When was the last time you met someone new at the airport who was an aviation crazed female?
Can’t remember? Me either.
Forty-five years ago my dad offered to pay half the cost of flying lessons for any of his three children who wanted a pilot licence. He didn’t have to shell out much.
Dad’s in-flight cigars made my brother sick. "No thanks dad but can I have a motorcycle?"
The day my sister turned 15, she declared, "Airports offer nothing but smelly airplanes, filthy washrooms and dirty old men."
She was right.
Small airplanes then carried the combined smell of dope, exhaust, burning oil and leaking gasoline. The old geezers would joke, "When the exhaust, oil or fuel stink goes away, it means you’re in trouble." Dad’s TriPacer had the added aroma of his cigars and my brother’s reaction to the cigars.
The flying club washrooms in those days doubled as degreasing booths for the mechanics. They used the sink and toilet to clean exhaust, burned oil and fuel stains from aircraft parts. The hand soap was called "Snap" and the towel was the well-used end of one of those cloth rolls.
The pilots were mostly men, some old, some dirty and some not.

Things have improved. Airplanes today reek of over-cooked polyester. If you can smell anything else, something is wrong. For my brother, someone invented bags.
Washrooms at small airports are still not places fit for entertaining the queen but they look less like a practise room for a paint-ball team.
The pilots are mostly men, some old, some dirty and some not.
Where are the women?

Transport Canada statistics for April 2004 show there are 65,200 pilot licences and permits in force. The total number of pilots is less since many hold more than one licence or permit. The figure includes a few hundred flight engineer licences, ten held by females. It does not include student pilot permits, aircraft maintenance engineer licences or ratings such as instructor or instrument.
Of that total, females hold 4,050 licences and permits. That’s up since my sister was 15. It must be the cleaner washrooms. Still, the ratio of male to female pilots is one to 16. You have to meet 16 new guys at the airport to meet one new gal.
And let’s not just talk female pilots. Why aren’t there more female passengers, managers, dispatchers and engineers?
In the interest of moving recreation aviation into the twenty-first century, here is a score sheet for rating your local airport on its attractiveness to females. Pretend you are a woman on her first visit to the flying school/club. You are on a mission to find out if aviation is for you.

1/ Drive into the parking lot. How many spaces are reserved for pregnant women and the handicapped?
Score +5 for each one.
Score -5 for each space in the front row reserved for the manager and/or CFI.

2/ How many cars in the lot display macho personalized licence plates such as "AV8R," "TALDRAGR" or "MILEHIGH"?
Score -1 for each.
Score +1 for every "MOMSTAXI."

3-A/ Open the door to the flying club lounge or flying school office. Everyone in the room turns to see who is walking in. If they know you, do they say "Hi" or some other greeting?
Score +1 for each yes.
Score -1 for every no.

3-B/ Watch the same people when a stranger walks in. They look, then what do they do?
Score +1 for each friendly greeting to the stranger.
Score -1 for every aviator in the room who turns back to what they were doing without saying anything.

3-C/ Now watch if a strange woman comes through the door. Note: You may have to wait awhile.
Score -5 for each man who stares at her without saying anything.
Score +5 for each person who immediately says, "Hi, welcome to the our flying school!"

4/ Look at the bulletin board.
Score -10 for each notice that says:
"Wanted: Woman with airplane. Must like flight planning, navigating and polishing aluminum. Preference given to applicants with aircraft maintenance engineer licence and/or instrument rating. Send picture of airplane."
Score +10 for each notice declaring, "Bondar for Minister of Transport"

5/ How about the magazine table?
Score +1 for each woman’s publication.
Score +5 for each woman’s aviation magazine.
Score -1 for each aviation magazine dated from the last century.
Score -5 for each woman’s wrestling publication.

6/ Now go to the washroom.
Score +1 if there is a separate lady’s washroom.
Score +2 if it is cleaner than the men’s and stocked with toilet paper and paper towels.
Score +3 if the toilet seat is down.
Score -1 if the toilet paper feels like a Trade-a-plane.
Score -2 if the toilet paper is a Trade-a-plane.
Score -3 if there is a peephole in the wall between the men’s and ladies’ washroom.

7/ Who is working behind the flight desk?
Score -5 if the dispatcher is wearing a low-cut, red T-shirt that reads "Remove before flight."
Score -10 if the dispatcher above asks the female stranger if she’s looking for a date.
Score +5 if there is a smiling person behind the desk who is knowledgeable and interested in the strange women’s questions.
Score +10 if the smiling person behind the desk looks like Brad Pitt.

8/ Check out the coffee station.
Score -1 if the coffee looks and smells like asphalt sealer.
Score -2 if the cream isn’t.
Score +1 if there is a cappuccino machine.
Score +2 if the cappuccino is served by Brad Pitt.

9/ Look at the airplanes used for flight training.
Score -5 for each one that smells of dope, exhaust, burning oil and leaking gasoline.
Score +5 for each one that can be flown by someone less than five feet tall wearing a skirt.

10/ Finally.
Score -5 for each father at the airport who left his children at home.
Score +5 if the airport has a free pre-school nursery for aviators.

TOTAL SCORE
0 to +5: Genderizing in progress.
+6 to +10: Welcome to the twenty-first century.
+11 to +20: The club/school manager must be a female.
More than +20: You missed the airport and are in a woman’s health spa.
0 to -5: the manager is male but his mother did a good job enlightening him.
-6 to -10: Welcome back to the 1950s.
-11 to -20: You stumbled into Red Green’s Possum Lodge.
More than -20: Rename the airport after King Henry VIII.

My fussy sister grew up, married, gave birth to two boys and moved to Regina, Saskatchewan. The day she turned 30, she went to the airport, learned to fly and became a flying instructor, a job she held for seven years.
I asked her why she changed her mind about airports.
"The Regina airplanes didn’t smell like dad’s, the washrooms were cleaner and the old men were nice, once they established that I was married, had children and was at the airport to fly."
There is hope.