‘Girls Fly Too’ event encourages women to pursue a career in aviation

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FRASER VALLEY (NEWS 1130) – The annual “Girls Fly Too” event at the Abbotsford Airport has soared in popularity since it started in 2012.

And that’s a good thing according to founder Kirsten Brazier, because the world needs more female pilots.

She says only six per cent of professional pilots in North America are women, with only 2.8 per cent of the maintenance population. “So these numbers to me are really appalling. The flying is not that complicated, it is a very challenging and rewarding career, the maintenance trades are a very lucrative industry to be in. There are fascinating careers in aviation aerospace marine and defence, and I have just questioned over and over why are there no women.”

She says when she was young, she was headed down the wrong path in life, and flying saved her. “My uncle and my dad had taken me to every Abbotsford Air Show as a child so when it came to the time when I started educating myself and reaching out for a career, it occurred to me to learn to fly so I became a fixed-wing pilot.

There are free flights at Abbotsford Airport for kids, as long as anyone under 19 has signed consent forms. At last year’s event, over 1,700 girls got up in an airplane for the first time.

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