Cant be bothered to go searching for the thread so I just open a new one.
Source :
http://www.straitstimes.com/sub/lifestyle/story/0,5562,282277,00.html?Oct 31, 2004
Flying high in a man's world
The new man in the cockpit is a woman. SANDRA LEONG reports
THE next time you fly SilkAir, the pilot of the plane may well be Ms Vanessa Ess. She is among a very small number of female pilots here. Her father was a pilot with Singapore Airlines for 35 years and she grew up 'always wanting to be in an aeroplane'.
After completing her hotel management and tourism degree at the University of Surrey in 1994, she spent about $10,000 getting a private flying licence with the Seletar Flying Club.
She joined SIA as a stewardess in 1995. But each time recruitment ads for cadet pilots came out, she applied even though the airline was looking for males, the 32-year-old says.
A friend later suggested she try her luck at SIA's subsidiary SilkAir, which in 2001 accepted Ms Anastasia Gan as its first female pilot. The latter had served as a transport pilot with the Republic of Singapore Air Force for 22 years.
A year after Ms Ess applied for cadet pilot training in 2000, she was accepted in the 2 1/2-year scheme. She passed last October, making her the first female to graduate from the Singapore Flying College based in Singapore and Perth.
Today, she co-pilots an Airbus 320 to destinations within a five-hour radius of Singapore. The plane can seat 142 passengers. Besides Ms Ess, SilkAir now has four female cadet pilots undergoing training. The airline has 117 pilots in all.
As for Ms Gan, she is now a first officer with Qantas' new low-cost carrier Jetstar Asia based here. It has two female pilots out of its crew of 40 - the other is an Australian citizen.
Ms Gan, 46, whose office is also an Airbus 320, recalls the pressure of being the rose among the thorns at SilkAir: 'I was very apprehensive because all eyes were on me. I had to work doubly hard.'
She joined Jetstar to be part of an 'up-and-coming' airline. Presently undergoing an upgrading course in Singapore and Australia, she may be promoted to captain at year-end if all goes well - another first for the female flying community here. In a plane, the captain is the overall commander. The first officer assists the captain.
So with Ms Ess and Ms Gan showing the way, will more Singaporean women be headed for the cockpit?
In other parts of the world, female pilots have become less of an exception. Airlines like Cathay Pacific, United Airlines, KLM, Northwest and even neighbouring AirAsia have all hired women.
In Singapore, however, opportunities remain considerably fewer. In a statement to LifeStyle, a spokesman for SIA says its criteria for appointment is designed to get the best and most suitably qualified pilots.
'The fact is almost all suitably qualified applicants are male, and this is the case with most airlines which operate the long-haul fleet as we do.'
SIA has about 2,000 pilots, both working and in training.
But women who do get the breaks have to be prepared for the sacrifices that come with the job. Ms Ess, who is single, says: 'You can't have kids in the early stages because it's better not to break the training process.'
Despite this, Ms Gan, who is married to an oil trader and has three daughters, thinks women high-flyers are as capable as any male pilot. In fact, she thinks that females bring another dimension to the job.
'Women have a softer touch and that can be an asset in the cockpit. The other male pilots trust you and warm up to you more easily.'
