2024 Women’s Instructor Course Takes Flight
It’s just over a year since we proposed to establish a network group for Australian Women Glider Pilots – The Rockettes.
Since then, we’ve held, or participated in three Intro to Gliding Weekends in Victoria and Qld and held an airworthiness course in Victoria. All these events have been well received.
One of the Board’s strategic objectives is to increase diversity in the sport, and that includes improving the participation of women, and promoting women in flying leadership roles.
From 27 December to 1 November, NSW Gliding hosted the very first National Women’s Instructor Course on behalf of the Rockettes.
The female participation statistics for our sport are very poor. Women flying members in Australia make up 8% of the membership but only 3% of all instructors (AEI to L3). This course increased the women instructor cohort by 19%.
We had four women who put their names forward for the instructor’s course – Sophie Curio (Qld), Melysha Turnbull (NSW), Daniella Heibig (NSW) and Harbans Mann (Victoria). Dave McIlroy (NSW RM(O)) was the course coordinator and trainer, aided by myself, and a trainee Level 3 instructor from NSW, Michael Vince.
We were also joined by an instructor from the Czech Republic, Marek Vasely who was obtaining a conversion of his Czech instructor qualifications to Australia (of note, he is the current world gliding aerobatic Champion!)
Narromine really turned on the good weather for us and we flew every day with good lift and good training conditions. And the Narromine Gliding Club (Beryl and Arnie) turned on the hospitality and towing and everything else! The course was completed at Bathurst Gliding Club (Piper’s field) on the Saturday to undertake spinning exercises that could not be completed at Narromine.
The women were all very skilled pilots and were challenged by the course. Instructing is quite different to doing your own flying. Sophie and Melysha obtained their Level 1 ratings and Daniella obtained her upgrade to Level 2. Harbans had to leave the course half-way through due to commitments at home and had made great progress to her AEI rating, before leaving.
The group identified themselves as WINGAMIS (Women Instructors Group And Men In Support).
We intend to run another course next year so girls, if you have ambitions to get an instructor’s rating, start working on what prerequisites you may need to obtain. The course caters for AEI, L1, L2 and L3 ratings.
Why a Women’s Course, I hear many of you ask!
Girls in sports often experience bullying, social isolation, negative performance evaluations, or the loss of their starting position, especially if they are a small minority as is the case in many gliding clubs.
Aside from cost issues that impact all pilots, the lack of positive role models is one key reason why women do not join a sport or stay in the sport. There is also plenty of research evidence that a majority of women have less confidence in their abilities compared to men and will often not put their names forward for promotion and upskilling. As long as gliding in Australia has such a low participation rate for women, it is necessary to hold women’s courses in a safe, fun and welcoming environment.
Instructors in gliding are viewed as the leadership group and change agents and it is important to have more female leadership. In any sport or ambition, it is often said that “you can’t be what you can’t see”.
Testimonials
David McIlroy, Lead Instructor
“I am very proud to have been asked to be a staff instructor on this course. Without exception, every course member is a high-achiever in their professional lives and everyone was mutually supportive. The spirit of information sharing, learning and enjoyment was consistent right through the course and it was an absolute pleasure to be part of fostering the results achieved. I was particularly impressed by the energy, efficiency and timeliness of the womens’ daily inspections and end-of-day housekeeping, in addition to their instructional progress. I hope to be similarly involved in future instructor courses like this inaugural event; in alignment with Gliding Australia goals.”
