![]() ![]() "It's just a matter of finding the right person who's going to lift you up and encourage you to do it." "This should be a 'girly thing,' " Caskey said. Instead, they're encouraged to do "girly things." In her eyes, women are rarely encouraged to fly. "Even if one pilot came out of this, that would be amazing," Caskey said of this week's camp after wrapping up her lesson on aviation radio communication. Just a couple of thousand women held the title of captain. ![]() Of 185,143 total airline pilots working worldwide in 2020, just 9,746 - or under 6 percent - were women, according to data from the International Society of Women Airline Pilots. jobs.īut people in the aviation world say women's participation in related careers - from piloting to air traffic control to mechanics - has remained despairingly low. In 2018, according to the Pew Research Center, women filled just under 47 percent of U.S. Women have made major leaps in the labor market since the 1950s, when they made up less than 30 percent of the overall workforce. She wants to work as a charter pilot or enter the international commercial industry, flying planes for companies like FedEx. Her goal is to make flying a full-time gig. "There's a bunch of girls here we don't need 'airmen.' "Ĭaskey, a human resources professional by day who embarked on her lifelong dream of becoming a pilot five years ago, hopes some of the students in the program will follow her lead. "I hate that term, so we call them 'notices to pilots,' " she said. They listened as Jess Caskey, a Taos-based pilot and flight instructor at Fly Taos Sky, walked them through each cryptic string of letters and numbers the air traffic controller relayed over the radio - deftly picking out important notes like the dew point, temperature, location and, finally, a "notice to the airman" used to alert pilots of potential hazards. It was the second day of camp and the kind of summer day many teens might prefer to spend goofing off with friends or watching movies. Surrounded by shiny, pricey-looking private planes at the Jet Center at Santa Fe, the girls participated Tuesday in the local nonprofit STEM Santa Fe's inaugural aviation and aerospace camp for girls and nonbinary students. It was stuff the two girls - Ruby, 14, and Charlotte, 13 - will need to know if they ever pilot planes. 23-Ruby Sallah and Charlotte Herman huddled with eight other students around an aviation radio in an airplane hangar, trying to glean weather and visibility information from the fuzzy, rapid-fire message sent by a local air traffic controller. Like the intricate cogs of a Swiss watch, air traffic controllers are part of an elegant choreography that makes air travel safe and speedy.Jun. With the unusual characteristic of mandatory retirement at age 56, and typically excellent pay and benefits, this can be an attractive career that demands concentrated focus. citizenship, and pass several evaluations including an assessment of their ability to cope with mental stress over long hours. Most air traffic controllers in the United States are trained at the Federal Aviation Administration Academy trainees must start training before age 31, have U.S. They must follow procedures to the letter, adapt to new circumstances continuously, and communicate clearly. Each controller is part of a nationwide system, responding to weather, mechanical difficulties, and all the small things that can cause big problems for pre-arranged flight plans. Safety is their main priority- but air traffic controllers also try to minimize delays. These professionals typically work in the airport control tower to direct the flow of planes and passengers- whether on the ground, taking off, or coming in for a landing. Watching blips on radar screens can make it seem like playing a video game… but each number on screen represents an aircraft – and the safety of flights depends on the careful, decisive guidance of air traffic controllers.
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