Growing businesses deal with the same problem. Too many tools, too much back and forth, and not enough time. ODU helps bring it all together. It's an all-in-one business management platform.
Fully integrated from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing. So your team can spend less time chasing information and focus on growth. Whether you're in retail, manufacturing, or service, ODU gives you one place to manage your business. Visit ODU.com to book a demo.
It's ODOO.com. Podcast 012. This is Metro Tower. You are cleared to deviate from your standard flight plane.
Dr. Tower, understand podcast 012 is cleared to roll with fun stories and laughter. Welcome to Females in Aviation, Past and Present, Episode 12. In case you haven't guessed it, we are going to lighten it up this week with a collection of humorous stories from female aviators and their encounters with children.
I am Karen Hawkins, a retired Ford Motor Company pilot, and I will start the show off with a story of my own. When my guy was little around three and a half years old, I was flying Conver 580s, and he used to be beside me at home where I had my paper cockpit mock up on the wall. He became well-versed in all the various instruments. I could point to them and he could tell me what they were and what they did.
Finally, he got an opportunity to take a flight with me on the Conver and up at Altitude. We had him in the jump seat. Of course, I had fun showing off and pointing to an instrument. What's this?
Oh, that's the altimeter, Mama. That tells you how high you are. What's that? That's the attitude indicator.
It tells you if you're right-side up or upside down. We went on with quite a bit of that. Finally, it was time to descend for landing. The captain said, okay, Zach, you need to go back and take your seat because we're heading down to land.
Zach read, looked momentarily defiant, crossed his arms, crossed his chest like he was really thinking about it, and finally said, okay, but you better make sure there's a runway down there. That's my story. Now we're going to move on to lots of other ladies and listen to their stories. Hi, my captain.
It's good with your lane. I said, sweetie, go into the anything they want to be. My name is Nancy, and I'm a first officer of flying 757 for a major U.S. airline.
She kept looking over her shoulder at me, and I told her she wanted to stay something to me. She was walking over faster than she wanted to run on a dragon or long, and eventually went on to a gate, and I walked on, and I went and had lunch. Well, about half an hour later, I finished having lunch, and I turned around, and I was going back the other direction, and a little girl was sitting there with her mom, and she saw me, and I saw her eyes light up, and apparently she had found her courage, marked me, and she came running through the congress, and she came up to me, and she said, I have a bar of beer. And it was a cute thing, and I never thought in my life I would have a bar of beer, because there's a bar of beer, so it was awesome.
Well, that's a great story, Nancy. So is there really an airline barbie? There is an airline barbie, and she calls him like a Wooplank, if he's in a uniform. Okay, she must have had that doll, that's awesome.
My name is Serena, and I work at Ocean Air as a flight instructor, and when my 8-year-old son was 3, he said no, that's a girl's job. I love it, but it's so fun. Because they have no idea that he's not a dad, but his mom does, but his dad doesn't do it, so my name is Cindy. I've been involved in aviation for, and I was flying a KC-10, which is a swim fund, and I'm going to go out that little spider pilot, and all the women she was around, flew transport category airplanes on her, and she's an airplane.
Okay Sammy, welcome to the Females in Aviation podcast. Please tell me your name and tell me your story. You just said my name. Oh, you're right.
I'm so silly. But tell me how old you are. Six. Six, awesome.
Okay, and what's your story about? My mom is really a pilot, and I used to say, a pilot, and I thought she was a pilot. So how long did you go along thinking your mom was a pirate instead of a pilot? I was falling, I was in Pre-K.
You were four years old, and were you going to Pre-K and telling all your friends, my mom is a pirate? No. No, but you just thought she was, huh? And then how did you feel when you found out she was a pilot instead of a pirate?
Were you disappointed? Um, kind of. Yeah, did you think it would be way cooler to have a mom that was a pirate? No.
No. I like a pilot. You like a pilot, okay, no, huh? No, so now what about you?
Are you thinking about when you grow up? Do you want to be a pirate or a pilot or something else? Um, I'm out to Ninja Warrior. Oh, a ninja warrior.
I love those guys. I'm out to Ninja Warrior. Yes, I watch that all the time. I love those guys.
You're going to be a ninja warrior. I can't wait to see you when you get there because that's one of my favorite shows. Well, Sammy, thank you so much for talking to me, and I'm definitely going to be watching for you in the future on the Ninja Warriors. Okay, bye.
Bye. Did your mom want to talk to? Hello. That was awesome.
I love it. So what was it like for you when it first occurred to you that your son thought you were a pirate? I was heading to work because my husband's wife was a jetlifter. He was gone and it was one of the scenarios that he was coming back to work midday.
And I was flying with the Navy before I was heading out in the morning and it was just a day flight. I was going to come back. So I was taking the point to the school. I said to him, like, hey, mommy might be landing late tonight.
I was going to be the one that's going to get into school. And I said, it just depends on what time I'm on our plane lamp this afternoon. Sammy kind of looked at me and he was like, what do you mean? You're playing?
Because that's what I do. I think about his show, the show at the time that he watched was Jake in a Neverland pirate. Oh, okay. I said, do you think mommy is a pilot or a pirate?
He had a list or whatever. And he said, am I also an Ira? Look at him. And I, I mean, like three times we're like, pilot or pirate.
And we couldn't understand him. I said, what do you think I go to a ship or an airplane? Like a ship? And I said, oh, we just, both my old shoulders and I started laughing.
Jacob, and he's five years old and we're just laughing. And I said, no baby. I said, you're not flying airplanes. That's what we did.
And he was kind of at the time like a little disappointing. I said, yeah, I know. I thought it was cool, you know, pirates. I'm tagged.
How many pilots are pilots? I'm, uh, Jordan. 35 years ago, about 35 years ago. I had the boys wanted to be pilots to be.
No, you can't. No, you're not. Don't you? Women can be pilots.
And they rushed into the house and said, I can't have any time. Can men be pilots? And I said, well, let me see. Maybe we can work it out.
And maybe, maybe, maybe we'll let you be pilots. No, I'm not very happy. I'm T'nampa. I'm a, I'm a two-one-one-man-old-and-a-five.
I've been a flight instructor for eight years. I actually teach in aerospace academy and high school in Florida now. I go for it and start and I have my own hookup. So, probably about six to seven months after I purchased my charity, I took my daughter off and we've been blind together for two months.
She was up three. And I realized I had a female controller. It's how I learned where we were based. And she came on and was giving me my take off clearance.
And she was, and she was funny. She sounds just like you. And I kind of blew it off like, okay, no big deal. You know, what I mean?
And then she goes back, so who do you hear somebody like you? And I realized in the mirror that she had never heard another female voice on the radio before. Oh, isn't that cool? Yeah, she thought that she sounded like me just because there aren't that many women on the radio.
Oh, wow. And it's so neat that she noticed and we don't even think that all she's ever heard out there is a male voice on the radio, except for yours, huh? Exactly. It never crossed my mind that she wanted to hear other women on the radio.
Yeah. Oh, that's a great story. This is one of Preston and I'm a first officer with ExpressJet. I fly a M-Grand 125, which is a 50-year aircraft out of New York.
Maybe two years ago or so, we had landed pretty late at night. Some of my downs I think as we'd be planning the five or six-year-old little boy comes up to this light deck and he kind of peers in and we turn around and wave and he's kind of cute and you look at me and he says, you have to go and you fly airplane. And I said that's right, buddy. And then he goes on and he says, Amelia, air heart with a girl and she's really their planes too.
I thought that was pretty impressive and I started to say, hey, you're really smart. That's great. And his face at that point just drops and he gets kind of following me and he says, she died. And you said?
Yeah. I did not see that one. I just had to look around and I was like, where are your parents, kids? So he was de-plaining, Laura?
Yeah, he was getting off the airplane. Because what's occurred to me here is I wonder if he'd seen you when he got on, if he would have been panicked for the whole flight thinking, okay, she's a lady pilot. Amelia, air heart was a lady pilot and she died. We're all going to die.
My name is Deborah Donnelly. I am a captain with major airline, flying B-Bowing 767. Children were a little bit younger. They were four years old and six years old.
And we were traveling on a commercial flight, which we purchased tickets. And as we were entering into the airplane, they piloted my children and if they would like to come into the pit to take a look, you're in civilian clothes. I believe it was a dress I would wear at that time. Just showed my children all the lights and the bells and the whistles and the stickshakes are going off.
They were really trying to impress them. The captain turned around and booked it my daughter and said after that presentation, wow, how do you like that? Isn't that cool? We just recently came from my family day at my airline where she was inside of my 767 cockpit.
So, unbeknownst to the captain, she just looked at him and said, well, this was good, but my mom's airplane is a lot bigger. So, at that time, my face just had now dropped. I smiled and said, thank you. And we thought she was making up some stories.
No explaining. You didn't do any explaining and let them know that she was telling the truth. No, at that point, I didn't know where to meet them. That's a great story.
I love it because you never want to tell a couple of men that there's a smaller. That's for sure. I think that was an irony for the story. You're going to do the pedals now.
He was on to you. He was on to you. He was. And I'll just interject here because we do get some non-aviators that listen to the podcasts that when you're on the ground in an aircraft, you steer it with the pedals on the floor, not with the control yoke that your son was using.
You had another story as well, Susan? Yeah, our daughter is full of sons. Well, let's just hear history in elementary school. He was in trouble all the time.
And he was probably maybe 10, 11 years old. I got branded because he just really got what was going on. She called me later to tell me the story. He looked at him and said, well, you don't even know that Grandma's going to fly house.
She's doing a lot of final way from then. They were really concerned that I wasn't sending. I try not to share my friend's opinion to feel my friends that I was under. So it's standing on my check ride.
And then later that I was using emails on his kindergarten teacher. And the kindergarten teacher said that Josh had been really concerned about my big simulator test that day. And then he told her, I'm not worried. She always wants to have a really sweet to get at.
And the classroom full grade. And the positive energy for the check ride. Oh, that's a neat story. And so he did have an understanding that when he said if you crashed, it would be a simulated crash.
He does. He does. Like a video game. And I feel like I'm not feeling that way.
I feel like I try not to. He became like a video player with them at the base. Oh, that's a great story. Thank you so much for sharing it.
I appreciate it. My particular son would be fine to draw an airplane and do the photo. As we were leaving here, we said hello to the crew and to be American Airlines Captain. Three seven.
Oh, good thing. Oh, that's a great story. So you went right out and girl mustache. My son is my name is Jennifer.
I am currently in plane with United Airlines with the first officer on the 757. And the story involving husband's shoe is called Adam. She was the first officer with flex jet. And it revolves around our daughter who's currently seven years old.
So when she was in kindergarten, five years old, we were walking in her to school one day. And she looked around at the other parents and she kind of nudged that and said, she would go, hi, but the other parents, you don't have a chat. But I kind of started telling her, what do you think they don't have a job? And she said, well, they're not dressed in the white shirt and the bars on her shoulder.
Like you guys are. That's what happened. I didn't mind if I had that. Not everyone was lucky enough to be a pilot for a living.
Hello. My name is Kate Kyer. I've been flying for 33 years and professionally for 30. I used to fly for Midway Connection, how does Midway Airport back in 1990?
I was a captain for Midway at the time. And I walked out into the hallway there in the concourse. And I was in full uniform and a little girl approached me and said, are you the lead who brings us our food on the airplane? I was just so pleased to answer her question.
Great big smile on my face. I said, no, I'm the pilot. I fly to the airplane. I have the great big grin on my face.
She looked me up and down just kind of evaluating me into this. No, you're not. I'm like about double laughing. Her poor mother was horrified.
No, no, really. And the little girl still wasn't buying it. No, no, no. Well, with that kind of tenacity, I'm wanting to be right.
She's probably going to be an airline pilot one of these days. Oh, no. Well, she pursed her dream whenever it is. Okay, folks.
Hang on to your giggles for one last funny story. Hi, I'm Patty. And I'm an airline pilot. And many, many years ago when I was first hired at my airline, we had a, I was planning that DC-10 and the second officer and engineer, flying with this kind of crusty old captain who was kind of stern and a little bit growlgy.
We came into LA and he landed on brick one. He landed pretty hard. He went to the bad man now and then. And finally, after the flight, the flight attendant ran a little boy up to the cockpit.
He had a question for us. He knew that he was really trying to work this out. Something was confusing him. He tried a couple of different ways that he's doing.
And it kept him off. I don't know how you did it. Oh, that's a great story. So the captain was still at even them.
I don't think he said a single word. Yeah, there's a time for that laughter when your second or third in command isn't it? Kids do say the garnisings and the grey giggles are free. See all the cards bright, number 179671 at freesound.org.