Flygirls rally for Gold Cup
Flygirls rally for Gold Cup
0 Comments | Winnipeg Free Press, Jul 26, 2010 | by Preprost, Matt
Female pilots prove there's no glass ceiling
ST. ANDREWS -- By day, they're our real estate agents, veterinarians, nurses and farmers.
Come the weekend, they're zipping around in their airplanes, travelling to the nooks and crannies of the Canadian landscape, tiny places many have barely even heard of.
Twelve women pilots landed their Cessnas and Piper Cherokees on the hot tarmac of the St. Andrews airport Sunday evening, under the big sky country of the Manitoba prairie.
The women made their brief stay as part of the Gold Cup Air Rally, a three-day all-women competition that's taken them from Hanover, Ont., across the Canadian Shield and into Canada's heartland.
"Everybody who flies loves it," said Marilyn Dickson, the rally's organizer from Ontario, a tad sunburned and all smiles while she unpacked luggage from her plane's tiny storage compartment.
The rally began in 2000 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Canadian chapter of the Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots.
Each year, the rally tests pilots' knowledge of aviation history and sharpens their skills, such as how to calculate how much fuel they'll burn on legs of their trip.
"We wanted to have a flying experience for women that is interesting, challenging and fun," said Dickson, a two-time cup winner. "It's the sense of achievement when you plan a flight to some place you've never been before. You get in your airplane and there are no road signs along the way, so you just have to look at the ground, figure out where you are, and just get there."
Wendy Cragg, competing in her first rally, said when she turned 45, learning how to fly was one of those things she just had to knock off the old bucket list.
"Experiences like this where a group gets to travel across the country and meet the community are incredible," said the massage therapist who has been flying for seven years.
"The camaraderie is excellent and it's a great group of people to travel with.
"It's a very caring group, we all look after each other and it's a lot of fun."
The rally proves that when they're flying some 10,000 feet in the air, there's no such thing as a glass ceiling -- even though female pilots are rare, Dickson admitted.
"There isn't a glass ceiling in our minds, because we're doing it," she said
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