if the work he set me out for would be fulfilling nor make me happy. Well, I am now 16 and I am at the controls of my own life-- much to his chagrin. He gave me one challenge: to talk to at least two female pilots and ask them about their lives and careers as pilots. I, personally, am interested in being a CFII at my local university with a four-year aviation course after graduation. My father still wants me to ask for a story from at least one person who flies for an airline. I would love it if a female CFII were to tell me about students and teaching methods... let's not forget the necessity of teaching the right things.

So please-- I know some of you are out there. Can you tell me about your pilot lifestyles, home/social lives, the paths to your careers, your experiences in flight school, any difficulties in finding work, relations with your counterparts, and any means of help you turned to? Me being able to attend this university is literally on the line. I will take my SAT in March 2017 so I can apply for the course early to ensure a seat in the class. I would also greatly appreciate it if we Skyped/ called over phone!

GRAMERCY!:oops:
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You won't find many female pilots on this board to give you perspective... there's only three of us who post with any regularity. It's not sexist to state fact - which is that this is a male dominated field. But, while you will need to have thick skin, it doesn't mean you have work any harder than your male counterparts to be successful... let your intelligence and passion for aviation guide you and you'll do just fine.

I second the recommendation to contact your local 99s Chapter. Show up to a meeting (you don't have to be a member), introduce yourself and see what advice they can offer. I know a couple ladies who are doing quite well having chosen aviation as their primary career.

Good luck.
 
She's not wrong to be concerned about sexism. Like racism, it exists, but in some places it's worse than others. That said, I think you can run into sexist jerks in just about any field, and there are plenty of female pilots out there now who have shown that it's not impossible for women to succeed as professional pilots, so I hope that if flying for a living is her passion, she pursues it.
 
,Females in aviation? Let's see... Amelia Earhart, Poncho Barnes, Phoebe Omlie, Elinor Smith, Patty Wagstaff...and that's before my first cup of coffee...

Though not a professional Pilot, I know that women do quite well in aviation. I've known several, personally, including my primary flight instructor that are exceptional pilots.

P.S. to
James331 said:
First off, I'm not really digging your sexist remarks.

That said, Ive worked with female pilots, and no one gives a crap, tow the line, do your job and weather you have a penis or a vag, black or white, get the job done and it's all the same.
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The Kid is in JR HS... Might want to tone it down a bit, don't ya think?
 
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Lea Marie Medina said:
To be frank, I was writing it with a bit of apprehension. I'm actually thankful you pointed out the sexist tone. I've read of some women having it rough in their jobs due to some harassment and some cases of shunning as some happened to think "she might do work better than me, that's scary." I didn't mean to be sexist. But thank you for saying that it really doesn't matter; it's quite a relief.
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Lea Marie, your first post was fine, I didn't see any sexist tone and kudos to you for posting here, I have no idea what that guy was talking about.

There are many successful women in aviation, if you put your mind to it you will be successful too. Some good advice on how to find some of these women has already been added here and more will come along, I really can't help there. I would like to offer a little advice though.

Most guys don't mind a successful woman and are more than happy to work along side them. There are some real jerks out there though, but you will find these in any career. If you do run into a jerk don't let it get to you, do not take any crap from anyone and as others have pointed out, have a thick skin. Don't accept crap in an attempt to make nice and not make waves, assert yourself and if you continue to feel uncomfortable ask a supervisor for help. Most employers will go the extra mile to protect harassed employees. That's the negative stuff, hopefully you will never have an issue but again, behavior like this isn't limited to aviation.

It sounds like your dad is concerned for you, which is a good thing. The best thing you can do for that concern is to keep gathering info, like you are doing. And I think you should acknowledge his concerns and tell him you are ready to deal with it and not be discouraged should his concern turn out to be right. I'm willing to bet if he knows you are up to the challenge, understand the issues and ready to deal with and solve any problems, he will fully support you. Good luck, I think you are going to do great.
 
Unlike some other people here I would suggest the aviation college and not totally dismiss it. If you wanted to be an airline pilot certain universities and their degree programs can allow you to get a restricted ATP with as little as 1,000 hours, as opposed to 1,500 if you did all your training outside. Those 500 hours translates to a lot of seniority and in the airline field seniority is everything! If you're going to the college planning on the reduced hours make sure you check out the list of approved colleges and majors so you can benefit from that. Some majors may only be eligible for a 1,250ratp so I'd speak with the university too so you know how much of a reduction in hours your major can get you (https://www.faa.gov/pilots/training/atp/media/institutional_authority_list.pdf)

As for being a female pilot, do it! The only way the male dominated field changes is with more women entering it. I have flown with many female crew members and have others mentioned it's nothing less than professional, and just another pilot up there flying with you! The amount of women entering aviation as a profession is increasing every year. In today's day and age anyone should be able to pursue what they'd like!
 
Just be who you are and don't lump all men (or women) together. I would not hesitate to attempt being a pilot for gender reasons, and since you don't know it, I'll tell you that I'm female and have spent my whole adult life in some form of aviation. I have worked as a pilot for about 30 years.
 
My cousin is a female airline pilot and she has mentioned in the past that it's a male dominated industry. With that being said it has no bearing if you're a male or female. She has said that her male counterparts can be condescending at times but that can go for most careers. She flew FO at Comair before they ended operations and gave her a retirement. She flight instructed for a couple of years before deciding to get back into the airline gig and is now an FO at Trans States flying the E145. Makes no difference what gender you are, as long as you have the appropriate ratings.
 
My wife was a career pilot, and is now a stay-at-home mom. She started off in fixed wing, doing instruction and charters for small FBOs. Lifestyle was work 16+ hours a day and live on Ramen. Eventually her boss bought a helicopter. After she put some time in to meet the minimums, she started flying in the Gulf of Mexico to oil rigs, and later up in Newfoundland. The pay and lifestyle with that were much better, working 2-3 weeks on and 2-3 weeks off. Some of jobs are 6 weeks on/6 weeks off. The nice part with that is that it's like getting a 2-3 week vacation every 2-3 weeks. The bad part is that it means you're gone more than 50% of the year (you have to travel on your off time) unless you live where you fly out of, which is rare. Those jobs are usually in places that aren't very nice to live. Most of those pilots lived in places like Florida or Texas and would commute to Louisiana.

Fixed wing jobs tend to be better, having shifts in the range of 4-7 days gone and then back for however long. When you get up into the big iron (wide body/long haul flights) you can end up being home quite a bit. But, it takes a while to get there. The fixed wing situation is a lot better than it was when my wife was getting into it 20ish years ago. Regionals are hurting for pilots, so you're almost guaranteed a job once you meet their mins. That assumes you want to go the airline route. To me, that's a more stable path with better income, but also less interesting than flying charters.

Basically, you need to have a strong work ethic to get up through the ranks, and understand that you'll be gone from home a lot.

As a single person, all of this is really fine for the most part. The issue comes when you get married and have a family. My wife's schedule when we started dating allowed for a lot of great time spent together. When we got married, it was more of a drain since we spent over 50% of our time apart, and a good bit of the time together was soured because we knew she was leaving again soon. Some people I'm sure handle it better than others, but for us, it was tough. When our first child was on the way, that changed things. For us it was important to have a stay-at-home parent in the household. For her job at the time, we could have moved to Newfoundland and I could've been the stay-at-home parent, or we stay in the US and she be the stay-at-home parent. We decided to stay in the US.

It's possible that she might return to flying when the kids are in school, but hard to say. Touring isn't something that either of us want her to go back to, and with the other options it seems that she'll probably go with another route, especially since my job has good insurance, etc.

But, the adventures she had were wonderful, and she and I wouldn't have met were it not for our mutual love of flying. Life isn't just about being practical.
 
Airlines are not the only way to be happy as a pilot. My wife is a corporate pilot, and loves every minute of her 'job' (in parentheses, cause she says she'd do it even if they didn't pay her :)

I quick lesson on how to get ahead...male or female... During her flight instructing days (she came out of the OSU program), a SIC job came open on a 441. Two folks were in the running, and the chief pilot told them in passing to bone up on the manuals for the airplane. One of them responded (in private) that "He (the chief pilot) doesn't know that s**t, why should I?" The other one hit the books hard, knew her stuff, and got the job.

30 years down the road, she's still working (as chief pilot and DOM) for the man who owned the 441, which was replaced with a new Citation she picked up at the factory for him. Along the way, she turned down at least 2 offers to go airline, mostly to avoid the seniority treadmill.

There will be sexism....it's, unfortunately, part of our culture. You can minimize if by not allowing it to affect you. The only one who's actions you can control are your own.

Jim

Edit... Oops...PM me if you want to get in contact with Ellen.
 
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Lea Marie I flew for 24 years at a regional airline and we had quite a few female pilots. They were just as competent as the males. I've flown with very sharp female Captains when I was a First Officer, and when I was a Captain I flew with equally sharp First Officers. The US military might be an avenue for you to check out too. Go over to airlinepilotforums.com and there's threads on there for all the various sectors of aviation, from learning to fly to the airlines. If you post asking for info you'll get a few smart ass comments but there should be more helpful comments. There are female airline pilots in the regional and major threads and hopefully some of them will respond to you. PM me if I can be of help. Good luck!
 
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Lea Marie Medina said:
I'm located in Forest Hills, NY. The place I want to go to is a SUNY. I'll check those links out.
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I assume that you are considering SUNY Farmingdale. They are based right at the airport that I trained at and fly out of on Long Island. Republic Airport is extremely busy and surrounded by busy airspace and you will be a better pilot for it. They seem to be decent pilots out of that school. And it's a state school so you won't be neck deep in debt when you graduate. That would be my suggestion.
 
Jim_R said:
She's not wrong to be concerned about sexism. Like racism, it exists, but in some places it's worse than others. That said, I think you can run into sexist jerks in just about any field, and there are plenty of female pilots out there now who have shown that it's not impossible for women to succeed as professional pilots, so I hope that if flying for a living is her passion, she pursues it.
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You are correct. I do think sexism has rounded the corner in aviation. As an industry it is not tollerated anymore. Wasn't that long ago many of the "isms" were acceptable on a flight deck. Not so anymore. The holdouts still acting on those ideas are more chastised by the coworkers and generally have learned to STFU because most folks don't want to hear their crap
 
FlySince9 said:
...The Kid is in JR HS... Might want to tone it down a bit, don't ya think?
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Not at all, she's being raised to think she's some little victim and the world is stacked against her because she's a female, this is just not something that's true, nor is it something society should be ingraining into young women.

Fact is there are school and labor stats that women average higher grades in school and even higher wages for the same jobs, many large employers desperately want to be "diverse" so as a woman, going up against a man for the same job with the same qualifications, you actually have a better chance at getting the gig.

As far as sexism, it like racism, there's tons of talk about it, because it gets people all bothered, frankly it's not one hundredth the issue the "news" media make it out to be.

Physics and the airplane don't give a hoot what color or sex you are

95% of your co workers don't care

Of the 5% who give you crap for being a female, well they are *******s and would give you crap about something even if you were a male, also no one at the company likes those *******s anyways.

And for your employer, you are actually MORE likley to get the job being a female nowadays.


As far as the degree goes, don't bother, look into something that leads to a job, getting a RN in nursing goes REALLY well with aviation, and has a sweet ROI

Also many trades also have a much better ROI compared to getting a BS in BS.
 
Do an online search for female flight instructors. A couple of sites that might help are NAFI and Gleim. Your local FSDO may also help. You can call local FBOs and see if they have or know of female flight instructors. You can get a number of views on whether CFII is a good long term career. Search on this site for discussions of that.
I have two daughters who are married career women. The question of children arises at some time in life. Traditionally, the mother is the primary care giver although that is changing. Men don't factor the issue of children into career planning as much, but women have to. Each person works this out for her or himself, but it is a question because it can affect job choices.
As far as training, some say don't put all your eggs in one basket. Others say put all your eggs in one basket and watch the basket. As you advance in life, often you advance in skill and responsibility. As soon as you're good at at job you are put in charge of it (and can't do it so much anymore.) That's an overstatement but the point is some skills are valuable in all fields, so get a broad education including lots of STEM plus at least be able to speak finance. You don't have to be great at it, you have to be conversant. When young people asked me what school they should go to if they liked to fly I said dental school. The reason is a dentist can afford to fly and she flies on her terms, not at the beck and call of some others. Keep in mind that aviation can be a pretty routine business after a while and you can get burned out on it. I like to fly on my own better than doing the 0200 tissue donor runs and sleeping in the recliner in a deserted FBO office.
Good luck. Your idea to talk to female CFIs is good. Keep exploring.
 
Thank you, everyone, for the encouragement-- this certainly makes me feel better about going deeper into aviation. I'll be looking into more (active) organizations, but I'm certainly not giving up wanting to be a CFII by degree. I do know that I can take another major, which would either be diplomacy or journalism. I do have this plan A and my plan B and C, no worries.

Yea, I'm in 11th grade. **sweat** I'd really like to know what math the career path requires so I can study binge the calculations and relations in senior year as I take Physics II and Calc... thanks for moderating the salt, all-- I'm fine with it. ^~^

@orange I am putting myself on the line for Farmingdale. I like the instructors and the atmosphere there... not like I have a choice as I already knew about Vaughn being quite unfavorable.

@Jim Rosenow may I speak with her at some point in the near future? I think it would be lovely to (have been trying to talk to someone for 5 months) get to know one in the job! Gramercy!!!! :D


@Ted DuPuis her, too. Can we get in touch soon?
 
11th grade is the perfect time to start. I got my license at the beginning of senior year and started my airline career at 22 years old. I studied in college economics and flew on the side. No one really cares what your degree is in as long as you have one. It's a challenging career for anyone, male or female. Good luck!
 
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Lea Marie Medina said:
Thank you, everyone, for the encouragement-- this certainly makes me feel better about going deeper into aviation. I'll be looking into more (active) organizations, but I'm certainly not giving up wanting to be a CFII by degree. I do know that I can take another major, which would either be diplomacy or journalism. I do have this plan A and my plan B and C, no worries.

Yea, I'm in 11th grade. **sweat** I'd really like to know what math the career path requires so I can study binge the calculations and relations in senior year as I take Physics II and Calc... thanks for moderating the salt, all-- I'm fine with it. ^~^

@orange I am putting myself on the line for Farmingdale. I like the instructors and the atmosphere there... not like I have a choice as I already knew about Vaughn being quite unfavorable.

@Jim Rosenow may I speak with her at some point in the near future? I think it would be lovely to (have been trying to talk to someone for 5 months) get to know one in the job! Gramercy!!!! :D


@Ted DuPuis her, too. Can we get in touch soon?
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What math?

Geometry is extremely helpful, especially solving triangles.

Physics is relevant; you would be surprised how many pilots can't balance a force diagram (hint: you DO NOT climb at constant rate because of excess lift). Control systems and dynamics are useful for understanding some failures, especially pilot induced oscillations, overcontrolling, precision, and crappy autopilots. But no one solves physics problems in the air; that happens on the ground during training and planning. Well, except for navigation and location problems. Yes, I still triangulate ELTs by hand.

I don't recommend study binging for physics. It's not a good way to retain it. Small pieces, digested individually, frequently. Try to tie everything into a big-picture, and draw lots of diagrams. Everyone I know who learned physics well did it visually. And there are a lot of them around here. Something that does help is to use the calc to reinforce the physics, and vice-versa. Calc was invented to describe dynamics.

Female pilots were once rare, but they really aren't anymore. Not since the 70s.
 
You might want to rethink those degree options if you're going to be self sufficient in life, or have any quality of life, those don't lead to much $$ and will cost you some major tuition, ROI isn't even a glimmer on the horizon.

I know a few people with liberal arts degrees, the ones who make the most money are currently bartenders.

I'd ditch all the pointless math classes that 9.5/10 jobs won't require and start taking some economics classes, also if your school has a shop, or better auto shop class, I'd get into that.

As a working ATP, it's addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, little geometry and some very basic algebra.


Knowing how to change a spark plug or make a P&L will come in handy MUCH more in life than calc. or a journalism degree.





If I could I'd take all the high school counselors, the helicopter parents and the victim marketing media, line them up and let loose an epic backhand.


5 years from now when you're drowning in debt, when you can't find a good job, it's not because men are holding you down, or wall street, it will be because you decided to blow money you didn't have on a degree that doesn't have a snowballs chance in hell of making a paycheck.

Sorry if it seems like I'm busting your chops here, but this is a epidemic problem in youth today, pointless degrees and HS education which only preps them for said useless degrees, resulting in a labor force that hits the market unprepared, uneducated on anything that society needs (see will pay for), strapped with debt and without the tools to get out of said debt, and living in a "I'm a victim" dream.
 
wilkersk said:
Check out Sarah Rovner and Amy Bellesheim on FaceBook. Send them a friend request and tell them you're an aspiring pilot. Pretty level-headed ladies.
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Sarah ended up instructing my first flight instructor's kid at SkyWest. The same kid who was in a car seat in the back of the 172 when I was leaning to fly in 1992.

Small world. She's good people.

We've met up with her at Oshkosh and later here in town over dinner, and would consider her as much family as any other aviator we know. An extension of that small world thing.

The meetup at OSH was completely by chance. I recognized her as the person who there had just been an article about in a magazine. She had landed a 182 on a city street at night after an engine out. Turns out, she was about to go into the FAA pavilion and give a safety seminar about that experience.

Dinner conversation back then during the second meeting was about whether or not she should ferry the airplane she'd just arrived in, down to Belize. She did. I thought she was a little crazy to do it, but told her to be careful. VFR airplane, no lights. Ha.

But we saw photos of her swimming with dolphins in Belize two days later on FB! Ha.

All sorts of women in aviation these days. We had many on the podcast back in the day, and most were working on projects to help more women enter the hobby and profession. One of our own show hosts was female and now works as an aerospace engineer on space-bound projects. She's gotten to see a couple of her designs fly now. Lynda Meeks was one that we all liked... she founded Girls With Wings, and spent countless hours in classrooms talking to students of both genders about aviation.

My current flight instructor just taught a high school senior to fly. She's doing the aviation school thing, I think. Driven student. Always prepared, supposedly also flies very well. Good decision making skills too. She was working on solo pattern work when I was doing my multi-engine stuff and walked into the office after unforecast winds blew in, cursing her luck... she decided to land the Skyhawk and stop for the day when it got beyond what she wanted to deal with. She'll be a good pilot. Probably already done with her rating by now. Perhaps working on others.

It's not nearly as surprising to see female pilots at the airport nowadays as it was back in the 90s. Not surprising at all, really.

James may be rough around the edges, but he's right... gender doesn't matter as much as it once did. There's less women than men in aviation but nobody bats an eye at it much anymore.

On the down side... I've already been warned that there's a few bad apples in the local area who misbehave around female pilots, and the majority of instructors and examiners all know who they are, and quietly steer females away from these twits. I don't think that will ever change, but we can all certainly make sure they're always broke by not sending them even male students... and that whole small world thing means that's all I will say about that in public.

But suffice it to say, they'll be eating ramen, driving crap box cars, and won't ever figure out why nobody refers anyone to them. Because everyone knows. And won't put up with it. Passive aggressively, they'll see very little in the way of new business compared to their peers. Again, because aviation is a small world.

Most people in aviation just want others to succeed. They don't care what gender you are.

It's nice to be from Emily Warner's hometown. Have seen her speak a few times over the years. Don't know her personally, but she's always seemed like a nice person.

Annnnd... there is at least one female in aviation in this town who has a huge chip on her shoulder. Again, small world and I won't get into it in pubic. But everyone will meet one of those eventually, too. Haha. It takes all kinds... I know a least one pilot who turned her into the FAA for doing insane things and demanding dangerous maneuvers of people during CFI checkouts in aircraft. (Spins in unapproved aircraft below 1000' AGL... no, I'm not kidding...). But that was in the 80s and long long ago in a land far away. Ha.

Join the crowd. Fly some aircraft. Have fun. The advice to have a degree in something other than aviation is sound, but others have also gone all-in with aviation degrees, and done fine. Timing affects the outcome of that particular rain dance.
 
First off welcome to POA. It's always great to have someone express such serious interest in aviation. Flying is why we are all here.

On the math question, most of the math we use is fairly simple or we have tools to simplify it. From my perspective it does help a great deal to understand the physical and mathematical concepts behind the tools we use. It also helps to understand the atmosphere and weather (as much as we can :)). I don't advocate the study of particular things in high school so much as I encourage building a solid foundation of knowledge that serves any pursuit as you go through life. I say these things as a practicing engineer who has taught at university level.
 
Clark1961 said:
I say these things as a practicing engineer who has taught at university level.
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Haha. I didn't know you taught at Uni. I'm trying to imagine sitting in your classroom, and it's making me chuckle out loud. I can only imagine how funny and subtle your commentary about certain students might be... after hours at the bar, perhaps... LOL.
 
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