Female Pilots

TV Program on public television about Pancho Barnes. Very cool flying biplanes. I'm a sucker for women flying planes or driving motorcycles.

http://www.legendofpanchobarnes.com

 

Have been on three flights in my life with a female pilot. Honest to god, a man walked off one when he found out. Last flight was three months ago, regional carrier, really overweight woman drinking a giant Starbucks coffee and looking disinterested....I was a little worried. I don't really care as long as they have the hours.

 

That's really a bit sad... I've flown with some great ladies, in some trying situations... Gender has nothing to do with flying ability.

As far as overweight goes, I remember a friend of mine (now deceased) telling me about Tex Rankin, one of the greatest airshow pilots of the early 20th century. He said that Tex looked like he needed to "run a few laps" but he sure could fly-- Tex was a larger fellow, for sure.

 

A friend's wife was the first woman captain of a scheduled airline... Frontier (the original). Emily Warner. 1976.

 

We had trash hauler pilots in the USAF for quite a while, but current Col. Jeannie Leavitt was the first USAF fighter pilot in 1993. Now the Wing Commander at Seymour- Johnson AFB, NC in the F-15E. She was first in her UPT class, first in her operational upgrade F-15E class, and now the first female wing CC of a fighter wing.

They fly just like the rest of us, sometimes better, like Jeannie.

 

Don, I,too, have flown with some darn good female pilots but the most impressive thing that I witnessed with a lady pilot was during the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the B-17 back in 1985. I was in charge of flight line stuff and we parked the first of several military aircraft, a KC-135, near the end of the day. The crew quickly de-planed and was followed by the co-pilot and pilot ,who was a very good looking blonde girl. They gathered in front of the number two engine nacelle and opened the cowl to attack some kind of problem. She stood in front of the engine just far enough out of the way from the work going on and intently watched. She stayed there until the problem was fixed and it was dark by that time. She displayed what an aircraft commander is in the fullest sense of the word and her crew showed her the utmost respect at all times. Impressive. Iv'e written about this before. The scheduled B-52 arrived just before sunset and the young pilot appeared after we parked him and gave the KC-135 pilot a hug and kiss...his wife. She had refueled his airplane on the way to Seattle as part of a training exercise.

 

Now that is cool!

 

Did you ever see the documentary about the all-female B-29 demo crew? There was a lot of complaining in the early days of the B-29 that it was dangerous and too difficult to fly. So Boeing trained a group of female ferry pilots to do demonstrations and air shows at all the bomber bases. Remarkable ladies!

 

One of the "Just Planes" videos was shot on a 787 flight - I believe it was Royal Air Maroc - where both pilots were females!

And the wife of a close friend of mine, who now lives in Seattle, flies for Alaska Airlines. I've never met her - every time I wanted to, she was off flying.

 

It has always been said that midair refueling via the flying boom resembles a sexual act. In this case it wasn't the husband and wife having sex - it was their airplanes!

 

I had never heard that story but I have found that those young ladies who seriously pursue a flying career, whether it's in the military or civilian , are every bit as good as their male counterparts. My self styled exalted stature was cut down some 24" by a cute little girl pilot one day when I had flown to St. Pete, Fl. She was taxiing out in her cute little biplane when the engine quit. Being a fine gentleman, I rushed over to prop the radial engine for her and got it running again. She then taxied to the active, took off and immediately rolled inverted and flew out of the pattern that way. Her cute little airplane was a Great Lakes painted orange and white and if I remember it had a 160 Kinner on the front. Her name happened to be Betty Skelton. I saw her win the National Women's Aerobatic Championship at the 1949 Miami Air Maneuvers.

 

I've taught about a dozen, most of whom went on to own their own aircraft. All were excellent students (they listened) and eventually, successful pilots.

 

I have met several times in 06 - 07 Nicole Malachowski the first female Thunderbird pilot. Every time we talked at airshows she had just an overwhelming energetic attitude on top of that she always had a huge smile.

 

Best pilot I ever flew with was female. She was my first instructor, but is a captain on one of the majors now. Randomly, I was on one of her flights a couple of years ago.

 

She not only was a Thunderbird, but flew in combat and commanded a fighter squadron. Quite a lady. Her callsign was "Fifi"-- I don't know what she did to earn that one!

 

They played a major role in the Second World War. Could you imagine the arguments and resentment in a B17 full of women while flying for hours to the UK I would hate to be the base commander.

 

Another remarkable lady fighter pilot, Major Heather Penney, tasked with taking out United 93 on 9/11 (with no weapons-- suicide mission)... her interview is well worth watching, even though it's long:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?300959-1/major-heather-penney-september-11-2001

 

The Soviets even had female fighter aces during the war, the most famous being Lilya Litvak, who I found out later was Jewish.

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/10/06/short-daring-life-lilya-litvyak-white-rose-stalingrad/

 

The Soviets had an entire squadron, the Night Witches:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Witches

Read about Nadezdha Popova, Hero of the Soviet Union:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadezhda_Popova

The Economist wrote a lyrical obituary about her here:

https://www.economist.com/news/obituary/21581962-nadezhda-nadia-popova-night-bomber-pilot-died-july-8th-aged-91-nadia-popova

 

Let's also not forget Suzanna Darcy-Henneman, lead test pilot for Boeing on the 777-200LR and eventually Boeing Commercial Aircraft Chief Pilot. Holder of several aviation world records, as well.

 

Ahmen to that !

 

Nicole is super cool...we were at Lakenheath together around '04 ish...a very normal fighter pilot.

 

I noticed a pretty female T-37 Tweet pilot, in the mid 1980's.

 

Yup, they were allowed to fly trainers and transports/tankers back then, but not fighters or bombers.

 

Well, no bombers in the Air Force, at least... read about Dianna Cyrus Bixby, who raced a B-26 in the 1940s (and was killed in an A-20 in the early 1950s).