Madisyn Lange, 15, a student pilot with Absolute Aviation in Wetaskiwin, was an exhibitor at the inaugural Red Deer Girls in Aviation Day event on September 24, 2022. (Photo: rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall

Aviation industry event encourages girls to take flight

Sep 26, 2022 | 7:56 PM

RED DEER, AB – Madisyn Lange is 15 and flew her first solo flight just last month.

Stephanie Hodson, 47, achieved her dream of becoming a licensed commercial helicopter pilot when she was 46.

Rosella Bjornson, now 75 and retired, was Canada’s and North America’s first woman to be hired as a first officer for a Canadian airline. She took her first flying lesson at 17 in 1964, several years after she’d decided that being a pilot was her ultimate goal.

Women represent a very minute portion of aviation industry workers, be they pilots, air traffic controllers, flight attendants, dispatchers, or even parachute riggers.

That was the focus of Red Deer’s first Girls in Aviation Day event at Red Deer Regional Airport on Saturday, which each of those named attended.

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The event is part of a bigger organization, Women in Aviation International (WAI), with others taking place in Toronto and Winnipeg, as well as around the world.

According to the Brampton Flight Centre, just six per cent of all private pilots in Canada are women, with numbers equally as eye-opening for other roles.

WAI says 8.4 per cent of all pilots in the U.S. are women, or 58,541 out of 691,691, as of 2020.

Also as of 2020, women made up just 2.6 per cent of mechanics in aviation, 5.4 per cent of repair persons, and zero per cent of flight navigators.

Bjornson, Lange and Hodson are all from Alberta, and shared their wisdom with attendees Saturday.

Stephanie Hodson, now 47, earned her commercial helicopter pilot license just last year. (Photo: rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

“When I tell someone, especially someone in the aviation industry, that I’m a helicopter pilot and that I got my license in my 40s, they are very surprised,” says Hodson, who had a family first before finally taking the leap into training and then into the cockpit of a helicopter.

She says just two per cent of commercial helicopter pilots in Canada are women.

“In my training course of 10 students, I was the only female. I believe this is mostly because we’re not aware of the careers in aviation that are out there. They aren’t easy to find either, and what’s better is that Red Deer Polytechnic has a certificate that it partners on with Sky Wings Aviation Academy,” says Hodson.

“People also think it’s just pilots and flight attendants, and that it’s male-dominated, which it is, but there are so many other important roles to fill.”

She also notes a much publicized global pilot shortage, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Captain Bjornson, a member of Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame, among other honours, wrapped up her career with Air Canada in 2004.

Rosella Bjornson, Canada’s and North America’s first ever first officer for a Canadian airline, was in attendance at the aviation event Saturday, September 24, 2022. (Photo: rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

“Aviation is a very exciting career. For me, I loved seeing the world from a different point of view,” says Bjornson.

“The industry has to look closer at the aptitudes and abilities of a person instead of their gender. If a young girl or woman is keen and really wants to do it, let them try. Originally, the problem was rooted in sexism, but what we’re trying to do now is expose more women to the career possibilities and open their eyes to the fact that women can do anything they really want.”

That’s precisely the goal of young Lange, who’s grown up in an aviation family, her father an agriculture spray pilot.

From Winfield, Lange does her flight training out of Wetaskiwin’s Absolute Aviation.

Lange has accomplished 20 of 45 hours towards her pilot’s license since turning 14 last year, and is also doing ground school.

“It was awesome doing my first solo. I was really nervous when I was asked if I was ready to do it, but once I was up in the air, it was all good. It was a really proud feeling,,” says Lange, who flies a Cessna 172, but is interested in aerobatics, racing and aerial firefighting.

“There’s a very high demand for pilots and other aviation jobs. You’re almost guaranteed a job by the time you complete whatever training you’re doing.”

Lange says the first steps for anyone potentially interested in aviation should be to watch videos on YouTube, or go visit your local airport or flight school.

“The best part of flying is perhaps the adrenaline rush,” says the Buck Mountain Central grade 10 student. “When you’re up there, it’s lots of freedom, minus the air laws and all that. It’s almost a new experience every time I go up, or like the first time I’ve ever flown each day.”

Girls in Aviation Day in Red Deer had over 400 registrants, and included exhibitors such as Air Sprint and Jazz Airlines.

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