According to CASA statistics there were 316 Australian female ATPL holders last year, with several earning a crust at the sharp end of state-of-the art hardware. In the first of a two-part series about Australian female pilots, Aviator editor Derek Royal spoke to six women involved in airline and military operations. He discovered a group of educated and motivated pilots inspired by the freedom to choose a career that was previously considered one of the last bastions of male chauvenism.
Introduction
Thirty years ago a remarkable young woman by the name of Deborah Wardley made Australian aviation history when she became the first female to co-pilot a flight for a major Australian airline. A first officer on board an Ansett Airlines Fokker Friendship, she flew the aircraft from Alice Springs to Tennant Creek, Katherine and Darwin, a feat quite aptly described by one newspaper as a “maiden flight”. Wardley happily autographed passengers’ tickets on the northbound journey, content that she had finally accomplished her lifetime ambition of becoming an airline pilot.
But in pursuing her flying ambitions, Wardley suffered the public scorn of Ansett’s autocratic owner Sir Reginald Ansett and his team of bully-boys who attempted to sabotage her dreams. Her crime? She was a female.
Thus, on August 2, 1978, Wardley lodged a written complaint with the Registrar of the Equal Opportunity Board of Victoria, alleging that Ansett had discriminated against her on the grounds of her sex. Wardley suffered much hardship throughout a lengthy and at times, bitter court case that lasted almost two years. However, buoyed by an indomitable spirit and swept along on a wave of public sympathy and support, her resolve and determination prevailed and ultimately, the prize of being an airline pilot was hers.
Now known by her maiden name of Deborah Lawrie, the smart young woman who 30 years ago created a milestone for womens rights, is now an elegant woman of 57 who earns a crust as Safety Investigations Manager for Jetstar Airlines. Boasting a wealth of European airline flying experience, and mindful of the status she has achieved as a role model for women, Deborah’s heroics are appreciated by all.
Vietnam Airlines A320 Captain
BELINDA Fleming has been a commercial pilot for 20 years and in that time she has had to endure her fair share of dramas during her ascendancy from flying charter and freight run ops up and down Australia’s east coast, to her current position as an A320 captain for Vietnam Airlines.
Starting her RPT career as a Metro 23 first officer at Kendell Airlines in 1994, Belinda achieved her Saab 340 command in 1996 and spent four years flying out of her hometown of Sydney before the Ansett Airlines collapse brought her career to a premature halt.
“My husband was an Ansett pilot and after the collapse he moved overseas to find work,” says the 39-year-old. “Kendells were an Ansett subsidiary and were only giving me a few days flying per month, so I was forced to find another job. I ended up working as a checkout chick at my local Coles supermarket to make ends meet. We had bills and a mortgage to pay so it didn’t matter what I did as long as I was earning money.”
Belinda eventually followed her husband overseas and completed an A320 Rating and UK JAR licence, which opened the door to an F/O position in Singapore. Belinda soon achieved her A320 command and the since then, the Flemings have remained in Asia, with stints in Malaysia and India preceeding their current gig in Ho Chi Minh City.
“I guess if it wasn’t for the Ansett collapse I may never have been given the opportunity to be an A320 captain flying international routes in Asia,” says Belinda, who has logged more than 13,300 hours flying time. “We’ve been living in Vietnam for three years now, which is the longest we’ve stayed in one place. And while living and working here has its challenges both personally and profesionally, the diversity and culture makes life interesting and fresh.”
Belinda says that in her experience, Asian airlines are more accepting and respectful of female pilots than their Australian counterparts. “I think Australia has an old school mentality towards female pilots whereas in Asia female pilots are treated just the same as their male counterparts. No-one here (Vietnam) would address me by my first name, it’s always ‘Captain’, which is a mark of respect. It was the same when I worked in Malaysia and India.”
Inspired by pioneer female aviators such as Nancy Bird and Deborah Wardley, “women who believed in themselves and refused to take no for an answer”, Fleming isn’t afraid to express her admiration for women who have reached the top of her chosen profession.
“I have a great respect for all female pilots as I know how hard they’ve worked and some of the sacrifices they’ve made in the process. But without women such as Nancy (Bird) and Deborah (Wardley) we as female pilots wouldn’t be where we are today.”
Jetstar Airlines A320 Captain
WHEN Narelle Cooper scored her first flying job as an instructor at Bankstown Airport, she was told she’d only been employed because she was a girl. “I guess they thought there might be some’gimmick’ factor in employing me,” she laughs.
But since those days the 42-year-old mother-of-two has come a long way. “I get to boss the boys around now,” she quips when describing her current job as Jetstar’s Sydney Base Pilot. An A320 captain boasting more than 11,200 flying hours, Narelle flew Jetstreams and Dash 8s at Eastern Australia Airlines before joining Jetstar in 2005. She spent 18 months flying the Boeing 717, then converted to the A320 before receiving her command two-and-a-half years later.
When asked what she loves the most about her job, Narelle says that despite the need to rise at 3.30am, she loves 6am departures, when the sun’s rising over the horizon. “It’s dead still and the air is so smooth it’s like flying on silk,” she says. “But there are many challenges in our role and it’s great to have a good outcome at the end of the day.”
Narelle adds that being a pilot is a rewarding career that demands discipline and dedication. “It’s not easy but it’s great fun,” she says. “The training process has evolved significantly since I started as there are many cadetships available with a variety of airlines today. There also seem to be less pilots climbing the ranks through instructing or bank running.”
Cooper is puzzled by reports that suggest a substantial increase in the numbers of female airline pilots, nor does she make a big fuss about the whole ‘female’ thing. “It’s interesting as I believe that in airlines women are still only about two percent of the pilot population,” she says. “One nice factor is I don’t tend to be the only female pilot in the ground school courses any more. I get on well with my female peers but we don’t have a secret society or anything; and I see myself doing a job I enjoy, not a male-dominated job that I enjoy.”
Narelle adds that despite receiving the odd gender-based comment early in her career, she has always been treated with professionalism in the airline industry. “I did get comments about being female from other pilots, generally Captains who said they’d never flown with a female before. But I rarely get comments now. It’s the passengers that make the comments, not the pilots you fly with. Most are positive but there is still the occasional ‘Oh my God, it’s a girl’ or an awful passenger that other week who said: ‘good job … for a girl’. What’s the point of saying that? But generally the comments are positive.”
Qantas Boeing 737 First Officer
BRISBANE-based Qantas Boeing 737 First Officer Dana Bradberry remembers the day when a Korean student stressed to her that although he would allow her to be his instructor, he felt sorry for her father for the shame she must have brought to her family.
“Like any cross section of society, our industry has its requisite five percent idiot factor,” she says. “That means we work with 95 percent of people who are fantastic. The five percent can usually be found drinking alone.”
Bradberry grew up around aviation. Her dad was a pilot and the family ran Air Training Centre at Brisbane’s Archerfield Airport. She remembers taking the controls for the first time aged seven. “Dad was ferrying a Tomahawk from Maroochydore and he let me handle the controls,” she says. “The instant response to each control input had a massive and lasting appeal. I also thought it was pretty cool that we were going to beat mum and my sisters home as they had to drive.”
Dana continued her love affair with aviation and eventually became an instructor and charter pilot. The magic phone call came from Qantas in September 1999 and after five months’ training, she became a second officer on Boeing 747 Classics – the -200, -300 and SP series. By late 2002 Dana had enough seniority to bid for a training slot on the 737 and a few months later she became a 737 First Officer, a role she enjoys to this day.
Now 37 and with around 9800 hours in her log book, Dana’s having the time of her life and she’s grateful to the likes of Deborah Wardley for her good fortune.
“Deborah Wardley at great personal cost smashed barriers which have allowed us all a much smoother passage,” Dana says. “She deserves our gratitude. It’s not that women are new to aviation, we’ve always been there dabbling and flying for fun. But what has changed is that for the last 30 years or so we have been pursuing careers.
Now we just want to be accepted as one of the boys and be afforded the same opportunities. The last thing we want to do is form a special club just for girls.”
On occasion Dana has flown in an all-female crew and she laughs at the attention they receive. “A female First Officer walking through the terminal with a male Captain barely rates a second glance these days,” she says. “But when two girls walk through the terminal people literally stop and stare. It always makes me laugh because I imagine they think, ‘One (female) is ok, that experienced bloke is there to keep an eye on things – but two? What if something goes wrong?’”
Royal Australian Navy Seahawk Helicopter Pilot
WHEN the Royal Australian Navy’s Lieutenant Sally-Anne Malone was a teenager, her high school careers advisor told her the military was no place for women and to forget any illusions of becoming a pilot. But thankfully Sally-Anne ignored the advisor and today, the 26-year-old boasts 1,050 hours on military aircraft and gets to fly state-of-the-art hardware worth millions of dollars.
“The more people knock your dreams and tell you that you can’t do something, the more you want to do it,” she says. “The military provides some fantastic opportunities for pilot training. You’ll never know (how you’ll go) if you don’t try.”
An Air Force Cadet Scholarship recipient in 2000, Sally-Anne graduated from 2FTS RAAF Pearce, WA in 2005 and in 2006 was posted to 723 Squadron for conversion on the AS350 Squirrel. She flew Agusta 109s with the Navy’s Retention Motivation Program in 2007/08 and last year spent six months in Japan working in the United Nations’ Command Rear Office at Yokota Air Force Base. She’s currently undergoing operational flying training conversion on the S-70-B2 Seahawk.
So what’s her take on being a female in a male-dominant profession?
“Once you demonstrate yourself to be a professional aviator, you’re quickly accepted as one of the guys,” she says. “I’ve found the ADF aviation community to be very supportive of females as long as you can meet the standard. People that fly with you know what training you’ve been through so there are no (gender) issues. At the end of the day, I know what I have worked for and achieved to get to where I am today and I take pride in myself that I have been able to achieve the goals in my career with many more to come in the future.
“It’s becoming more accepted that females are in the aviation industry and are here to stay. More women in society have career paths and aspiirations and I think aviation is seen as a rewarding career and women are willing to take on the challenge.”
Like the women she speaks of, Sally-Anne loves the challenge of being a Navy helicopter pilot. “It’s not easy but it’s very rewarding,” she says. “I had another female member on my training course and we worked well together trying to beat the guys. We were the sixteenth and seventeenth females to graduate 2FTS so we weren’t breaking any new ground. I had a female commandant at ADFA and a female instructor on helicopter conversion. It was inspiring to know other women had made it in the past and were respected for it.
Royal Australian Air Force Boeing Business Jet Pilot Officer
PILOT Officer Kirsty Ballinger is the only female pilot with Canberra-based RAAF 34 Squadron, a unit dedicated to flying heads of state, government ministers and senior military personnel on official business. Her office is the sharp-end of the state-of-the-art Boeing Business Jet (BBJ), 34 squadron’s flagship aircraft.
Kirsty joined the Army fresh out of high school and after three years of service she applied for officer training at the Royal Military College, Duntroon. On graduation she was sent to Aviation Corps and during training with Army Aviation, transitioned to the RAAF.
“Flying always seemed like such an adventurous job to me,” she says. “I always knew I wanted to have a career that was out of the ordinary and aviation seemed like a good fit. The military was very appealing as I knew that for a return on obligation, they would give me the skills, training, knowledge and experience to be a professional pilot.”
At 26 and with little more than 830 hours in her logbook, Kirsty admits she is very fortunate that her job entails such interesting and diverse flying, not to mention the fact that the intense nature of military training has provided her with the opportunity to fly advanced aircraft in a relatively short time frame. “The variety of destinations and the challenge of planning and conducting an efficient, safe, discreet and on-time service for the nation’s VIPs is very satisfying,” she says. “And there’s no better feeling than opening doors exactly on schedule after a long eight hour overseas flight to a welcome of red carpet, military band, honour guard and gun salute.”
According to Kirsty, in any male dominated profession there are always going to be some difficulties for women entering that environment. “You can’t ignore the fact that you’re a minority and I don’t believe any of the men can either,” she says. “There were some difficulties with a few individuals at the very start of my training. But I believe those individuals didn’t make it through anyway, probably due to a lack of maturity.”
Kirsty praises her RAAF colleagues as very professional and stresses that they’re all pilots, regardless of gender. “I’ve strived to remain true to myself, be proud of who I am and not be afraid to represent myself as a woman,” she says. “I would like to think that this has earnt me more respect and understanding than trying to be one of the boys, which is just not who I am.”
Kirsty also reserves special respect for the female pioneers of aviation and for women across Australia who are respresenting themselves so well in a male dominated workforce - like the Governor General and the Prime Minister. “There is no doubt that their success is inspirational for me and for women in general and in this way I would say I feel somewhat of an affinity with them. I would say the respect I have for my female peers or superiors is the same as for all pilots. We all earn respect for the job we do based on merit, professionalism and our individual qualities.”
Regional Express Airlines Saab 340 First Officer
ROSINA BOOTH started flying when she was a bright-eyed 16-year-old but the excessive cost of lessons forced her to cease training and to pursue a business degree. After graduating she worked in human resources but, still longing for a flying career and with a bit of cash in her pocket, she returned to the air at Moorabbin Airport, where she earned a scholarship from the Royal Victorian Aero Club.
The scholarship proved to be a godsend and after successfully applying for a position in Regional Express Airlines’ (Rex) brand new cadet pilot program (which offered a guaranteed position as a First Officer at the completion of training) she embarked on her new flying career at Rex’s flight school, AAPA (Australian Airline Pilot Academy) in 2008. Today, the Adelaide-based 26-year-old boasts more than 450 hours flying time.
“My prior flying experience was in light aircraft so I’ve been surprised to find that the Saab is quite a maneouvreable and responsive aircraft,” she says. “With such a large rudder it can also handle strong crosswinds very well. Being a regional airline we land at some challenging aerodromes such as Coober Pedy which has a runway width of only 18 metres. We also fly into aerodromes that do not have any slope guidance which, particularly at night, surrounded by nothing but darkness, can test your skills.”
Rosina says she hasn’t encountered any difficulties flying in a male dominated environment, Rex has only been a positive experience.
“From my initial flight training all those years ago to my experience with Rex and its cadet pilot program, I’ve found colleagues, peers and management to be very encouraging. I don’t feel that I’ve been disadvantaged in any way but at the same time, I’ve not been favoured. I’ve had to work as hard as everyone else to pass all the same tests.
But while Rosina’s integration into the industry and Regional Express has been quite uneventful (around pilots), she admits to receiving attention from passengers. “I think that the media has a lot to do with this perception as the general public will see for instance, Richard Branson on television surrounded by female flight attendants but never a female pilot,” she says. “I’ve heard a couple passengers make interesting comments in their attempt at humour such as ‘oh no, there’s a woman flying us’ which I laugh off. But mostly the comments are very encouraging, particularly from other women who say things like ‘good on you’ or ‘it’s nice to see a woman flying’”.
So why are more girls seeking flying careers?
“Flying is becoming a more popular career option because it’s more accessible and a more acceptable environment for women,” she says. “Through the efforts of the women who came before us to put a female face to the career, I think this has made other women consider flying more as an option too.
“We also now live in an era were many women wish to not only raise a family, but also have a successful career. Airline careers were previously not very conducive towards this. I feel very fortunate that I can follow my passion as a career. I get a real buzz and a great deal of satisfaction from progressing my skills and knowledge on a daily basis.”
