EXCLUSIVE: A female pilot has shared the way she’s experienced sexism in the workplace, saying it’s probably not in the way you think, and shared a common misconception about pilots
Raja Katz was around 12 or 13 years old when she realised being a pilot was the “only thing” she wanted to do as a career. But it wasn’t because she wanted to follow in any family members’ footsteps, as she “didn’t know any pilots, let alone a female one” – it was just a gut feeling she had.
To test out her theory, at 15 she “started flying gliders,” which is how she managed to “turn the fascination into something concrete”. She explained: “Looking back, not having a role model or mentor of my own is a big part of why I now spend so much time trying to help increase representation for female pilots.”
Now, speaking exclusively to the Mirror, Raja has lifted the lid on what life as a female airline pilot – and how passengers react when they realise there’s a woman in the cockpit.
How did Raja become a pilot?
Raja, who posts on social media as @raja_in_the_sky, explained: “Broadly, there are two ways in. You can go through an airline’s own cadet programme, where you’re selected and trained specifically for that airline, which is comparatively rare and highly competitive. Or you go through a private flight school that you fund yourself, which is the far more common route.
“Either way, you start with classroom training, the theoretical side covering things like air law, meteorology, navigation and aircraft systems, and you sit a set of legal exams for that, either alongside or before your practical flying. The practical side starts on small, single-engine aircraft and builds up from there.
“You then add a multi-engine rating, which qualifies you to fly aircraft with more than one engine, along with an instrument rating and multi-crew training. Once you’ve completed the required theory exams, you hold what’s called a “frozen” ATPL (Airline Transport Pilot License), which becomes a full license once you’ve built up enough flight hours.
“The final and most specific step is the type rating: the license for one particular aircraft type, an Airbus A320 or a Boeing 737, for example. This is most often provided or paid for by your employer once you’re hired.”
A typical day
Raja explained that there’s no such thing as a typical day at work as a pilot, and “every day is different”, but that’s what she loves about it. She explained: “Flying long-haul, you start your working day at your home base anywhere between early morning and late evening, depending on the flight.
“You report for duty and meet your fellow pilots, and depending on the flight time, there can be more than two of us on duty for a flight. Shortly after, you meet the cabin crew and go over the particulars for that flight: safety-relevant aspects and procedures, often for the first time, since it’s frequently the first time most of us have met at all.
“Then we take the crew bus out onto the apron (the area of the airport where planes are parked), boarding the aircraft, and once all checks are complete, the passengers board too. We finish our flight preparations: entering the route into the onboard computer, calculating our takeoff speeds, and thoroughly briefing the crew on that specific departure.
“Once loading is done and everyone’s on board, we get pushed back, taxi to the runway, run through our checklists, and we’re ready to take off. During cruise, we’re constantly monitoring weather, routing and terrain, and building contingency plans in case we ever need to land immediately.
“My long-haul sectors typically run between seven and 14 hours. As we get closer to our destination, we brief the entire approach and descent procedure in detail. After landing, we taxi to the gate, the passengers disembark, we hand the aircraft over to maintenance for its routine checks, and we head off to clear immigration and get to the hotel.”
Her experience with sexism
Raja has experienced sexism, but probably not “in the way people expect”. She explained: “The pilots and cabin crew I actually fly with have never questioned my competence, not once, and my colleagues take me seriously. Where I do notice it is with passengers, and it happened more often when I was flying short-haul.
“On those smaller aircraft, there’s barely any physical distance between where passengers board and the cockpit door, so people would see me walk in and react on the spot. Long-haul jets are bigger, and there’s simply much less contact between passengers and the flight crew, so I hardly ever get those moments now.
“Any form of discrimination is, of course, unacceptable. Sometimes, however, it’s more of a surprise on some faces when a woman is flying rather than rejection, and I understand that reaction, because it’s still rare”.
What Raja wishes people knew about pilots
Raja explained there’s “one thing” that she’d “love to clear up”. “It’s the difference between ‘pilot’ and ‘co-pilot’, because a lot of people assume the co-pilot is somehow the backup, someone who’s there just in case and doesn’t really fly the plane”, she said.
She continued: “That’s not how it works. Both the captain and the first officer, which is the correct term for what most people call the co-pilot, hold the same type rating for that aircraft and are both fully qualified to fly it.
“We take turns being ‘pilot flying’ and ‘pilot monitoring’ from one leg to the next, so on any given flight, it might be the first officer’s hands on the controls for takeoff and landing, not the captain’s. I’m a first officer myself, so I fly plenty of those sectors, take-offs and landings included, exactly like a captain would.
“The real difference between the two roles is seniority and responsibility. Captains have more experience and additional command training, and they carry the final legal authority and responsibility for the flight. But day to day, both of us are pilots in every sense of the word”.
For more information on learning to become a pilot, including the qualifications needed and the costs involved, visit the Civil Aviation Authority website.
