Published in the Mar. 13, 2013 issue of the Interlake Enterprise, by Teresa Carey…
One of the girls who got a bird’s eye view of St. Andrews on Mar. 9
Approximately 650 women, 50 of them under age 15, flew for free at St Andrews airport on Mar. 9, in celebration of International Women of Aviation Week. Each earned their “First Flight” certificates in the process.
It was also an occasion to try to beat a Guinness world record for the “Most Female-Friendly Airport,” a challenge that was sponsored by Women of Aviation Worldwide.
“We’re still counting the number of women who flew. It definitely is well over last year’s world record of 421–and no long line up thanks to the most amazing team of pilots, ground crew, registers [and] over 400 volunteers,” said event coordinator Dr. Jill Oakes, of Centre for Earth Observation Science.
“No airport has ever taken that many women flying on the same day in small aircraft, we are poised to set a world record,” she said.
International Women of Aviation Week celebrates the first women who received her pilot’s licence, back in 1910, on Mar. 8. The following year, International Woman’s Day was created to celebrate the one year anniversary of that accomplishment.
Oakes helped coordinate the St. Andrews event to help promote aviation to women and girls.
“Although the aviation industry is female-friendly, only six per cent of the work force is female,” said Oakes.”By introducing women to aviation, it opens up new opportunities for a wide diversity of aviation-focused careers and recreational opportunities, from nursing to fire fighting in the air,” she said.
Throughout the day numerous displays, speakers and tours were offered to answer questions, tell personal stories about flying, and to promote a wide range of aviation careers, including careers in aerospace , the military, fire and police services, and air ambulance training to name a few.
In addition, aviation stories from the RM of St. Andrews were told by Deputy Reeve Kurtis Krasnesky.
VIP Presentations and other aviation stories were given every 15 minutes. There was an antique aircraft tour van that departed every 10 min. to the Antique Aircraft Hangar. Visitors could also go on an air traffic control tower tour.
The presentations themselves were wide-ranging. “My First Solo,” “Learning to Land,” Learning to Fly,” “Learned to Fly at 55,” “A Dog’s Aviation Story,” “Adventures of a Flight Instructor,” “I Conquered a Fear,” were some of them.
More career-focussed presentations like, engineering for Girls, jobs as a tactical flight officer or flight attendant, and aviation careers in the Canadian Forces were some of the many other’s offered during the day.
As for the flights themselves, industry volunteers used their own small planes and helicopters to fly the hundreds of participants for a 15 to 20 min. experience 1,600 into the air. The flights were exclusively for women and girls who had never flown in a small craft before.
For women and girls in remote communities who did not have the opportunity to attend, the event was also live-streamed via the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and the Ottawa Assembly of First Nations, “because so many of those communities are fly-in communities,” Oakes said.
“It is really rewarding to share our enthusiasm for flying, we’ll be taking up about 100 youth aged 8 to17 in June during the EAA Young Eagles event at Lyncrest Airport and again in September during the COPA for KIDs event. On Mar. 16, we’re offering an aircraft model building workshop,” said Oakes.
It is possible to learn how to fly in 40 hours. Usually, students take lessons a couple times each week over the course of a summer.
The minimum age in order to get one’s pilot’s licence is 16, but one can start learning as early as age 14, but there is no upper end age limit.
It costs about $6,000 to get one’s pilot’s licence, but there are many scholarships available to women which can dramatically reduce that cost.
Flight training is available in Gimli, Steinbach, St. Andrews, Brandon, Dauphin, Shoal Lake, Morden, Carman and, for commercial flight training, in Winnipeg.
For anyone interested in learning to fly, more information can be found at http://www.womenofaviationweek.org/women-of-aviation/of-tomorrow/.
