2006.07.21: July 21, 2006: Headlines: COS - Poland: Flying: Aviation: Estes Park Trail Gazette: Poland RPCV Kathleen Bennett spends her days high above the hassles of traffic in her Cessna 182
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2006.07.21: July 21, 2006: Headlines: COS - Poland: Flying: Aviation: Estes Park Trail Gazette: Poland RPCV Kathleen Bennett spends her days high above the hassles of traffic in her Cessna 182
Poland RPCV Kathleen Bennett spends her days high above the hassles of traffic in her Cessna 182
“Unbeknownst to me at the time, Aims has an aviation program,” said Bennett. “I stumbled over one day and found the one woman faculty member in the program—all the rest were men—and asked her what would be required to get my pilot’s license. She told me that it would be a great deal for me because as a faculty member I could get the ground school for free and a discount on flying. So at 55 years old, I enrolled myself in the aviation program at Aims Community College. I got my private license in 1999, my instruments license—meaning you can fly in the clouds—in 2001 and in 2003 I got my commercial license. Right now I’m working on my certification to be a flight instructor. So just about every two years I’ve gotten a new rating, but there’s not much left now.”
Poland RPCV Kathleen Bennett spends her days high above the hassles of traffic in her Cessna 182
Flights of fancy
Retired teacher Kathleen Bennett spends her days high above the hassles of traffic in her Cessna 182
She hopes to be an inspiration to other potential female pilots and middle-aged people to continue to reach for their dreams–and the skies
By Valerie Pehrson
There’s nothing typical about Kathleen Bennett. She’s taught English and English as a second language throughout Colorado, but also taught English in Kenya, Poland, Mexico, China, and England. She’s a breast cancer survivor, former Peace Corps member, mother of two, and since she retired from teaching she started pursuing her hobbies with the kind of passion and enthusiasm that many retirees possess.
But Bennett’s hobby is atypical–not just for a woman of her age, but for women in general.
She’s a pilot.
“I remember sitting at the end of the dirt air strip in my hometown of Okmulgee, Okla., and watching the one plane land there when I was little,” she recollected. “I never got to ride in it, or look in the plane, someone told me it belonged to a doctor. But that might be where my interest in planes started,” she said.
But it wasn’t until after she and her husband divorced that she had the opportunity to take to the skies on her own. That’s when the aviation bug really bit her.
“Someone gave me a set of three flying lessons when I was 32 years old,” she said. “It was a birthday present. So I went out to the airport, took the lessons and I loved it, but when I asked how many more hours would I need and what would it cost, I realized that I was recently divorced with two little children who were two and five years old, that I was a single mom, teaching, working…I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have the time or the money to get my license then. So flying kind of went on the back burner until I was 55.”
Bennett had just returned from living in Poland training English teachers with the Peace Corps, had purchased a home in Estes Park to be close to her son who was attending Colorado State University in Fort Collins and was trying to decide what to do with herself next. A friend of hers that teaches English as a second language was short staffed at Aims Community College in Greeley, called Bennett to see if she would be willing to help teach a couple of classes. She agreed, and discovered a program at Aims that would change her immeasurably.
“Unbeknownst to me at the time, Aims has an aviation program,” said Bennett. “I stumbled over one day and found the one woman faculty member in the program—all the rest were men—and asked her what would be required to get my pilot’s license. She told me that it would be a great deal for me because as a faculty member I could get the ground school for free and a discount on flying. So at 55 years old, I enrolled myself in the aviation program at Aims Community College. I got my private license in 1999, my instruments license—meaning you can fly in the clouds—in 2001 and in 2003 I got my commercial license. Right now I’m working on my certification to be a flight instructor. So just about every two years I’ve gotten a new rating, but there’s not much left now.”
Bennett found her Cessna after doing some hunting around at aviation shows and asking other pilots if they knew of anyone looking to sell.
“It was difficult. The 182 is a popular model,” she said. “I couldn’t afford a new one which runs about $325,000, so I needed a good used one. I found mine through an airplane broker who found it in an estate sale.”
She’s had her plane for about five years now, and although it’s been a good plane to her, she feels like she’s ready to move up to a model with more power.
“I call my Cessna the ‘Fine Old Lady,’” she grinned. “Because this plane was built the same year I graduated from high school. She’s been well-maintained, and she’s a fine old lady, and I like to think her pilot is too.”
There are still shockingly few numbers of women who are pilots, and Bennett hopes that this will continue to change.
“One thing that’s important to note is that although we had the Women’s Air Corps during WWII—and those women could fly any kind of air craft because they ferried them over to Europe for the troops to use, all of the women were discharged without any sort of military benefits, and not one of them was offered a commercial airline job. The discrimination against women in the field of aviation has gone on forever. Right now, statistics show that of all licensed pilots in the United States, only five percent are women. Isn’t that disgusting? We’re beginning to have the occasional female pilot on one of the larger commercial company planes, but it’s still very rare. This is something that I hope I can be more of an influence on. Here I am even an older woman who flies airplanes and there’s no reason why young women should feel like they don’t have the opportunity.”
Bennett hopes that not only women, but anyone who has always dreamed of flying, will take the leap of faith and put an effort towards doing so. This is part of the reason that she is studying to get her flight instructor certification.
“When I first got my pilot’s license, I went around asking all sorts of my friends if they wanted to go for a flight,” she said. “A lot of those people said that they had always wanted to fly a plane, but now they are older and they’re concerned that they can’t do it because of their age. I always tell them that I didn’t know that I could do it until I tried, so how would they know unless they tried? That has sort of motivated me to get my flight instructor rating, that if I can help other people achieve their dreams of flying a plane, I’ll be helping out. It certainly is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. I’m not saying that every single person can learn how to fly. But not every single person can learn how to roller skate, or do the jitterbug. You have to try and see if it’s a fit for you. If you can, then there’s no coming back. You will be hooked.”
For Bennett, there are few things in the world that are as wonderful as being in her Fine Old Lady high above the earth in the cool still air of morning, soaring with the birds.
“What I love most about flying is that it is so breathtakingly beautiful to see the earth from five or six thousand feet above the ground,” she said. “When you fly in large jet planes, you have a very brief glimpse of that beauty as you head toward the jet stream at thirty two or thirty three thousand feet. Then you see nothing again until you begin to land. With general aviation aircraft you fly high enough to be safe, but not so high that you lose the beautiful scenes. Last Friday when I was flying to Montrose I had the most spectacular views over the mountains…it is absolutely spectacular. It is just the closest to man’s dream of really flying as a person, being in a small aircraft that doesn’t make a lot of noise and there is nothing but freedom.”
Bennett has her commercial pilot’s license, and is happy to take people for flights if they are willing to split the cost of fuel with her. She can be contacted at ekbpilot@hotmail.com for more information.
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Story Source: Estes Park Trail Gazette
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