A reluctance to take the controls

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...


Some people enjoy being in the air but have no desire to actually
pilot the plane themselves.

WOW! That is such a really brilliant statement!
Did you figure it all by yourself?
It adds SO MUCH to the discussion.
And I'll bet you can prove it is a true statement.
How did we ever get along without your profundity for all these years?

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

Oh, by the way, transposing the above yields gmail@mxsmanic -- just
thought you'd like to know.

Actually, our own Jay Honeck still hasn't figured it out.

Thanks, BTW, for your contribution.

mike

"N2310D" wrote in message
news:dS6bh.15882$Uz.11958@trnddc05...

WOW! That is such a really brilliant statement!
Did you figure it all by yourself?
It adds SO MUCH to the discussion.
And I'll bet you can prove it is a true statement.
How did we ever get along without your profundity for all these years?

Actually, our own Jay Honeck still hasn't figured it out.

Perhaps a better example for Jay - you're at a party, and a friend
offers you the chance to try a line of some prime Coke. Most people
don't get a chance to do this. A lot of people think it's terrific. I
don't know the actual numbers, but I wouldn't be surprised if the number
of pilots is less than the number of drug users.

Do you decline?

Jose
--
"There are 3 secrets to the perfect landing. Unfortunately, nobody knows
what they are." - (mike).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

In article ,
Jose wrote:

Actually, our own Jay Honeck still hasn't figured it out.

Perhaps a better example for Jay - you're at a party, and a friend
offers you the chance to try a line of some prime Coke. Most people
don't get a chance to do this. A lot of people think it's terrific. I
don't know the actual numbers, but I wouldn't be surprised if the number
of pilots is less than the number of drug users.

"better example"? Not!

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

N2310D writes:

WOW! That is such a really brilliant statement!

Thank you.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

However, flying is always likely to appeal to more men than women, so
a 50/50 ratio would be unlikely.

Ha!

Tell that to Mary, Margy, Michelle, or many of the other women pilots
on this group, and they'll kick your sorry butt all over France...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"better example"? Not!

Why not?

Jose
--
"There are 3 secrets to the perfect landing. Unfortunately, nobody knows
what they are." - (mike).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

However, flying is always likely to appeal to more men than women, so
a 50/50 ratio would be unlikely.

Jay Honeck wrote:
Ha!

Tell that to Mary, Margy, Michelle, or many of the other women pilots
on this group, and they'll kick your sorry butt all over France...

I'm one of the women pilots in this group, and I think the statement
above about flying *generally* appealing more to men than to women is an
accurate one. If it weren't, how else would you explain that probably
90% of the pilots at the airport on a Sunday afternoon are men? or the
large number of men who complain that their wives aren't even interested
enough to fly with them? How many women do you find in coveralls
*happily* on a creeper cleaning the belly of their airplane on a
Saturday morning?

That doesn't mean that many of us (women) aren't just as interested,
driven and passionate about flying as you -- Mary, Margy, Michelle and I
(Shirl) definitely are! -- but overall, I agree with whoever said that a
50/50 men/women ratio is unlikely. In a random group of 100 men and 100
women, no way the same number of women will say they would like to fly
an airplane as men.

It may indeed be stereotypical to say, but more men grow up around
engines, motors, and mechanics than women, and while there are *of
course* exceptions, that knowledge/education, or the desire TO HAVE that
knowledge/education, is less common to a lot of (not all) women. Some
men enjoy sewing, too, but the *majority* do not, nor do they have a
desire to learn it even though they can appreciate the skill.

Of the girlfriends that I've discussed flying with, many say they'd be
interested in learning how but are very intimidated and put off by the
fact that they would have to have some knowledge of the mechanics of the
engine, and they have an inherent negativity and lack of confidence in
their ability to adequately learn about it, especially when they get
around groups of aviators discussing mags, pistons, fouled plugs,
mixture leaning, CHT/EGTs, etc. Add to that the large number of men who
make women feel like their questions are dumb or that they don't belong
and aren't welcome (yes, there ARE still many out there!), and it's no
wonder the ratio is not 50/50.

Shirl

unicate writes:

Of the girlfriends that I've discussed flying with, many say they'd be
interested in learning how but are very intimidated and put off by the
fact that they would have to have some knowledge of the mechanics of the
engine, and they have an inherent negativity and lack of confidence in
their ability to adequately learn about it, especially when they get
around groups of aviators discussing mags, pistons, fouled plugs,
mixture leaning, CHT/EGTs, etc.

That is a negative point for some men, also, including myself. I was
never into cars in the way that standard men are because I had
absolutely no interest in playing around with engines covered in
filth, and small aircraft unfortunately also use this type of engine.

It is true that most men seem to enjoy such things. It mystifies me.
I'm the exception among my sex rather than the rule, though.

There are other aspects of flying that can have a gender-neutral
appeal, and I suppose these aspects attract the female pilots more
than the male pilots. For example, the sensations of flying or the
psychological satisfactions of piloting one's own plane could appeal
to someone of either sex. The mechanical aspects, the machine
aspects, and the turning dials would appeal to males. Some aspects of
navigation might appeal strongly to women, as they tend to be good at
some of the operations involved (such as arithmetic and memory tasks).

I'd expect piloting of airliners to appeal more to women than piloting
of small GA aircraft, because airliners have less of a mechanical
tinkering aspect to them and a higher intellectual workload, and
airline work has more social aspects. I'd also expect to see more
female air traffic controllers (percentage wise) than female pilots,
because ATC is a much more gender-neutral type of intellectual work.

There are many differences between men and women in the type of tasks
they prefer (which are often also the tasks at which they excel), and
this has an effect on the percentage of each sex working in each
profession. Men like things; women like people. Men like math, but
women like arithmetic. Men like spatial visualization, women like
memorization. And so on.

Add to that the large number of men who
make women feel like their questions are dumb or that they don't belong
and aren't welcome (yes, there ARE still many out there!), and it's no
wonder the ratio is not 50/50.

Just seeing how some pilots talk on this newsgroup makes it clear that
some of them are still living in the nineteenth century when it come
to gender issues.

In summary, I should think that a good part of the dearth of female
pilots is attributable to machismo, but the rest is due to a simple
difference in preferences between men and women. I think it's
important for women to have the same opportunity as men to become
pilots. But I don't think it's important to try to force the numbers
to come out 50/50.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

Jay Honeck writes:

Tell that to Mary, Margy, Michelle, or many of the other women pilots
on this group, and they'll kick your sorry butt all over France...

They already realize that it's true, although they may not be happy
about it.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.