Aviation for Women - September/October 2010

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fornia, for me to build multi time and
get both commercial ratings and for him
to get his U.S. ATP. We sat in adjacent
booths while doing our written tests.
In 1994, we made the decision to move
to the U.S, after his early retirement. A
small airpark in central Virginia caught
our eye and, after negotiating with the
developer we were offered the opportu-
nity to operate the FBO at the small pub-
lic airport as well as live at the airpark.
So that winter we moved to the U.S. and
started running Valley Flying Servic-
es. We offered instruction, scenic rides,
glider and banner towing, we had a me-
chanic who was an IA and a small pilot
shop, as well as fuel and tie downs.
That’s when I got my CFI and CFII
and started instructing. In all honesty,
I thought instructing was as far as my
career was going to go given my age and
experience level. And that would have
been just fine. But, in 1998, a friend who
was flying for ACA out of Dulles, of-
fered to recommend me to his airline. I
told him, “Brian, I am 46 years old, who
would want to hire an old witch like
me?!” His response was: “Oh, we hire
old people too!”
I applied, interviewed and, to my
great astonishment, was hired. I was
awarded the J32, a 19-seat turboprop
that had no autopilot, but I didn’t care.
When I started my line training I had
just turned 47. It was not an easy tran-
sition for me but I stuck to it and a year
and a half later, I was awarded an up-
grade class to the J41, which, thankful-
ly, did have an autopilot! I couldn’t be-
lieve my luck.
In 2002, I transitioned to the Dornier
328 jet, an airplane I truly enjoyed fly-
ing. It was totally overpowered. It also
had an amazing avionics package. ACA
became Independence Air and Indepen-
dence Air went out of business. Seemed
like that luck was out. But it was only a
temporary setback.
In March 2006, I became a U.S. citi-
zen and I earned my B737 type rating.
That May I joined PanAm in Dulles, ini-
tially as Ground Instructor for the Dorn-
ier 328 Jet. In August, I started training
as simulator instructor.
A month later I was hired by Compass
Airlines as a CRJ pilot. Compass, very
graciously, had no issues with me con-
tinuing my training at PanAm so I fin-
ished my training and checkout there
while working at Compass. While at
Compass, I obtained my E170/190 type
rating. Compass sent me with a colleague
to the WAI Conference in 2007.
Just after the WAI Conference Skybus
invited me to interview for their new
start up. Their concept sounded excit-
ing—I accepted and was hired as a A319
captain. I thoroughly enjoyed flying for
Skybus but, the dream didn’t last and in
April 2008, Skybus closed its doors.
;y then I knew, when one door closes, another opens and, again, with help from my friends and
their connections, I was granted an in-
terview and was hired by Air Astana
in Kazakhstan to fly the A319/20/21
as captain. My schedule is nine weeks
on and three weeks off, which is hard
on the family, but my husband is un-
derstanding and my daughter, now 26,
doesn’t really notice.
Kazakhstan is the ninth largest coun-
try in the world and it holds enormous re-
sources in oil and gas. It is also very tra-
ditional, and there are, as we speak, only
two women flying in the whole country,
Toty, a Kazak, and me. I can’t even imag-
ine what Toty went through to get to her
current position as A320 captain so my
hat goes off to her!

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