FOR RECREATIONAL PILOTS. Sport Pilot^41
aircraft. I hadn’t planned to fly this year, but given
how much demand there was for the open cock-
pit flying and how few aircraft we had on hand for
that, I ended up firing up my Pietenpol Aircamper
and Marcel Vanhattem did the same in his Kie-
bitz in its pseudo military colour scheme. It was
satisfying to see the smiles on everyone’s faces
after what was, for many of them, their first expe-
rience in an open cockpit aircraft.
Nathalie took a large number of the women
through the TAVAS hangar to show them the
aircraft of WW1, which generated a surpris-
ing amount of interest. Nathalie described
how each aircraft had been finished authenti-
cally and described the process of covering, rib
stitching and doping, with which she is experi-enced, having done it all for the E.III Eindecker.
Counting all the female attendees, their
partners or families and all the pilots assisting
on the day, there were around 90 people at the
event. The youngest passenger was six. The old-
est was 90. There were several high school girls
and many university students in attendance, all
of them contemplating a career in aviation.
Each person received a goodies bag which
had in it a peaked cap, a pair of aviator sun-
glasses, a coffee mug and literature about ca-
reers for women in the RAAF.
A prize of a 20 minute flight with Mahl Oakes
at Fly Now at Redcliffe Airport was also awarded.
Having done this twice now and seen the
great interest it generates each time, there is nodoubt that the Women in Aviation exposure is
valuable for introducing women to recreational
and professional aviation. We will certainly be
doing it again.
Congratulations must go to Nathalie Gochel
for single handedly planning such a success-
ful event on such a large scale. Thanks also to
Ralph Cusack for the use of his hangar, to the
members of The Australian Women Pilots Asso-
ciation who assisted on the day and other vol-
unteers, to Mahl Oakes and to all the pilots who
gave up their time to take people flying for free.
You can learn more about the Australian
Women’s Pilot Association at http://www.awpa.org.au
and The Australian Vintage Aviation Society at
http://www.tavas.com.auHappy first time passenger
taxying after her first
open cockpit flightHuge smiles all round.The sign of a truly successful dayOne of the high school students experiencing
open cockpit flying for the first timeFEATURE STORY