Women in aviation event helps Ottawa girls see themselves in the air

For International Women’s Day, the Rockcliffe Flying Club is looking to open doors for women and girls interested in aviation. CTV’s Kimberley Johnson reports.

It’s International Women’s Day and an event at the Rockcliffe Flying Club aimed to foster future pilots and help young women and girls see themselves in the skies.

The event is called Meet a Pilot. It was hosted by the 99s Eastern Ontario chapter. It’s an organization for female pilots around the world in more than 40 countries. There are about 50 members here in the region.

Johnathan Tefasellassie brought his two daughters. He says it was a conversation with his four-year-old daughter Abigail last year that made him want to be sure his children knew they could do anything they want, including fly a plane.

“She said, well, no, that’s a boy’s job. And we were really shocked because we had never sort of spoken to her that way,” he explained. “I think that made me really realize that it’s important to sort of expose them to, all the different types of jobs that women can do.”

He is a student pilot here at the Rockcliffe Flying Club, so when the event came up, he jumped on it.

“I wanted them to see women in that job, and know that could be an option for them,” he saed.

The event let visitors get the chance to try a flight simulator, meet pilots and even step inside an aircraft.

Just seven per cent of pilots in Canada are women, and for aviation maintenance engineers, that number is even lower at two per cent.

“Because women or girls don’t really see women in these roles, they don’t know about these roles, so they don’t see themselves in those roles,” said the organization’s co-chair Valeriya Mordvinova.

Jimema Garcia is a student pilot, she says she was never encouraged to be one back in Uruguay where she grew up. She’s now a student pilot at the age of 33 and has two kids.

“It’s the best feeling in the world. I love it,” she says. “I love to go in the sky,” she said.

“Everyone should have their choice to decide what they want to do. And if you expose (kids) at a young age - then they get the choices that they can make when they’re older. And follow their passions in life.”