Female Pilots

I read a news item yesterday. I will tell you what it is at the end of this blog post because that is the punch line for this post. 

I have travelled all over the world with many airlines. I am not nervous when flying with female pilots. I have flown with many females as pilots. A few times with both Pilot and Co-pilot were females. 

My family has many flying crews. My own niece is a full-fledged commander (wearing 4 stripes on her sleeves and epaulets) for an airline company. 

Now a days, in many countries, even in Air Force there are female fighter pilots. USA, England, Russia, India, Pakistan, North Korea to name a few. There are other countries also that have female fighter pilots. 

I want to mention 2 (kind of) funny incidents. 

One time, I was flying from Salt Lake City to Chicago. The weather was very bad. This was pre 9/11. While boarding the plane I just looked inside the cockpit. I saw a female pilot on the left side. The plane took off. The weather was so bad even the flight attendants were asked to sit down. The plane was shaking violently for most of the flying time. 

I was on the aisle seat on a 3-seat row. The middle was occupied by a young lady and her husband in the window seat. They later told me it was their first time flying in a plane and going for their honeymoon. The lady was so nervous she held my hand tightly and told me how nervous she was. Her husband was also nervous but that was not visible. Flying time from SLC to CHI is 3 hours. An hour into the flight I could not stand that lady’s nervousness. I called the Flight Attendant and explained the situation. Asked the FA to give her a Screwdriver (Vodka and Orange Juice) with heavy on Vodka. She brought it and gave to the nervous passenger. She later calmed down. 

Finally, we landed in Chicago O’Hare. While deplaning, I told the honeymoon couple that the pilot of this aircraft was a female. The young lady said: Thank God, you did not tell us when we were in the air. I would have died.  I told her there was nothing to worry with females as pilots.

Here is the funny news I read yesterday. Someone wrote about the following actual incident.

Passenger: I see the pilot is a female. Is it safe to fly? 

Flight Attendant: Don’t worry sir. She is very experienced. 

Passenger: But she is a female. 

Flight Attendant: Sir, you don’t need a pxxxs to fly a plane. 

Passenger took his seat.