From wheels to floats and skis to skids, Kirsten Brazier is a rare breed in Richmond and B.C. who’s criss-crossed Canada more times than she cares to remember during her 20 years in the cockpit of all manner of flying machines.
Rare — because she’s a woman; a female pilot no less.
Brazier is frequently on the receiving end of double-takes when she tells people what she does for a living, despite being in possession of airline transport ratings for both aeroplanes and helicopters — in other words, just about the only contraption she’s not qualified to take to the skies in is the space shuttle.
The public’s reaction is hardly surprising, given that, out of 24,505 professional pilots in Canada, only 1,356 of them, less than six per cent, are women and out of 19,601 aircraft engineers, only 560 are women.
And Brazier recognizes that heavily-weighted statistic feeds into people’s expectations that, every time they visit an airport, they anticipate looking out of the window at their flight gate to see men refueling the aircraft, inspecting the fuselage or going through pre-flight checks in the cockpit.
Unlike other previously male-dominated professions, Richmond’s frequent flyer said there’s no apparent reason for the men to outnumber their female counterparts so gratuously in the airline industry.
It’s a trend Brazier has been putting the flaps on for the last three years, thanks to her unique event, called “The Sky’s No Limit – Girls Fly Too!,” which has been streamlined to plant the seed of aviation and aerospace into the minds of thousands of young girls and women alike.
“A lot of people have tried to figure out why it’s still the case, but no one has really come up with answers as to why so few women are in the industry,” said Brazier, who spent much of her life in Richmond, either growing up or living in the city or working at YVR, where she learned to fly.
“It’s not as if women are not welcome; it’s certainly not been like that from my experience.
“I think people just expect to still see men in those positions. Women just assume, like everyone else, that it’s going to be a man.”
That could all change, however, thanks to Brazier’s free event in March at Abbotsford Airport, where women can, amongst many things, fly a small aircraft for the first time or grab a rivet gun and drive a bolt into an actual aircraft if they feel like it.
Held in the first two years in Yellowknife, before moving south to Langley last year, Brazier’s “baby” has grown out of all recognition.
In the process, it broke global records for women’s outreach events into the aviation industry with 6,000 girls and women attending last time around, with many of them getting behind the controls of an airplane for the first time and taking to the skies.
“When people come to our events, it’s a unique experience that could spark a career,” explained Brazier.
“When they step out of the plane after that first flying experience, their enthusiasm is infectious and it spreads through everyone around them.
“You can sit in a cockpit or you can pick up a rivet gun or you can learn how to take part in a rescue. The RCMP are also sending their first and only female helicopter pilot.”
They’ll also be able to walk on the moon and explore space with Starlab 2.0, the portable planetarium presented by H.R. MacMillan Space Centre.
Brazier can still recall her first flying experience — as a seven-year-old, she got behind the controls of a Cessna 180 on floats in Manitoba.
But it wasn’t until, as a city girl, with no skills to speak of, she took her first flying lesson in 1992 and got her licence the following year that she really knew her life belonged in the sky.
“Don’t get me wrong, you will encounter resistance to change in any place where there are traditional roles, whether it be through your skin colour, your hair or your sex,” she said. “We’re not saying it’s easy, but women are very welcome in the industry and what I’m trying to do is redress that balance and say, ‘this is a very cool industry and we are here if you want to try it’.”
The Sky’s No Limit – Girls Fly Too! is a free event that runs March 7 and 8 at Abbotsford Airport.
Although the focus is on females, men are very welcome, said Brazier, but women wanting to try flying need to register in advance.
She’s also in urgent need of volunteers of both sexes to help out on the day.
For more information on the event, go to www.girlsfly2.ca
