sid Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 I would have thought that if any of these electronic devices were so dangerous they would simply be banned altogether, like guns and the rest. It's not as if anyone could prevent a passenger turning on a phone or whatever at any crucial time, for instance when the cabin crew are are belted-in at take-off or landing. I remain sceptical BUT I still obey the request to turn mine off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sid Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 [IMG]http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m553/sidinfrance/female-pilot.jpg[/IMG] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 [quote user="sid"]Well, I'm omitting the rude ones, [/quote]So enjoying these Sid. Go on, I'm sure you can find a way of disguising the ruder ones. [6] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Well the thing was when they were doing circuits and bumps and some body asked whe they knew to put the stick back "when everyone behind screens "Oh sh*t".I spent two weeks at BLEU as it was referred to in the RAF and very interesting it was too. There was an old story that when they got it all working the first aircraft to have it fitted to were Tridents. The story was that the nose wheel was offset because the system was so good that the Trident would land dead centre on the runway using it that the nose wheel would bump over the 'cats eyes' and all the passengers would get that noise like when you do it in car. Bit of a myth really, the real reason was a cock-up in the design and not enough room in the front avionics bay to get kit in and out so they offset the nose wheel. Good story though.Sadly there are loads of joke about women pilots, many of them involving maneuvering the aircraft on the ground. There is still differences (again sadly) to the way women pilots are treated in the RAF. One of which is part of their contract which is not to become pregnant during their service (instantly thrown out if it happens) and the limit on number of years service they can do compared to men. Whilst they will let them fly Chinocks in the front line they won't allow them to fly fast jets in the front line although there are fast jet women pilots in the RAF. The Red Arrows certainly used to have one woman pilot by the way and has done since the early 1990's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex H Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 [quote user="Quillan"]The Red Arrows certainly used to have one woman pilot by the way and has done since the early 1990's.[/quote]First one in 2009 - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8350286.stmWomen pilots since 1989 (same link)Does Afghanistan count as front line?http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/6851051/All-female-Tornado-jet-crew-describe-war-in-Afghanistan.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprogster Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Female pilots are not allowed to fly during their pregnancy due to valid medical reasons such as the risk of blackouts. Unlike medicine, where there are now more trainee female doctors than men, not sure we will see a similar pattern in aviation. As commercial flying can be so family unfriendly with fixed rosters months ahead, especially long haul when you are away from home for days at a time.Commercial pilots have one of the highest rates of divorce amongst the professions as a result.As for the RAF the situation is academic as no new trainee pilots are being recruited and many of those in training are being let go, due to the savage defence cutbacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 [quote user="Alex H"][quote user="Quillan"]The Red Arrows certainly used to have one woman pilot by the way and has done since the early 1990's.[/quote]First one in 2009 - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8350286.stmWomen pilots since 1989 (same link)Does Afghanistan count as front line?http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/6851051/All-female-Tornado-jet-crew-describe-war-in-Afghanistan.html[/quote]I honestly thought there was one back in the 1990's but I was obviously wrong, sorry about that.Afghanistan is a strange one, journalists (even some politicians) and I call it a war most of the time but the war is between indigenous people (or tribes) and we are 'peace keeping' and so not technically at war.The RAF have had women pilots before then, usually for transport command but it was only in 1989 that they let them fly 'fast jets'. There was a test case brought by one woman back in the 90's who took the RAF to court because she fell pregnant and was sacked immediately. She then went on the European Court who found the RAF had behaved badly, found in her favour and she was awarded £15k but not reinstated. They also had to pay £15k each to all the other women who had been sacked for becoming pregnant. It was something to do with 'the contract' which in the case of female pilots said they couldn't become pregnant for so many years after the finished their training based of cost of training and the RAF getting effectively their money back. I can sort of understand where the RAF were coming from, spending all those millions in training then having to shell out some more to get the woman back up to standard after maternity. However if this is explained and written in the contract then I can't see a problem as it's up to both parties to agree and sign. On the other side it seems strange that male aircrew can get maternity leave! I also believe that the sex of the pilot should not be an issue (neither should their colour, religion etc), what they should be able to do is perform the job and if they can then whats the problem. Sexist jokes from time to time, fair enough (don't think women don't make jokes about men), but real sexism is quite evil.In the civil side it is sad to say that there are only around 500 woman captains in the world (source). I think this is very bad and now that we have all had our bit of fun I wouldn't mind hearing from Fluffy why she thinks this is i.e. is it sexism at the top or is it that not many women want to do the job? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiefluvvie Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Good question Q!My simplistic answer would be that it's essentially a cultural issue impacting on ambition. Added to that - lifestyle choice is a consideration.I guess it's comparable to the fact that only around 5% of FTSE 100 companies have women on their boards. The 'issue' is not restricted to aviation.That said - this forum does feel like Bedrock sometimes!Chiefluvvie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachapapa Posted December 20, 2011 Author Share Posted December 20, 2011 I think it was last year in france that a woman was top-dog, sorry top-bitch, on those little red things that fly up the elysian fields on the 14th.Virginie Guyot 2010.http://www.aerobuzz.fr/spip.php?article468 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 There is quite a lot of discussion on the topic on the Professional Pilots Rumour Network http://www.pprune.org Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 This is what happens if you allow pilots to play with their IPods when flying.[IMG]http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q99/ckenway/santa.jpg[/IMG] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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