Flight Training - March 2013 - 33

ESTIMATED ACTIVE WOMEN AIRMEN CERTIFICATES HELD
CATEGORY

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

Pilot—Total

41,316

42,218

36,808

37,981

35,784

36,101

36,584

37,243

37,694

38,257

Student

14,683

14,767

8,450

9,127

9,559

9,640

9,717

9,857

9,897

10,082

Recreational
(only)

18

12

13

20

17

17

20

21

24

23

Sport

135

118

98

79

64

26

7

NA

NA

NA

Private

12,927

13,566

14,322

15,015

13,694

14,111

14,517

15,036

15,487

15,906

Commercial

7,956

8,175

8,289

8,083

7,101

7,236

7,315

7,421

7,436

7,454

Airline
Transport

5,597

5,580

5,636

5,657

5,349

5,071

5,008

4,908

4,850

4,792

Flight Instructor
Certificates *

6,350

6,359

6,362

6,293

6,232

6,158

6,067

5,970

5,811

*Not included in total

equally. People are not equal in their
backgrounds, in their aptitudes, or in
their attitudes and understanding of
things.” For example, she says gender
research indicates females hear better than males, even as newborns and
throughout all stages of life. That means
women tend to be more aware of all types
of noise—so learning a concept in the
cockpit without ever having addressed it

5,667
Source: FAA

on the ground underscores the old saying
that the cockpit makes a lousy classroom.
SUCCESS STORIES. Mary Latimer continues to receive happy emails and calls
from GIFT participants. Several returned
to Vernon for additional training. One of
these was Patti Shannon, who brought
with her not only with her pilot husband
but also her three teenage sons. “One had

[already] soloed and wants to pursue aviation. Two were not interested [in flying],
[but] we fixed that,” Latimer says. Shannon
is perhaps Latimer’s greatest success. “She
went from ‘hell, no,’ to ‘let’s go!’”
Latimer plans to host GIFT in 2013, but
what she would like even more is to show
other flight schools how to set up this
model. For any flight school that thinks
providing a week of free ground school is
a waste of time and effort, Latimer says
they need only look at Patti Shannon and
her family—and the other women who
returned to get additional training—to
see that it can reap long-term financial
benefits.
Shannon and her husband plan to get
instrument ratings, and they’ve talked
about buying a bigger airplane in which
to travel, Latimer says. What’s more,
hearing of Patti’s success, her brother-inlaw planned to bring his teenage sons to
Vernon so that they could begin their flight
lessons. “By me reaching out to Patti, now
I have eight students coming 350 miles to
fly with me,” Latimer says. She could’ve
booked a solid month of instruction in
January, had she wanted to.
The students “are willing to travel hundreds of miles for a good instructor and
training environment,” she says.
Jill W. Tallman is technical editor of Flight Training
magazine.
MARCH 2013 FLIGHT TRAINING

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Flight Training - March 2013

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