Indonesia have only a handful of female pilots. To me, it makes little difference, as long as a pilot does his or her duties well, who cares about the gender. The company share that sentiment, the regulators seem to have little problem with it, the passengers? That's a different story.
I love to stretch my legs, as long as it's more than an hour's flight time, show the passengers that yes, there are humans flying the aircraft, and of course, talking to the girls at the back. However, sometimes it's counter productive. Spiteful passengers love to complain at anything, and seeing a pilot walking around the cabin can result in written complaints about pilots not doing their jobs and are walking around while flying. Sometimes a passenger waiting for the toilet would ask me if it's OK for one pilot to leave the flight deck, sometimes passengers try and lecture me about work discipline. Hello, I don't want a cramped leg on approach nor do I want to belly flop the landing because my bladder's about to burst!
When flying with female pilots, it's a different level of passenger comments, especially if before the flight, the female first officer does a late walk around check, and the passengers boarding sees her.
"Is she capable of flying?"
"Captain, you should go back to the cockpit, that woman might screw the flight up while you're out!"
"Is she pretty?"
So it's OK for the grumpy old men when the country has a female president or when a female surgeon is about to perform a surgery on their scrotum, but it's not OK for a female to fly an aircraft?
Some old pilots don't like them though, and sometimes I don't like it, but it's not because they're female, it's because they won't let us smoke in the cockpit! The day seems to go on forever when she turns and say, "Captain, please don't smoke."
*Yes, we're still allowed to smoke in the cockpit. Boeing and Airbus still make planes with ashtrays in the cockpit!
I love to stretch my legs, as long as it's more than an hour's flight time, show the passengers that yes, there are humans flying the aircraft, and of course, talking to the girls at the back. However, sometimes it's counter productive. Spiteful passengers love to complain at anything, and seeing a pilot walking around the cabin can result in written complaints about pilots not doing their jobs and are walking around while flying. Sometimes a passenger waiting for the toilet would ask me if it's OK for one pilot to leave the flight deck, sometimes passengers try and lecture me about work discipline. Hello, I don't want a cramped leg on approach nor do I want to belly flop the landing because my bladder's about to burst!
When flying with female pilots, it's a different level of passenger comments, especially if before the flight, the female first officer does a late walk around check, and the passengers boarding sees her.
"Is she capable of flying?"
"Captain, you should go back to the cockpit, that woman might screw the flight up while you're out!"
"Is she pretty?"
So it's OK for the grumpy old men when the country has a female president or when a female surgeon is about to perform a surgery on their scrotum, but it's not OK for a female to fly an aircraft?
Some old pilots don't like them though, and sometimes I don't like it, but it's not because they're female, it's because they won't let us smoke in the cockpit! The day seems to go on forever when she turns and say, "Captain, please don't smoke."
*Yes, we're still allowed to smoke in the cockpit. Boeing and Airbus still make planes with ashtrays in the cockpit!
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