fly

Today is National Aviation Day.

I love all things airplane and airplane related and am so glad I get an opportunity to work around them every day. Cheers to all those who fly...and all those who work on the ground who make it possible to fly...and since I don't have time to write today, an old post for you:

Thursday, April 16, 2009

fly girls

On this day in 1912, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel. Cheers! To all the female pilots who came before me, and all those flying now...you rock...btw Harriet Quimby was also the first licensed female pilot in the United States.

Hanging on the wall above my desk is a framed picture of Amelia Earhart and my solo shirt...I keep them there to inspire me...even though I never made it my career like I set out to, I am still proud that I got the certificate and learned how to fly. To this day, it reminds me that I can do most anything I want to, if I just decide to go for it, and choose to keep going when it gets tough. I had wanted to be a pilot for a long time, but was told by people who didn't know any better I couldn't. My gender and poor eyesight were given as reasons, and silly me didn't challenge. When I started working as a flight attendant I always got the question "Why did you want to be a flight attendant?" and my answer was always "Well, I wanted to be a pilot, but couldn't, so this was the next best thing." On my first trip with one particular Captain, we will call him Mcfly, I got this response "Well, it's not too late to be a pilot, you could learn how to fly now." He was the first person to ever say I could, and I actually believed him. A year later, after our airline went out of business and I wasn't able to find another FA job I wanted, he told me again, I should go to flight school, and I did. Not only did he instill in me the belief that I COULD do it, he helped me through...so Mcfly, wherever you are, thanks man, and cheers to you, for helping me along.

My daughter will live in a world where she will be able to be just about anything she wants to be without her gender being a factor in the decision, thanks, in part, to the following women, and the men in their lives who either inspired and encouraged or pissed off and challenged...and I, for one, can drink to that.

Amelia Earhart, the first woman to complete a solo transatlantic flight (1932) and the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California (1935).

"Queen Bess" Bessie Coleman, an African-American woman, went to France in 1920 to become a pilot because she was refused the opportunity here in the states...she returned in 1921 with an international license and became a barnstormer.

Nancy Love and Jacqueline Cochran, who persuaded Gen. "Hap" Arnold to create the WASPs-Women Airforce Service Pilots...Cochran went on to become the first woman to break the sound barrier, in 1953, in a F-86 Sabre.The WASPs, the 1000 women who flew in WWII from 1942-1945. They flew mostly ferry and test flights for the Airforce, and one: Ann B. Carl, became the first woman to fly a jet in 1944.

Thanks ladies.