After Saturday morning’s General Aviation Fly-In event hosted by Manhattan Regional Airport, area Girl Scouts may have found the motivation to airdrop cookies instead.
Just short of 100 Girl Scouts, parents and casual observers attended the Fly-In. The event allowed attendees to look at single-engine aircraft up close, witness them in action on the runway and tour the air traffic control tower.
Attendees also got to hear from pilots Tiffany Brown and 18-year-old Taylor Humphrey, who’ve partnered together to form an air-racing duo called “Team TNT.”
Brown is also the director of the Kansas Department of Transportation’s aviation division.
Brown, who grew up on runways watching her dad skydive professionally, said she was glad to speak to Girl Scouts about the possibilities for women in the aviation industry.
“It’s so important to expose girls to aviation and let them know that this is a part of the community and that this is something they can do in their future,” Brown said. “Only six percent of U.S. registered pilots are women, so we really want to expose young girls to aviation and women pilots, and let them know this is something we can do.
“You have the ability to be a pilot if you want to be.”
Brown hypothesized that the lack of women in aviation stems from a place of timidity.
“I think one of the biggest barriers is confidence,” she said. “I think we as women don’t have enough confidence in ourselves to believe that we can fly planes, so I think that’s why it’s so important to see women standing in front of them who have gone through the process of getting a pilot’s license and can fly planes.
“And I think people tend to relate to people who look like them, so if they see girls flying planes it’s all of a sudden, ‘She’s doing it, I can do it, too!'”
Humphrey, who was one of the youngest pilots in this year’s all-women 2015 Air Race Classic in June, just got her pilot’s license last November. The Air Race Classic was a four-day race where pilot teams competed from all across the nation in a race against the clock. The race took off in Fredericksburg, Va., and landed in Fairhope, Ala., with nine stops in between.
The race was started by a group of female pilots, including Kansas’ very own Amelia Earhart, in 1929. This year’s competition featured 56 teams.
Humphrey, who comes from a family of pilots, said that the race was a first for herself and Brown, and that it was an example of gumption she shared with Girl Scouts.
“We really tried to get them excited about flying or really anything they want to do,” she said. “We explained to them that if you want to do something, go do it, because that’s what we did.”
10-year-old Rileigh Willi of the St. George Girl Scouts troupe said she enjoyed being inside the tower and learned that a little turbulence in the skies is manageable.
“We got to go inside airplanes and learn how sometimes when the wind changes how you can’t control the airplane,” she said. “But you’ll be fine.”
“And still land,” she added after a pause.
Sounds like Willi learned a life lesson, too.
