Women Pilots

There's a story I love to tell. I believe I came across it in one of the Chicken Soup For the Soul books I believe. It's basically about a young girl in the 50's who told her teacher that she wanted to become a pilot. The teacher basically told her women didn't do those types of jobs so forget about it.

This girl tried to forget about it and thought of other careers she could do. Well she finally came across a teacher in high school who changed her whole life. She was given an assignment on what she wanted to do with her life. She put things like waitress, wife etc. The teacher handed back their assignments and asked them to rewrite their paper with the following criteria. If they could be or do anything, money wasn't an object etc...what would they be. Well this girl went crazy and wrote down that she wanted to be a pilot. That teacher said, "Then DO IT"

This girl went on to be one of the few first female pilots out there. LOVE this story.

Today I came across an organization for women pilots called Nintey-Nines. I saw that they were having an air rally and landing contest. You can read the whole story here.

There still aren't a lot of women pilots out there. Which is why I think this is such an awesome organization. If you ever thought about flying or currently fly and would like to meet up with other women pilots out there, check out the Nintey-Nines!
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In other Women Pilots News...

Maj. Gen. Teresa M. Peterson is set to leave the Air Force in September, retiring as the commandant of the joint National War College in Washington, D.C.

Peterson’s aviation career earned her a long list of firsts. In 2000, she was the first female pilot to become a general officer. (Currently, there are four female pilots wearing brigadier stars.) In 1990, she was the first woman to command a flying squadron, the 42nd Flying Training Squadron at Columbus Air Force Base, Miss.

When Peterson was commissioned in 1973, after graduating from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, the Air Force didn’t allow women to pilot aircraft. She spent 4½ years as a maintenance officer. Soon after women were allowed to fly mobility and training aircraft, Peterson entered the student pilot program in 1978 at Williams Air Force Base, Ariz.

(The above was taken from airfortimes.com)