Female pilots

[JZ1]

I was somewhat surprised to see at McGuire AFB that 2 out of 6 Thunderbird pilots were female because I thought female pilots only fly non-combat aircrafts. Does that mean these female pilots will fly combat missions just like the male pilots?

[Midnight Mike]

I was somewhat surprised to see at McGuire AFB that 2 out of 6 Thunderbird pilots were female because I thought female pilots only fly non-combat aircrafts. Does that mean these female pilots will fly combat missions just like the male pilots?


Women fly combat aircraft, I think that women do not fly in combat situations, exception is support or cargo roles......

[USAF Pilot 07]

We're no longer in the dark-ages fellas...

Women fly combat sorties everyday! In fact, I forget her name, but an A-10 driver had her plane shot up real bad in Iraq a few years ago, lost hydrolics among other stuff but still managed to fly it back safely, with holes littering the fuselage. Mx crews said they'd never seen a plane shot up so much that still made it back.

I had the pleasure of meeting Maj. Nicole Malachowski (a '96 grad), callsign "Fifi" and the #3 Thunderbird, a few months ago when she came back to the Academy to talk about leadership and character and stuff like that. She was an amazing person to be around; really vibrant and well spoken.

She's actually a Strike Eagle driver by trade, who cross-trained in the F-16 to eventually become a Thunderbird. She talked about some of her combat experience in the 15 during OIF and all.

So you can bet men and women are fighting alongside each other every day in combat situations...

[Derf]

I do not mind women in the cockpit, but I have been told that you want to
watch for engine out issues..... ;)
http://fromtheflightdeck.com/temp/nycaviation/8/15sdf.jpg

[T-Bird76]

Female pilots are such a turn on! Gotta love a woman who can handle all that thrust!

[LGA777]

Even though this is about women flying combat on a side note as a Ramp Controller at LGA who speaks to over a 100 pilots on an 8 hour shift some of you might be surprised that on a typical shift about 1/3 I speak with are female and some days even more. I'm sure my new rookie co-worker hiss srq would agree and with a smile.

Cheers

LGA777

[cancidas]

i knew very many female pilots in the army. most of the ones i knew were either UH-60 or CH-47 crewmembers. i think i know a few that are AH-64 pilots as well.

[hiss srq]

Even though this is about women flying combat on a side note as a Ramp Controller at LGA who speaks to over a 100 pilots on an 8 hour shift some of you might be surprised that on a typical shift about 1/3 I speak with are female and some days even more. I'm sure my new rookie co-worker hiss srq would agree and with a smile.

Cheers

LGA777

I can agree. My new favorite qoute is west end of zulu alpha hold at spot 21 and call me back with a recent photo please. (Not transmitting the last part though)

[moose135]

Back 20-odd years ago, it was not as common as today. I think there were maybe 8 or 10 women in my UPT class (out of about 80? in the class).

When I got to Grissom in the tanker, there were only two women pilots I remember - one was a T-37 instructor with the ACE detachment (ACE was "Accelerated Copilot Enrichment, were copilots flew additional hours in the T-37). The other was my aircraft commander for a year. They were both in the first group of women the Air Force trained as pilots. The T-37 instructor was great, friendly, personable, a great stick. My A/C was her mirror image. Being scary to fly with had nothing to do with her being a woman :shock: