Editorial

JILL MCCAW

When I first started gliding with the Auckland Gliding Club, back in the early ‘80s, it never occurred to me to think there was anything unusual about being a girl and taking up the sport. At the time that I was training there was another girl from my nursing class, Christine Hicks (if anyone knows what became of her, please let me know – our nursing class has been trying to track her down for years), Rosemary Gatland was one of my instructors and there were quite a few women pilots around: Ann Barbarich, Liz Read, Brenda Tunnley, and much to my surprise, Shelia Alexander, the head tutor of my nursing school. Teenagers Kerrin Williamson and Vivienne Brynner were daughters of pilots and part of the club scene. I think they were both pilots by then. Ann Johnson was doing some amazing flying at Piako and Yvonne Loader was setting records down south. To my mind there was nothing odd about women flying. I remember being quite surprised one time when an instructor told me, “You fly quite well, for a girl.” I didn’t know what to make of that and realised that the instructor meant well but I was left feeling puzzled (was that a compliment?) and quite put out by it. The

fact that I still remember him saying it, more than 30 years later shows that words can unsettle and stick. After travelling for a few years, I came home, returning to flying at my home club - my happy place. I made friends with Kerrin Williamson and the two of us tripped south to crew for Lindsay Stephens at a South

Island Regionals. I met John McCaw, we married (at Omarama) a couple of years later and produced some awesome gliding kids of our own. Sometime later I became the editor of SoaringNZ. I have very rarely encountered any of the problems that Clare Dickson talks about in her article, but I’ve seen some bad stuff happen to other women.

I did have one incident that showed the unconscious bias that Pip Schofield mentioned in her speech at the GNZ AGM. About 10 years ago when I’d just started SoaringNZ and wasn’t yet well known within the gliding community, I happened to drive past a particular gliding club while on a solo trip. Of course, I went in. I followed

the directions to drive around the end of the strip and pulled up at the caravan. There were probably about a dozen people around, all male and all occupied with the usual launch point stuff. No one approached me. I wandered over and looked at a couple of parked up gliders. No one came to ask if I’d like to know more about them. A strange random female hanging around was obviously not seen to be anyone of importance and certainly not a potential club member. Eventually I got sick of waiting to see what would happen and went into the caravan and introduced myself. After that the welcome was very warm. But honestly guys… That was the perfect example of what not to do. Earlier than this, back about the time I came home from my travels I spent some time working for my father, a trenching contractor – mostly driving the digger. I was making a botched job of digging out the end of a trench with a shovel because I was still recovering from the broken leg that had caused the end of my Europe trip. I couldn’t stamp on the shovel with my right leg and was having to try and do it wrong footed. Some burly guy stares at me and says, “Hasn’t George got any sons?” He saw a woman trying to do a man’s job, not an able worker struggling with an injury.

And now I’m going to weigh in on what I’ve seen is wrong within the club culture that needs to improve if we want to encourage women into the sport. To start with, it is a lot more than just providing decent and clean toilets near the launch point area, but we do thank the clubs that do that. Most of the problems I’ve seen have been to do with single women. Through most of my gliding career I’ve been a married woman and have missed most of the dodgy carry on that

my single colleagues put up with. Men HAVE TO STOP the sotto voice comments, positive and negative, about any women that crosses their path. I mean the “Whaaar, get a load of that,” or the “Wow, what a dog.” You don’t do that to your male colleagues, don’t do it to women. Women who come to the gliding club to learn to fly gliders come to the gliding club to learn to fly gliders. They are interested in learning to fly gliders and in making friends with other people who fly gliders. They are not there to find husbands. Male club members wives also need to realise this! I know of a couple of very experienced glider pilots who love sharing their experience by taking enthusiastic students for long crosscountry flights – but they won’t take any girls – because their wives wouldn’t like it! I also know some experienced glider pilots who love sharing their experiences and love of the sport by taking enthusiastic students with them on long cross-country flights, the only criteria being that they are keen. Thank you to the good guys out there. I know the good guys outweigh the other. I know that most people have the best interest of all club members at heart but – sometimes – the odd person doesn’t quite put their brain into gear before speaking. Don’t be that guy.

Stay safe team Jill

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