Retired and Still Flying Strong!
My Friend Kathy McCullough is retired, but she is working harder than she ever has. But then again, I heard that about retirement. Pilots go to work to get a rest!
Well, she's also enjoying life on the farm, still traveling the world, writing books, taking photos, and being an advocate for the lady pilots. We met Kathy as a Friday Flyer not too long ago. I asked her if she would join us today, and share her recent adventures.
Kathy and Hubby Kevin
KATHY:
"Retirement is supposed to be relaxing, right? I joined a
woman airline pilot group (ISA +21) because they were traveling to Rome, and I wanted to
go. It was perfect, because now I had friends to go places with and they needed
a photographer. Fast forward seven years.
Yes, I went to Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary,
Netherlands, Canada, and Italy with a great group of women. But I also learned
that problems in the airline industry for women are still as bad as they were in the early eighties, and back then it was pretty bad. Oddly enough when I was hired, I had excellent maternity leave. However, women today are being forced back to work six weeks after having a baby, even when the baby is ill. They have to make a choice between the baby's health and the means to pay for medical bills. Come back, or quit. I also know female captains who have been punished for assertiveness in the flight deck, speaking out about female concerns in private forums, bruising a male pilot's ego, reporting safety issues, and many more ridiculous reasons they use to destroy a female pilot's career. Times need to change.
I opened communications with the New York Times and a major airline in attempt to make a difference. Some policies were changed. Many US major airlines
adopted a better maternity policy, and that was a start. But the fight continued
as ALPA (a pilot union) didn’t want to push for “special” work rules for a "small number" of their members. That’s right, small. Because forty-plus years
after the first women were hired (Emily Howell, Frontier, 1973) less than 5% of
airline pilots are women.
Come From Away (with ISA)
All that talk about diversity and hiring more women pilots appears to be rhetoric. The reason that less than 2% of the women pilots (at a particular major airline) make it to retirement, in my opinion, is due to this inappropriate treatment. There are many real
problems that go unnoticed in the aviation industry.
One of the worst offenders in my era was an instructor (also
head of the union’s sexual harassment committee!) who put three degrees of
rudder trim into a 747 full of passengers on my landing. For non-flyers that would be like your kid reaching over and grabbing your steering wheel on the freeway. The landing was scary,
to say the least. I couldn’t figure out what had happened until I started
procedures while taxiing to the gate. I pointed to the rudder
trim, and of course he denied it. And flunked me. I had to have a “final” ride
with a hatchet man, an instructor known for busting out more pilots than anyone
else with the airline.
Thankfully the hatchet man buried that hatchet and passed me. This decision would be career changer. We all knew I could fly, but the hatchet was out for one reason only, and my flying performance had nothing to do with it.
Thankfully the hatchet man buried that hatchet and passed me. This decision would be career changer. We all knew I could fly, but the hatchet was out for one reason only, and my flying performance had nothing to do with it.
Want to know why he passed me?
It’s all in my book: Ups and Downs.
That book is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. (My
travel book, To the Edges of the World, will be out in 2018).
"To the Edges of the World— Piloting a Boeing
747 around the world we joked about flying from layover to layover. Two and
three days off in foreign countries seemed more like a vacation than a job. The
other pilots I flew with laughed as I “hit the ground running,” and often came
sightseeing with me.
As you sit in your living room reading a travel book, it
should take you away. This one does. From Europe to Asia, Alaska to Antarctica,
come fly with me!"
Kathy with Donald McMonagle (retired astronaut)
I tried to make Ups and Downs a positive account of my
life’s adventures. My Novel, Breakfast in Narita, is on my editor’s
desk. Novels are fiction... right? Well, let's just call this one "True-Fiction." It is a no-holes barred account of the harassment women airline pilots
face. Stay tuned… I intend to blow the lid off what is still going on in this
industry.
Speaking at Raytheon, Tucson
to a group native American kids
I talk to schools, juvenile facilities,
teach STEM, etc.
Without diversity this field continues to be headed downhill,
like a snowball.
At one airline the women don’t have to wear ties. Rumor is the men are incensed. Another airline has a restrictive hair policy. Yet if young women going into this field can’t look attractive, that’s one more reason less will choose it. Harassment, not family friendly, different standards, why would they fly?
We must stop allowing our society to harass anyone.
Women
doctors who want to become surgeons face the same barriers. I’m sure many
fields where women are working under bosses with sociopathic tendencies are the
same. Men in positions of power are experts at bringing people down. There is
no one to police them, and they seem to revel in it.
This is not men bashing, I'm just acutely aware of what is still happening in the aviation industry today. We should have moved forward with this. It's time to change the culture of some of our airlines.
Commencement Speaker at
University of Florida Laboratory school
Kathy with mom, brother, and sister-in-law!
I also help to raise scholarship money for a 501©3 charity, ISA+21. The money goes to women who want to be airline pilots. They are the
International Society of Women Airline Pilots, and these women have given away
over a million dollars in ratings. Last year we gave over $60,000 out! I made
them my Amazon Smile charity, and we have a silent auction each year at our
conference to raise money. We know of at least 75 women who have won and gone
on to be airline pilots, so that’s a start. Obviously it isn’t enough. How do
we get to 50/50 in this career? Maybe we never will. But there is always hope!"
Karlene, thank you so much for this post. I want to thank the thousands of great pilots out there who I've worked with over the years. I don't believe this is a male pilot issue. I suspect this is more of a management issue, a leadership issue due to corporate culture.
ReplyDeleteKathy, You are welcome! I agree, the line pilots are awesome! I am so looking forward to your Novel, as I know the truth within the pages. Keep up the great work and thank you for helping to make our industry better.
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