There are three dozen female pilots in Russia civil aviation. Aeroflot pilot Olga Gracheva became the first woman in Russia to captain an aircraft in 2009. Pilots appeared at Transaero only in 2012. Currently, Aeroflot has 13 pilots, three of them are aircraft commanders. Maria Uvarovskaya received this title in January 2014.

The Village asked the pilot to talk about everyday life at work, passengers' reactions to the female pilot's voice and how the world is changing.

Maria Uvarovskaya

pilot-in-command

About training

I didn't dream of becoming a pilot as a child. After school, I entered the architectural institute, and at the same time studied at the flying club. Today, most flying clubs are commercial, but in my youth you could study for free, it was called the Voluntary Society for the Assistance of the Army, Aviation and Navy (DOSAAF). I flew for the first time at the age of 17 in a small aerobatic plane. After some time, the hobby grew into a desire to become a professional pilot.

Fortunately for my parents, I managed to get a solid education. At some point, I confronted them with a fact: I entered the Civil Aviation Academy. To become a pilot, you need to fly a certain number of hours, and you have to pay for airplane lessons yourself. The work of an architect made it possible to study on a small six-seater Yak-18T. Having flown about 100 hours on it, at the age of 24 I entered the Civil Aviation Academy.

The first time I came for an interview at Aeroflot, when I could only fly on a sports plane. Of course, they looked at me with condescension then, but they liked my sincere desire to work here. I was given a number of conditions, including flying a certain number of hours on the Yak-40. I got a job at another Russian airline and worked there. After that she came again and this time for good. I was hired as a co-pilot on the Tu-154.

The practice of state flying clubs no longer exists, and since training costs a lot of money (obtaining a private pilot certificate will cost from 350 to 650 thousand rubles, depending on the type of aircraft chosen. - Note by The Village), a layer of people from business has appeared among the pilots. Some of them even graduated from college at one time, but were not able to work in their specialty: in the early 90s there was a crisis, the number of transportations sharply decreased and there was no work for pilots, the staff was not expanded, they did not hire children after college. Then the old-timers retired, and there was no continuity of generations. Traffic volumes have increased, the number of airlines has increased, and serious shortages have arisen. Those guys who dreamed of flying, but were forced to start doing business, returned to aviation.

They invested part of the money they earned, flew with instructors and became professionals. Among my colleagues there are quite rich people who could continue to do business, but they want to fly and are ready to give up the life they had before. (The working conditions of a pilot are indicated on the Aeroflot website in the announcement of the recruitment of PICs. - Note by The Village.)

When in winter time
I'm wearing a coat and my flight I can’t see the form, I’m seen regularly for the flight attendant

Now programs have begun to appear where airlines pay for training. College graduates are considered valuable personnel: they are young, healthy and are good material for training. Those who have once flown something are examined more closely. Companies sometimes provide their employees with training loans: after flying a certain number of hours, after becoming a pilot, they simply work them off. There are retrained flight engineers and navigators. There are precedents for retraining flight attendants.

About male colleagues

My male colleagues behave with dignity; I have not noticed any cases of mistrust or disrespect on their part. There was never even ridicule to our face, although behind our backs, I think they joke about us. I had good aerobatic experience, but my colleagues in civil aviation did not know how to do what I could do: they had never flown aerobatic aircraft. Apparently, this helped me gain authority at first. I'm glad that I work in a men's team. I think I have a masculine mindset. I understand how to psychologically prepare myself to work with men. Sometimes it is even more difficult for me to come to an agreement with women than with men. Women have a slightly different world, but I have already adapted to the male environment.

As a rule, my co-pilot is a man. Of course, there were several cases when I saw that the co-pilot or flight attendant was uncomfortable. It's difficult for them because they don't understand a little what's going on. Previously, their commanders were always men, they knew what to say and how to say it, but when they see a female commander, they begin to choose their words and feel discomfort because the situation is unusual. This doesn’t affect the work in any way, it’s just sometimes more difficult to talk about an abstract topic with the co-pilot.

When I was introduced by the commander, I was sitting in the captain’s seat, and my instructor was sitting in the co-pilot’s seat. A technician comes into the parking lot, looks at us and says: “Why did you change places? Why are you sitting in the commander’s seat?” I answer that I am being introduced, that I am a future commander. "Come on!" - said the technician. Gone. But somehow he felt uneasy in his soul, he returned again and clarified: “Well, are you really a pilot?” And, sighing, he left.

By the way, the ground rendezvous system speaks in a female voice. Previously, there were only men in the cabin, and if suddenly a woman turns to you, then something is wrong.




About the reactions of others

Curiosities related to the fact that an airplane pilot is a woman occur periodically. Often such moments arise when we arrive at Russian airports. Abroad, everyone is used to this. At AirFrance and Alitalia, 20% of pilots are women, and for Russian ground staff this is a completely unusual story. When in winter I am in a coat and my flight uniform is not visible, I am regularly mistaken for a flight attendant.

We don't see the passengers when we greet them over the radio, but the flight attendants say that many are surprised when they hear my voice. Some passengers are worried, but in all my work, no one has ever been removed from a flight. It happens that after landing, passengers want to look at the commander, get acquainted, take a photo, express their admiration, but they rarely succeed: our cabin is closed, and while the crew says goodbye to the passengers, we are doing our procedures in it.

When I say who I work in an unfamiliar company, there is always an additional topic for conversation. The person wants to get to know me better, thinks: “There must be something unusual about you, since you chose such a job.” Sometimes I want to say directly: “I’m an ordinary person, an ordinary girl who just does what she likes.”

About other women in aviation

I joined Aeroflot in 2007 and became the third female pilot in the company. We currently have 13 girls working for us, and one or two pilots join us every year. Previously, it seemed to me that women compete in this field, but when I met the first female commander at Aeroflot, Olga Ivanovna Gracheva, my gloomy ideas were dispelled. She worked on a Boeing 767, a long-haul aircraft, and was always ready to help everyone with anything.

In general, the number of female pilots in Russia is increasing, but the stereotype of our thinking lags behind technical progress. We are at the junction of Europe and Asia, and many processes are slowed down: the role of women is not entirely defined. And our women are different.

All my female colleagues are completely different, different from each other, each behaves differently in the cubicle, each has its own approach to work.

Previously, many flight attendants approached me with the question of where to learn and what to do to take my place in the cockpit. These were not always people who want to fly: some want a bigger salary, others think that we are sitting and not doing anything special. As a rule, random people are eliminated at the training stage.

Men are given a uniform according to their size, the only thing is they can do it a little sew in.
With women it's Complicated

In our company, people are evaluated based on their professionalism, not gender. Our instructors managed to get rid of stereotypes, not only regarding women. For example, we now have a lot of young commanders, although it seems that preference in our field should be given to older and more experienced ones. However, despite their young age, the pilots are well professionally trained, they have excellent memory and good knowledge.

About the form

Men are given a uniform according to their size, the only thing is that they may sew it up a little. It's complicated with women. When I became the third pilot, they made a uniform for me because I was very small. But the woman who came to work after me was sent to the warehouse to choose some men's clothing. Then Victoria Andreyanova’s Fashion House worked with us, sewing uniforms to individual measurements. At the same time, there were no differences between the male and female uniforms; we ourselves asked to sew a slightly tailored jacket, add a belt to the coat, and the fashion designers met us halfway.

Now there are more women, and they began to treat us more attentively. They are trying to put sewing of women's uniforms on stream. Currently being developed new form, and just last week all the women were called and asked how it would be convenient for us to work. Probably, our uniform will differ in some ways from the men’s, including the headdress.

About the work of the commander and the operating mode

In general, the work of the commander and co-pilot is the same: first, one communicates, and the other at that moment pilots or controls the operation of the autopilot. Then we change. However, the commander makes the final decision in important matters.

On my first flight as a pilot-in-command, there was a slight nervousness before setting the engines to maximum speed on the runway. At that moment, the realization came that I would now make all decisions on my own. After that, everything went as normal; there was simply no time to worry. Of course, there is responsibility, and it presses, but it has never scared me.



I fly an Airbus A320, which is a medium-haul aircraft not designed for transcontinental flights. Our geography is Europe and Russia to Irkutsk. Long-haul aircraft fly to Vladivostok. If I fly out in the morning, I fly for two hours, for example, to Prague. There's an hour's parking there and back. If we fly away at eight o’clock in the evening, we spend several hours at the airport and arrive back in the morning. We can’t see anything unless we have a long parking lot with access to the city. The differences in flight are small: our country is wide, so the distances are longer and air space not as busy as European ones. There is intense radio traffic in the European space.

In the cockpit, the PIC and co-pilot communicate in English; we speak Russian only on abstract topics. At the time when we were retraining from Soviet technology, there was a condition - to learn English. The level should be decent - this is a technical language: all documentation is in English and all technical documents, the Airbus itself is also foreign.

We have no restrictions on the number of flights per month. There is a flight standard and a working time standard. The flight norm is 80 hours per month, the extended flight norm is 90 hours. Accordingly, 800 and 900 hours per year. Many pilots agree to an extended work schedule because it increases their salary.

Changing an airplane every five years is good practice. After five years, the pilot begins to get bored; he has been in all conditions and gained enormous experience. After this, some become instructors, some take leadership positions, some change the type of aircraft. Everyone needs movement and professional growth. I have the opportunity to retrain for a long-haul aircraft, but I don’t really want to. I like to fly out in the morning and land in the evening. My flights, of course, also have their drawbacks: many are at night. They eat up time because you spend the whole day after the flight getting enough sleep. There is very little time left for family and communication with my six-year-old daughter.

About dangers, superstitions and disasters

I was lucky, I never had an aircraft malfunction in the air. There were failures on the ground and as a result of flight delays. Sometimes the weather turned bad in the air and we had to go to an alternate runway. These are non-standard situations, they require attention, but they are normal. A combination of factors such as gusty crosswinds, icing on the runway, and the length of the runway complicates the situation. When landing on a short snow-covered runway, you understand that you must land exactly at the signs, at the landing point - in clear weather with a four-kilometer landing strip, you can afford to fly over this point. All these situations are practiced on simulators that fully simulate all options. Once a year, we confirm our qualifications using these simulators - if you fail this exam, you will not be allowed to work.

After every plane crash in the world in every Russian company there is a reaction. Information documents are always published based on the analysis of the disaster, and we get acquainted with them. Special work is carried out - additional training or classes. If a situation has ever occurred before, we must be prepared to prevent it when it arises again. We try to make the best of mistakes. Even minor incidents are studied.

We fly every day and no longer believe in superstitions, for example, not to take photos before the flight and so on. People at work are becoming more practical and, perhaps, a little more cynical. Passengers fly once a month, and they think it's a risk. When you fly every day, you are not afraid of anything. It's just a job.

Photos: Ivan Anisimov

Most people think that only men can be pilots. This is due to the fact that airline passengers predominantly hear the male voice of the pilot during takeoff or landing of the aircraft. Therefore, many people think that a female pilot is something out of the ordinary. Can a woman be a pilot? passenger plane? Definitely, it can. Moreover, there are many examples in history that confirm this. Women became pilots not only in civil, but also in military aviation.

Both men and women can fly an airplane. Representatives of both sexes have identical requirements regarding training and obtaining the right to pilot an aircraft. Despite this, many airlines today are still wary of allowing women onto large airliners. But still, representatives of the fair sex who meet all the requirements for pilots receive the right to fly aircraft and carry out passenger air transportation on them.

Aeroflot pilot Maria Uvarovskaya

Examples

Are there any female pilots? So that there is no doubt about this, we will give a few examples. Olga Kirsanova– a pilot who has been flying an airliner for several years. Olga is one of the few female specialists who have received the right to manage big planes. Last years Olga is a pilot of an airliner that weighs more than 100 tons. As the pilot herself claims, everyone can get a seat in the cockpit of an airliner. The main thing is to have a strong desire and desire to achieve this. Olga admits that she had to work hard and make every effort to achieve the right to pilot an airplane, but it was worth it.

Another striking example of women in the history of civil aviation is Maria Fedorova. This specialist is an employee of Aeroflot. Maria received the right to fly passenger aircraft at the age of 23. This is the first girl in the world who managed to become a pilot at such an early age. At 23, many people still don’t know how to drive a car. And Maria has already managed to master the control of giant airliners with more than 100 passengers on board.

Maria Fedorova, who became a pilot at age 23

During the First and Second World Wars, not only men, but also girls were allowed to join the military. The result surprised everyone: many girls coped with the assigned tasks and showed such courage that many representatives of the stronger sex could envy. Girls and women took to the skies in military aircraft, which were not nearly as safe as modern military aircraft.

The first woman pilot - Raymond de Laroche. She received status as the only female pilot in 1910. It was a pilot from France. During the tsarist reign, there were women pilots in Russian civil aviation. 80% of men and 20% of women entered training to become pilots. During this period, Princess Shakhovskaya officially received the status of a military pilot. During World War II, many women who were allowed to fly fighter planes became heroines. However, in those days, only men were pilots in civil aviation. Because of this, many people have formed a stereotype according to which only men can fly an airliner. Therefore, when the pilot’s name is announced before takeoff, and it is female, many are shocked. A similar reaction can be observed in people who learned that the best pilot of the last century was a woman. Indeed, this title was awarded to pilot Svetlana Kapanina. And this once again proves that women can fly an airliner no worse than men.

Are there any female civil aviation pilots in Russia? Certainly. Olga Gracheva, Maria Uvarovskaya, Maria Fedorova, Daria Sinichkina, Larina Ermurzaeva, Tatyana Kazachkova - this is not a complete list. Many of these girls spent years working to gain the right to fly an airplane. Some women in Russian civil aviation work as co-pilots, and some girls have the status of aircraft managers. In total, about 400 women have a pilot license in Russia. Aeroflot employs thirteen female pilots. Three of them have PIC positions. In particular, Maria Uvarovskaya flies an Airbus A320 aircraft. By comparison, more than 25,000 women are licensed in the United States. But only 800 of them can fly a linear aircraft.

In Europe and the United States, the number of women flying airliners or working as co-pilots is significantly higher than in Russia. Why such difference? This is explained by the fact that after the collapse of the USSR there were few opportunities left in the country for training to become a pilot. Not every girl could afford to enroll in a flight school, after which she would have to spend a lot of money and a lot of time to gain the practical skills necessary to enter civil aviation.

How can a woman become a pilot?

If you dream of flying an aircraft, dreaming of the sky, you must understand that the path to becoming a pilot is thorny and very difficult even for a man, not to mention young girls. Previously, it was allowed to first undergo training at a school, and then work off flight hours by visiting special clubs. Courses were created at universities that were intended only for women. But after the first and only graduation, as a rule, such courses ceased to exist.

IN modern world the situation is completely different. There are many active flight clubs that offer students full database training, while giving flight practice. Once you have accumulated the required number of flight hours, you can obtain your commercial pilot license. With such a license, you can get a job at Aeroflot and other major airlines.

A pilot, regardless of whether he is a man or a woman, must have the following qualities and knowledge:

  1. Perfect health.
  2. Stable psychological state: the ability to quickly cope with panic, remain calm and act quickly without giving in to emotions.
  3. The necessary stock of engineering knowledge.
  4. Aircraft flying knowledge and skills.
  5. A certain number of flight hours.

Only if all these points are met can a pilot expect to receive a license. But, of course, the game is worth the candle.

In contact with

Today, about two dozen female pilots fly in Russia.
There are, of course, many more of them abroad, where this phenomenon is more common.

The first thing required is excellent health.
Analytic mind. Tenacious fighting character. And definitely a calling!!

I will show the pilots, all the photos and names are, of course, real.

Alina Zaletova, Boeing 737 PIC

Alina Zalyotova is the only woman civil aviation pilot in the Republic of Latvia.

The experience of making an impossible dream come true.
It’s not even that this simple girl from the working-class village of Kauguri became a professional pilot. And the fact is that if she wanted, she could achieve anything: become a prima ballerina, a tiger trainer, conquer Elbrus, win the marathon.
...Passers take her for a flight attendant. White blouse, blue flight suit, slender figure, elegant shoes - she looks like the heroine of Renata Litvinova from the film “Sky. Airplane. Young woman". You would never think that fragile Alina confidently lifts her Boeing 737-500 with more than a hundred passengers on board.

“Bespectacled people have no place in aviation!”
When Alina is asked how she became an airplane pilot, she laughs it off: thanks to her last name... Seriously speaking, Alina knew from the age of 12 what she wanted in this life. By the way, none of the adults believed in the “child’s nonsense about airplanes.”
Alina did not argue with anyone, did not prove anything to anyone - she simply stubbornly prepared for the profession: she subjected herself to all sorts of psychological tests to develop attention, reaction speed, studied all the available and inaccessible literature on aviation, pressed on studying at school, seriously went in for sports and learned English (although German was taught at school).
By the 10th grade, Alina’s vision had improved. This was an unexpected blow that broke all her hard-won plans! It is impossible for nearsighted applicants to pass a medical examination at a flight school. Alina, having assessed the situation, decided to enter the Riga Aviation Institute, where she graduated with a degree in avionics engineer (aircraft equipment maintenance).

Six years on the plane
Despite the skepticism of many, Alina (one woman out of dozens of male applicants) was accepted into airBaltic as an aircraft technician. There is little romance, but more than enough dirt and responsibility.
Male colleagues very quickly became convinced that Alina was not a bigot, but her boyfriend, who could be trusted. But the level of responsibility in this job is human lives: every day Alina signed that the plane was in good working order and ready to fly. If she had ever done something wrong, made a mistake, overlooked it - it’s even scary to think about.

She sometimes had nightmares.
“It’s very dangerous,” explains Alina, “to forget a tool in the engine.” Such scenarios have happened all over the world and airliners caught fire in the air from such a seemingly trifle - a screwdriver, a flashlight, even a nut forgotten by someone. I woke up at night in a cold sweat, wondering: was it a dream or did something really happen?

Amateur pilot without money or sponsors
And all these six years of working at the airport, Alina dreamed of the sky. I raised money for surgery to correct myopia. As soon as I had the operation, I immediately started looking for private pilot training courses. And again I hit a wall: six thousand dollars were required for training. The girl simply did not have that kind of money. However, as well as rich parents and sponsors.
Alina began to save, and for a whole year she denied herself even the smallest things - she saved on transport and meals. But she didn’t scrape together even half of the required amount. Then I decided to go to work in the USA. But then, fortunately, I found out that an air navigation center had opened at Riga airport, where they train amateur pilots in more advanced ways. reasonable prices.
“I made my very first flight on the legendary Yak-18,” Alina recalls. “I remember, before climbing into his cabin, I thought: what if it turns out that all this - both the sky and the plane - is not mine, what if I feel bad or scared?
But Alina did not feel bad. Everything was as she had dreamed - she returned from her first flight a completely happy person. True, then for a long time she could not achieve a soft landing; she could not, as the pilots say, feel the altitude. But I managed to cope with this too.
And then I realized that such a long-awaited diploma as an amateur pilot did not give me any chance of working in an airline.

Skyscrapers collapsed... and hopes
Native airBaltic, meeting Alina halfway, planned to train her to the end (there was such a project - to train their own employees), but then September 11th happened, when skyscrapers collapsed in New York. All of Alina’s hopes collapsed along with them - due to the rise in the cost of flight insurance and much more in civil aviation, the plan to reassign employees was successfully closed. Until better times.
To train now to become a commercial pilot, Alina again needed a lot of money. The minimum flight time for the exam is 200 hours, and the cost of each is 60 lats (today it’s 100 lats!). Well, a simple girl didn’t have these armor!
Alina stubbornly looked for a way out... She found out that they had opened flight school, where training is much cheaper. I rushed there. I worked and studied at the same time. She became so thin that the technicians, out of pity, tried to feed her pale colleague with bruises under her eyes - they shoved pies and cakes at her.
The moment came, and Alina received the long-awaited flying license, immediately converting it in Latvia. It would seem that everything is possible, you can breathe a sigh of relief. But that was not the case - laws changed, and in order to work as an airline pilot in EU countries, she needed to take another additional professional course, equivalent to higher education for pilots.
This was already too much - Alina was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. But she pulled herself together again and focused on her dream of heaven. And then, miraculously, the situation turned out in such a way that airBaltic decided to pay for the persistent girl’s education at the Swiss Flight Academy.
Alina Zalyotova has been flying as a co-pilot of a Boeing 737-500 for a year and a half now.

Male profession
Sometimes, very rarely, Alina feels that the men from the crew suddenly begin to worry if she is sitting at the helm and the weather outside is bad. Colleagues don’t say anything offensive, they don’t seem to show it, but she can read from their frozen faces: they are skeptical!
Alina proves with her actions that she can fly. Even in unexpected situations he behaves as expected. Once she was landing a plane in Hamburg: she was already leveling off, there were two meters left to the runway, and suddenly she saw geese on the runway. If the birds had gotten into the engine, it’s scary to think what would have happened! Alina did not flinch, did not panic and did everything right.
What to do when your dream comes true? Alina, having become a Boeing pilot, did not calm down. Now she decided to fly to the crew captain. And almost no one doubts that sooner or later this will happen.

Olga Kirsanova. Boeing PIC. Aeroflot.


Oatmeal, good coffee and a call to my son - “mom is getting ready to fly, don’t worry.” Then - a plane to another country, a short walk between flights, a flight back to Russia. A company car, home, another call to my son - don’t worry, mom has arrived. Olga Kirsanova’s child is only five years old; he now lives with his grandmother in Mineralnye Vody. Sees mom once a month: civilian pilot Olga devotes little free time to her son.



Music, kayak, plane
Olga Kirsanova is a civil aviation pilot, piloting an aircraft weighing over one hundred tons and carrying 180 passengers. She is responsible for all these lives. She loves her job - she says there is no other way, for the sake of such a profession she had to go through fire, water and the offices of officials. In the Soviet Union, women pilots were not favored.

“In my family, all the men were aviators, all the women were teachers. Therefore, by first education I am a philologist, but I completed my studies at final courses, having already entered the flight school,” says Olga Kirsanova. - I ended up in the famous Volchanskoye, it was actually the only place, where women were accepted. For us, there are only four places in the entire Soviet Union!”

Olga got a place - she had to go to the very “highest offices”, even making her way into the building of the Ministry of Defense. She was sure that she should study to be a pilot, because she had everything she needed: a strong character, flying experience in a flying club, a sports category. Olga is a master of sports in kayaking, and at the age of 15 she joined the national youth team. I was getting ready to take part in big sports, but I didn’t qualify in terms of height - I was 10 centimeters short. The father even made an appointment for the girl to see Elizarov - in case she could get through it. But they dissuaded me: with age, such experiments with the body could lead to big problems.

Olga was eventually accepted into the school: service and life in the barracks began. Be sure to wear tarpaulin boots. “They were terribly uncomfortable. I thought what kind of deja vu was this: once upon a time I, such a refined thin girl, came to the rowing section after music school. I washed my hands until they bled, and now I have the same calluses on my feet.” Olga studied in Ukraine, where she moved from warm Tashkent, so the local winters shocked her. Men were given long overcoats and hats with earflaps, women were given a model uniform, a short coat to the knees and an astrakhan cap. It's beautiful, but doesn't warm up at all. However, according to the charter, nothing can be done. But the dream of heaven began to come true.

Become a beloved son.
After graduation I was a “hard worker” AN-2. However, I wanted to fly higher. Dreams about space brought him to the University of Geodesy, Cartography and Aerial Photography. But the men said: technical is good, but you need it in your specialty. To finally close the issue, Olga graduated from the Civil Aviation Academy - the highest level in pilot education. All this time she flew, improved her skills, proved to men that she was able to fly on an equal footing.

“You see, my parents were expecting their first-born son, but it turned out to be me,” Olga jokes. “Then they learned: I had two more brothers, but I always wanted to become my dad’s most beloved son - because I owe all my successes to him. He inspired me, for our sake he left big aviation for a small flying club - to give his children a taste of the sky.”

Dad supported Olga in everything: he taught her to “see the ground” - a pilot’s ability to accurately determine altitude “by eye” takes a long time to train. You need to choose the right point where to look - only then can you calculate the distance to the ground. Dad put Olga on the wing of the plane, took an ordinary tire and showed where her eyes should be directed correctly when landing. He explained to his daughter how to jump with a parachute and supported her before flights.

“Now I fly a large winged car, but before, when I flew small ones, I had to parachute twice a year,” says Olga. “It was very scary - not because I was afraid of hurting myself and dying, but because if I broke an arm or a leg, my pilot’s career could be over.” But I thought, my grandfather jumped, my dad jumped, I can’t disgrace our family. So, I will definitely succeed.”

Olga says that the pilot’s mind resists a parachute jump - why jump out of a properly flying plane? The first pancake was, as expected, lumpy. The jump ended with landing right in the middle of a herd of cows. “I was wearing a red suit, and I heard that it infuriates the bulls, how I rushed out of there! And literally a couple of days later I watched a TV program: they said that they react not to color, but to movement.”

After graduation, Olga received an assignment to the aviation center, but the collapse of the USSR occurred, staff reductions occurred - there was not enough space even for experienced pilots. Olga returned to her native Tashkent. After searching, I managed to break into the ranks of air ambulance pilots - prestigious, responsible. But there were few sorties - mostly on duty. Olga missed the sky and wanted to work. She began to receive permits to work with “chemicals” - special-purpose cargo. The profession is harmful, but you can fly more often. “The management’s hair stood on end, a woman, for chemistry, never! - Olga recalls. “I said, I’m ready to do anything for the sake of flying.” They suggested to me: let’s better retrain you on the Yak-40. I agreed. I flew on it for 11 years.”

Next was training on a TU-154 and a foreign Airbus. In those years, Olga had already moved to Moscow - by luck, a former colleague helped. “I flew to Domodedovo, I had two days in the capital to see something and buy something tasty to take home. Suddenly a familiar commander called: you have 15 minutes, iron your shirt, and come to the meeting of the qualification commission.” Olga made it in time and got a job with a large civil carrier.

Shirts are a sore subject for any pilot. You need to come to work “like it’s a holiday,” sparklingly clean and ironed, but after a whole day of flying you simply don’t have any energy left for this. “I have always envied men: they fly in, and their wife prepared dinner for them and ironed their shirts. It’s good that we now have a laundry service - it saves so much of my time!”

While working, the pilot had to hide her pregnancy - being in her seventh month, she passed the state exam “excellently” on a brand new Airbus A320. But soon it was impossible to hide the belly.

“I came to the authorities, I said: can I give birth quickly and come back, and they shouted so much ... - says Olga. - I thought I was going into premature labor. They told me that I was a liar, that I had to choose, the child or the planes. And they fired me. I was a single mother, with a child in my arms, with retired parents whom I had to support. It was a disaster - it cost me 15 kilograms of weight and a sea of ​​tears.”

Three countries a day
Now Olga is an employee of Aeroflot, and she says about her work that “the stars have aligned”: she began her career in civil aviation in this company: in the Tashkent branch, more than twenty years ago. Flies all over the world - to London, Dubai, Madrid. There is not much time to see the world, but there is time - a light outfit is always waiting in your purse. There is a special one for Arab states - very closed. In one working day, Olga can change three countries. Flights almost daily.

Every six months - special training to practice emergency procedures. The simulator simulates everything down to the smallest detail - the pilot trains in 3D models of real airfields. Another training is in the pool, practicing evacuation in case of landing on water. Experienced pilots have known and been able to do everything for a long time, but practice must be regular in order to bring everything to pure automatism.

Flying is something that every pilot loves with all his heart, although not everyone admits it, Olga believes. The work is very hard - information comes into the cockpit every second, while the pilot simultaneously monitors five monitors - in such a flow you need to have time to process everything you receive and quickly make decisions. The standard scheme - one pilot pilots the aircraft, the other communicates, and changes on the way back. But at the same time they must control each other - no one is immune from mistakes.

“From childhood, my dad taught me not to have my head in the clouds, not to think about my own things, to immerse myself in work,” says Olga. - Because I am responsible for hundreds of lives. Just recently, the person on board was on the verge of life and death. By the time our flight arrived, the airspace over Moscow was very busy, but the services worked well and saved another life. Fortunately, everything worked out, but the experience was very difficult.”

Alcohol on board is a sore subject for most air carriers. “Often a person registers and goes to a cafe or duty free to have a drink, he is terribly late, but he is sure that they will wait for him. This used to be the case, but now we have canceled these concessions. I don’t welcome alcohol at all, it leaves nothing but trouble in the air!”

So that they clap.
Male colleagues perceive a female pilot differently, more often quite adequately, but there are also conflicts. “I have long noticed that when a person has a daughter in the family, communication is better,” says Olga. The unusual pilot usually makes passengers happy - sometimes after the flight they come up for autographs. Or just talk, get to know each other, give a compliment.

Pilots, in turn, love it when their work is appreciated. “I always try, if possible, to land the plane very softly - so that they will definitely clap for me, it’s so nice! Passengers also like to arrive a little earlier than scheduled, so we try to please them, even sacrificing their flight hours,” says Olga.

Olga, like all pilots, is a little superstitious: she doesn’t like black cats and the number 13. The year 2013 started hard for her - her dad, her dearest person, died. “He had a heart attack, I was nearby, but at my workplace - I was flying in the sky right above the house,” Olga recalls. To this day he cannot speak without tears. He carefully selects photos for publication: “be sure to include dad.”

“We didn’t have time to finish building the house, but I already planted a tree and gave birth to a son, all to make my dad proud of me,” says Olga. - A son without a grandfather is also terribly worried. I come to him every month, take two days off to be a good mother - talk, look after him, cut his nails - he doesn’t let his grandmother. I’m leaving, crying, my son is crying too. He gave me a flashlight - he worries about me so that I don’t walk in the dark. Waits from every flight. It’s all hard, but that’s my life, my job.”

In between trips to see his son - the everyday life of a civilian pilot. All day in the sky, go home - sleep - and fly again. When asked whether Olga wants her son to become a pilot, she does not have a definite answer. “The sky has become harsh and heavy. It will grow, we'll see. I want him to make his own choice. Just look what a cool man I have!” - Olga opens photos of her son on her phone. She always has them at hand - it makes it a little easier to get over breakups.
======================================== ======================================== ======================================== =========================

Well, surely someone has heard about this “Queen of Heaven”...
Multiple absolute champion of the world, Europe and Russia in aerobatics.
Awarded the FAI Medal for Best Pilot of the Century!!
Svetlana Vladimirovna Kapanina. Sukhoi Design Bureau pilot.

She is admired, the best male pilots take off their helmets in front of their colleagues, the military aces of Japan and Spain, Korea and France, America and the Emirates stare at her “work”, photographs of an amazingly beautiful woman adorn the main magazines, fan clubs have been opened in many countries. Even such an unemotional Celestial Empire freezes when our Russian “queen of heaven” “dances” above it to the music of a roaring engine. And back in 1998, in Great Britain, Svetlana opened an air show in honor of the 80th anniversary of the Royal Air Force and the Evening Standard newspaper the next day came out with a huge headline “Siberian Angel blesses Biggin Hill.”
Of course, today Svetlana Kapanina is the most titled pilot in the entire history of world aviation: six-time absolute world champion in aerobatics and two-time absolute champion of the World Air Games, 2-time European champion, multiple champion of Russia. In the World Championships alone, she won 38 gold medals, and, according to the Head Coach of the National Team
Kasum Guseinovich Nazhmudinov, Svetlana has a “margin of safety” for another ten years.
Actually, the Motherland has awarded and continues to award the “Hero of Russia” for lesser merits, but... this fragile-looking woman is too categorical, irreconcilable in defending her ideas about truth and lies, good and evil, justice and lawlessness. Especially when it comes to her professional and civic conscience. To many high-ranking functionaries, because of whose laziness and selfishness we have practically lost sport aviation, got and gets from Kapanina at every opportunity: whether it’s an interview on TV or a personal conversation with President Putin.
And where does such an irreconcilable “truth-seeking” come from? Where does such perseverance and self-confidence come from from this daughter of ordinary workers, born in the distant Kazakh town of Shchuchinsk? Most likely, it is from this “simple” and pure childhood. A short, thin, but always interested in something girl, she has always loved cars and speed for as long as she can remember. In the fourth grade, Svetlana begged for a moped, and by the sixth grade she received the title of candidate master of sports in gymnastics. She also secretly dreamed of the exploits of a special forces soldier, of a black karate belt, of parachute jumping.
After graduating from medical school in 1987, Kapanina was assigned to Kurgan and worked in a pharmacy. But is it possible with her character to live in measured silence among test tubes, bottles and tablets? Svetlana decided to go to the local aviation sports club. “Girl, who do you want to sign up for?” - “Let’s become a parachutist” - “Let’s become a pilot, after all, flying is more interesting than jumping.” If “more interesting” means more interesting, and a year later she was already at the helm. Kapanina’s professional basics were instilled by Leonid Solodovnikov, and Nikolai Golubtsov became the first instructor.
...The Su-26M3 soars into the sky and, hanging, falls down with the engine turned off. Deafening silence and again the roar of the engine: the plane levels its flight just above the field. And then - turns, loops, rolls, calculated to the nearest degree. You need to perform 12 aerobatic elements without mistakes. The rules also clearly define the boundaries: you cannot fall below 100 meters and rise above 1000. But under Svetlana’s hands, the “drying”, obeying the steering wheel, does not “perform elements”, but dances. From the ground, a heavy plane, like a drop of mercury, sparkles and shimmers into endless space. Easy, beautiful. At the same time, the overload for the pilot is “+10”, that is, the fragile, slender body of the short Svetlana “weighs” more than half a ton! In addition, the Su-26M3 is a serial aircraft, with a strong engine, which is made for a normal male height, and in order to reach the control stick, Kapanina has to prop up pillows on the seat. Colleagues of the Knights joke: “you fly on a feather bed like the Princess and the Pea.” They laugh, but they help carry the pillows to the airplane cabin.
She is the first. This is generally accepted. And what, besides technical skill, besides a craft brought to perfection, is needed to become the best in the world? Courage? Yes. Calculation? Patience? Same. And also the will, the will, which overcomes the pain of blood vessels bursting due to overload. She formulated her innate, natural desire for leadership as follows: “I never intended to be an astronaut, because I don’t like standing in line.”
She is the best. Member of the Russian national team, 1st class instructor pilot of the LIIDB Sukhoi Design Bureau aerobatic team, Honored Trainer of Russia and Academician of the Academy of Security, Defense and Law Enforcement of the Russian Federation, laureate of the Olympia and Glory awards, recipient of the Order of Honor, medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland » II degree, personalized medal “100 years since the organization of the FAI” as the best pilot of the century. By the way, our pilot was awarded this medal together with astronaut Armstrong, the first earthling to set foot on the surface of the Moon. So who in Russia doesn’t know Svetlana Kapanina?!
Svetlana is also the mother of two wonderful children. And she, naturally, has a sports family. Husband Vladimir Stepanov, fourth dan in karate, honored coach of Russia and judge of the International category, is raising tiny Peresvet and Yesenia in the most spartan traditions. And they are unlikely to be able to avoid squeaky machines, muscle pain and overcoming injuries.
And obligatory great victories - after all, they are the children of the Russian “Queen of Heaven”.

And more pilots:
Toty Amirova, Boeing PIC

Olga Gracheva, master of sports in aerobatics, Boeing PIC at Aeroflot, 20 thousand flight hours.




Maria Trunina a/k Nordstar


Nadezhda Kuzhelnaya, Airbus A320 pilot

Natalya Yalovenko. Shymkent CRJ-200 pilot

Polina Pavlova at Boeing


Tatiana Rymanova. Pilot.

Elena Kozhukhar. pilot.

Larina Evmurzaeva, pilot.


I’ll add, the photos are mostly of foreign pilots, look at their faces

Ronnie Zuckerman, Air Force fighter pilot, Israel

Keith Moran pilot of Flybe













































Video from Tota Amirova. Then she was the only pilot in the CIS.

Iraida Vertiprakhova.
headed the female crew consisting of: Tamara Pavlenko - 2nd pilot, Evgenia Martova - 2nd pilot, Galina Kozyr - navigator, Galina Smagina - flight engineer, Nina Stolyarova - flight radio operator, set 5 world records on long-haul passenger airliner IL-62. Including the world record for flight distance without landing (11074 km).

Until 1985 was the commander of the Tu-154 crew in the Krasnoyarsk Civil Aviation Administration. Later she worked as a flight director and air traffic controller.

Pilot Lyudmila Pukito, worked as a teacher of aerodynamics at the Borisoglebsk Higher Military Aviation School. Died.

MAI graduate Svetlana Protasova is the only female fighter pilot in the world to fly the MiG-29. Now he works as a co-pilot at Aeroflot.

Maria Uvarovskaya, commander of the Airbus A320 Aeroflot
Aeroflot currently has 3 female commanders and 10 co-pilots.




Svetlana Slegtina. military station L-410 KrasAvia.




Oksana Shiryaeva, a/k "UTair"



Many girls in Russia dream of conquering the sky, but only a few achieve this lofty goal. On the eve of March 8, the world's only female pilot of the new Russian plane Sukhoi Superjet 100 Daria Sinichkina told in an interview with RIA Novosti special correspondent Alexander Kovalev what needs to be done on Earth in order to fly the airliner of your dreams.

— Daria, when did you first feel that you would like to be on board not only as a passenger, and at what age did you make the bold and informed decision to become a pilot?

— There was no one in my family related to aviation, and before my first training flight, I had never flown on an airplane, even as a passenger, can you imagine? And, in general, before I had only seen airplanes on TV.

I started learning to fly at 23 years old. I already had a higher education and a job, but none of this brought me satisfaction. Then there was a desire to change my life and learn to do something really difficult and exciting. I wanted to do real work, set myself some difficult task and solve it. The first sightseeing flight on an airplane turned out to be spontaneous, but from the very first flight I realized that I wanted to do this all my life.

— It is known that in 1914 Evgenia Shakhovskaya became the first female military pilot in the world. Did you initially think of becoming civil pilot or wanted to enter a military flight school?

— Yes, I immediately decided that I wanted to be a civil aviation pilot. My dream was to fly big ones passenger planes.

— How did your flight career develop and what difficulties did you encounter during training?

— I started learning to fly in 2008. Received a commercial pilot certificate in Ulyanovsk flight school civil aviation. I learned to fly at my own expense; of course, this required significant financial investments. I had to give up a lot then, but the goal was undoubtedly worth it. There were no particular difficulties during the training. For me, as a recent graduate of Lomonosov Moscow State University, studying was quite easy and always interesting.

— Your training for flights on the SSJ 100 took place at the SuperJet International training center in Zhukovsky. Did you like how the studies were organized? What can you say about the equipment - computer-based simulator (CBT), procedural simulator (FPTD), flight simulator (FTD LV)? What could be improved?

— The training center in Zhukovsky is simply excellent! Organization educational process, material and technical base - everything is done at a very high level. The training was conducted by experienced teachers. I would especially like to note that there is the possibility of training at the SuperJet International center with instructors from Italy, in English. This made me work more actively and helped improve and consolidate knowledge in English. The training center has excellent new equipment. After the flight simulator, working in the cockpit of a “live” aircraft did not raise any questions at all. I think that simulators of this level fully meet the challenges of retraining pilots from any type of aircraft.

— In Russia, according to various sources, there are now about thirty female pilots. Who do you know, are friends with or communicate with? Maybe you maintain relationships with your foreign colleagues?

— I have only one friend who flies on passenger planes in Yakutsk, Anna Lozovskaya. We were friends during our studies. By the way, in aviation general purpose There are many more female pilots than, for example, in sports. Of these, I enjoy communicating with many of them.

In general, I am against classifying female pilots as a special caste. In a profession, it should not matter what gender the specialist is, what matters is the level of knowledge and quality of work. I always strive to rank among my colleagues worthy place based on knowledge and quality of performance of duties, and not because there are few women in the profession and this is something special.

— According to the FAA, there are currently about 25.5 thousand women in the world who are lucky enough to receive licenses to fly air transport. What, in your opinion, are the prospects for Russian female pilots and what factors are holding them back at the controls?

— In Europe and America there are much more (in percentage terms) female pilots than in Russia. This is ours national peculiarity. Here, it seems to me, nothing but time will correct the situation.

In Russia it is difficult to get a job in the field passenger transportation a female pilot. I myself have encountered refusals when my documents were not even considered, citing, for example, the fact that “our collections of navigation documentation are heavy,” “we do not allocate funds to pay for a separate room for female pilots in hotels,” and so on. I think this problem is social. Perhaps employers do not want to get involved with women because the company’s financial costs for retraining a pilot for a new type are quite large, and the employer is afraid that a woman, for example, will go on maternity leave soon after retraining and will no longer be useful to her company. I can understand their concerns. And I want to thank the management of those airlines that give us a chance and understand that women pilots overcome a lot of difficulties to get the job of their dreams and, of course, not to then immediately go on maternity leave instead of flying.

— Russian airlines still lack civil aviation pilots. Does our country need to attract foreign pilots, and if so, how many? Won't they create serious competition for our young boys and girls?

— There is an overabundance of pilots in Russia: I mean commercial pilots without line work experience. We only lack aircraft commanders (PICs) with extensive flying hours. There are many commercial pilot license holders in the country, and many of them are not hired precisely because of the lack of experience in scheduled flights. It's a vicious circle. There is no shortage of pilots if commercial pilots are finally given a chance to start working and gain this very experience. Over time, they will become commanders. But airlines need commanders immediately and now. It is beyond my competence whether it is necessary to close the gap with foreign commanders. Perhaps for the first few years.

— Who was or is a personal example for you?

— A personal example for me has always been my first instructor, Honored Test Pilot of the Russian Federation Yuri Mikhailovich Kabanov, master of sports and world champion, a wonderful person and pilot with capital letters. From the very first lesson, he always treated me and all his students like a father and gave us a lot of irreplaceable knowledge and skills.

— You were lucky enough to become not just a pilot, but so far the only Superjet 100 pilot in the world. How much time have you already spent behind its joystick in the Russian airline Red Wings and what is your flight time as a co-pilot? How does it feel to fly the SSJ100?

“This is, of course, a very great honor for me.” Currently my flight time on the SSJ100 is about 500 hours. I love this plane very much and am always ready to argue with everyone who disagrees. I haven’t flown Boeing or Airbus, so I can’t compare with them, but the Superjet itself is wonderful, that’s true! A very smart machine, easy and convenient to work with. It relieves the pilot of a large share of mechanical monotonous work, allowing him to maintain attention for the most necessary and important actions, and does not allow him to make many mistakes.

In general, a very comfortable, reliable and safe aircraft.

— Why do you love your plane? Do you consider him the best in the world? What do you affectionately call him to yourself? Does he have a nickname?

- Of course, I consider him the best, quite sincerely. And in general, I am monogamous by nature, so it will be difficult to convince me. No, somehow the nickname didn’t work out, in operation we usually call the car by its side numbers, “deuce”, “twenty-first”, common name No.

— What, in your professional opinion, distinguishes the SSJ100 from other machines? What highlights and features does he have in piloting?

— I cannot compare it with other large passenger aircraft, since I have not thoroughly studied their technical features.

I think the main highlight of the Superjet 100 is its safety. The protection systems in it are simply brilliant. The aircraft does not allow exceeding the maximum permitted parameters where this affects flight safety. Plus - a high level of automation. Even the engine starting process is completely automatic. The system monitors itself, itself interrupts the launch if a malfunction is detected, multi-level automatic self-monitoring leaves no room for pilot error due to any inattention or stress factors. And so - for all systems.

It is known that the most common cause aviation accidents is the human factor. Since flight safety is our priority in passenger transportation at Red Wings Airlines, I believe that Superjet, with its highest level of automation and the presence of unique in-flight protection systems, most fully meets modern requirements for safe passenger transportation.

— SSJ100, being new car, while still learning to fly, is gaining the necessary statistics. What do you think could be improved on the plane?

— There are disadvantages, but they are small and most often domestic. I haven't encountered any critical problems. The air conditioning system in the parking lot was noisy, and there were problems with supply drinking water. Usually these details are quickly eliminated. It should be noted that I only flew aircraft of the first series, and I think these problems have already been eliminated in the new version.

— Men are given a flight uniform. For you it Russian airline Did Red Wings sew to order? Are you happy?

- IN major airlines like Aeroflot, there are more female pilots on staff. They can probably afford to develop a special model of women's flight uniform. Typically, companies involved in the production of uniforms sew a new model in at least 50 copies. It is clear that if only one girl works in an airline, like ours at Red Wings, it is impossible to develop a special uniform for her. Plus the difficulty with size. For example, even the smallest men's jumpers are huge for me. I usually buy uniform trousers, shirts, jumpers and other paraphernalia at the Galaktika store, which specializes in selling uniforms for civil aviation workers. Women's clothing there is not designed specifically for female pilots, but is almost completely the same appearance with what is required. I order some modifications from a studio or do it myself. That is, a way out can be found. The flight uniform is very nice and I wear it with pride.

— How important is knowledge of technical English for working as a pilot?

— Knowledge of English, and not only technical, is absolutely necessary on modern aircraft. All systems in the cockpit are signed and provide data in English, all commands and standard conversations in the cockpit are also conducted in English.

Teaching aids are often in English. And for Boeing and Airbus, all documentation is completely in English.

Nowadays it is very important to know English well. I really want to achieve such a level that English becomes a full-fledged second language for me. This is a difficult task, and therefore very interesting.

— Daria, how do passengers react if they find out that the co-pilot is a woman?

- I don’t know, honestly. While the commander reads a welcome speech to the passengers before the flight, I have been at my workplace in the cockpit for a long time and do not see the passengers, and the flight attendants have never told me about anything unusual.

Judging by the remarks on the Internet, there are also those who are unhappy that women are at the helm, but the Internet is a specific place for discussion, so I try not to read aviation-related forums at all. I personally have not encountered any dissatisfaction. Although I can believe that some people still have strong stereotypes about women driving. But this will not change anything, society is developing, and in ten years we will also have 20-30 percent women in the profession, just like in Europe. I think this will become commonplace.

— Do you have restrictions on the number of flights per month? How many hours are your flying and working hours? How many hours are there per year?

— According to our legislation, a pilot must fly no more than 80 hours per month and no more than 800 hours per year. This may seem like little compared to standard office working hours, but keep in mind that this is only time spent flying.

Pilots must report to the flight in advance for pre-flight preparation and medical control, and also conduct a post-flight debriefing after the flight. It is also necessary to add stopover time at destination airports, during which the crew continues to perform their duties at aircraft. A working day with one or two landings should not exceed 12 hours. There are also overnight stays at off-base airports, regular ground theoretical and simulator training, and time for the crew to be in reserve. So we earn our full salary.

“I have no doubt that male colleagues at the airline behave with dignity; it would be unprofessional on their part to show distrust or disrespect.” But do you think, at least behind your back, they make kind jokes about you?

- You know, I am always really surprised at how lucky I am with the people around me. Without exaggeration, there are wonderful people around me all the time who treat me not only with respect, but kindly, and it seems to me that this is sincere. I feel very comfortable and calm in the work team, for which I am very grateful to my colleagues and management.

And in a friendly way, we all joke about each other, as in any company, this is a sign of a normal human atmosphere in the team, isn’t it?

— What goals do you set for yourself in the future, both professionally and personally?

— I plan to acquire the necessary experience and number of flight hours to obtain a flight pilot certificate. This is the immediate goal for now. I also want to get the fifth level of English according to ICAO, I am very interested in studying it. I didn’t think about retraining for any other type, I really like flying the SSJ100, it seems to me the best aircraft of all existing ones. Personally, I don’t have any special goals; I already have everything I could dream of.

— Are you married, do you have children, and if not, do you plan to return to the sky again after the birth of your baby?

- Yes, married. I don’t have children, I don’t plan this yet, now I’ve just started actively working in big aviation and I’m very passionate about my work.

— Do you have enough time for your personal life?

— There are always more flights in summer. Therefore, it happens that there is not enough. It's easier in winter. I try to spend all my free time with my husband, but, of course, this is never enough.

— Do your family and friends worry when you go on a flight, and do they consider the job of a pilot risky?

— Parents, yes, they think and worry. But I always remind them that air Transport objectively the safest. My husband is also a pilot, he is aware of everything, but he always checks the weather before my flight.

— How and where do you prefer to relax and how much time do you manage to find for it?

— On vacation I like to travel, attend various aviation festivals, competitions and air shows. My hobby is still aviation, so I am interested in such events. I also prefer to spend my weekends at the flying club. I also like fishing, hunting, riding a snowmobile, in general, leisure and outdoor sports.

— Do you listen to superstitions (the 13th, not to take pictures before a flight, and many others) or do you no longer have them?

— I don’t have any specific superstitions. I am indifferent to Fridays and photographs. In professional passenger aviation I somehow didn’t notice them particularly. In general aviation, with which I am still closely associated, there is an opinion that several “signs” lead to each flight accident. That is, if you spilled your coffee in the morning, broke a sugar bowl, scratched your car, forgot your license and got stuck in a traffic jam, then go home and go to bed. It’s better not to fly anywhere on this day. But this, of course, can only be attributed to flying according to your own tasks and on your own aircraft.

In passenger aviation, I am sure that if you are well prepared, fulfill all the requirements, collect all the documents and carefully carry out your tasks, the flight will go well. This is exactly what we are taught - to do our job well.

— Have there been any failures of flight equipment? How did you get out of the situation?

“I haven’t flown in big aviation for many years and haven’t encountered any failures on passenger planes. But during training there was an incident when my front tire burst on a small training plane while landing. Not such a terrible refusal, of course, but then I worried for a long time, scolding myself for landing poorly, being too rude. The first refusal is probably the most memorable.

— What would you wish to girls who are serious about becoming civil aviation pilots?

— Don’t doubt your abilities and realistically assess your prospects. If this work is really really needed precisely because it is interesting to fly, then we need to act. There is no point in going into professional aviation for the sake of some kind of “unusuality”. It is this imaginary “unusuality” that, in my opinion, prevents women from getting a normal job in aviation. We must try to prove to the employer that a female pilot is the same average (good!) specialist as any other pilot. That she does not stand out in any way and does not require any special treatment, concessions or indulgences. No employer needs an “unknown animal” on their staff. We need a good reliable employee. This is what we should strive for.

— What is your wish for RIA Novosti readers?

— I can say for sure that flying is real happiness. If you have never flown on a small plane or helicopter, feel free to go to a flying club. I have no doubt that you will like it and will probably even want to learn how to control a flying car yourself. It’s an incomparable feeling to pilot yourself. I really want more and more people to fly in our country every year!

Why, exactly, is Uvarovskaya named “Russia’s first female aircraft commander”? IMHO this is not true:
Our contemporary Nina Vasilievna Lityushkina.
Nina Vasilievna is an airline pilot, no woman in the world has flown so many hours at the controls jet plane.
Article from the newspaper "Arguments and Facts":

Airlady.

Men love to make fun of women drivers. But it’s unlikely that anyone will be able to throw a barb at this helmsman. Nina Lityushkina controls not a car, but an airplane! She is a first class pilot, for many years she was the commander of the Il-18, and now she is a pilot of the Tu-154 aircraft. Total flight time is about 24 thousand hours! This is a unique indicator even for male pilots. Lityushkina is the only female pilot in Russia and the former USSR who has so many accident-free flight hours.

She studied and honed her flying skills in the skies of her native Mordovia. On her “Annushka” Nina Vasilievna transported passengers and cargo to all corners of the Volga region. She delivered doctors to hard-to-reach areas and transported patients. Since 1971 she has been in the sky Krasnoyarsk Territory, then she completely expanded her horizons and began flying to various parts of our country and neighboring countries.

Nina Vasilyevna has excellent command of the An-2, Il-14, Il-18, Tu-154 piloting techniques. Has access to control and test flights, can transport VIPs, flies in a reduced complement - without a navigator, and has mastered flights using satellite navigation systems. By the way, in August 2007, the pilot received the Nesterov medal. This is the most honorable insignia in Russian aviation. In the airline where Nina Vasilyevna works, such an award is still in a single copy.

Article in the newspaper "Krasnoyarsk Worker":

Wait! At the helm are pilots wearing earrings!..

She looked up from her instruments, turned to Governor Swan and smiled. Alexander Ivanovich saw a charming woman in a flight uniform, and soon learned that Nina Vasilyevna Lityushkina had recently been congratulated by friends and colleagues on her 35th anniversary of flying work and 20 thousand hours of accident-free flight time. This is a kind of world record among women. The general bowed gallantly and left the cockpit. A few minutes later he returned, brought in an elegant box of chocolates and presented it to Nina Vasilievna...

Her colleague Albert Nikolaevich Zhukov, commander of the same type of aircraft, spoke briefly but clearly about her:

I aimed for the sky, I dreamed, I wanted, I got there - through DOSAAF!

And he’s right: there was no other way to this profession for girls, only through sports flying clubs. Not everyone could withstand the grueling tests and merciless selection. It has always been believed that aerobatics is a man’s business...

Nina was born in November 1942 in the Mordovian village of Chukoly, Ardat region. Soon the father went to the front, it became difficult for the mother to cope with four children, and Nina began to live with her grandmother. Tatyana Pavlovna gave the girl an Orthodox upbringing.

Soon after the war, Nina watched the film “Night Witches” - about the Taman Women’s Aviation Regiment and its battles with the Nazis. And these “witches” dragged her into the sky!..

Having finished high school, worked in Saransk at an instrument-making plant and went to Kuibyshev. Here at the flying club I was able to undergo initial training as a glider instructor, combining it with the work of a receptionist river port. And the report card has almost all excellent marks; only “Rules of the Soviet Army” and “Fundamentals of Military Education” were passed as “good”. Alas! It is difficult to defeat female psychology...

At the same time, she mastered flying on the Kai-12 gliders from the Hercules-3 winch and on the L-12 Blahnik, followed by the plane... The desperate girl made 172 flights, flying for almost 36 hours, more than ten of them soaring, that is, the most virtuoso.

The road to heaven continued... Two years later, Lityushkina was sent to the Central United Flight Technical School of the USSR DOSAAF, which she graduated in 1964 with a degree in glider pilot instructor.

Nina studied at school on a Yak-12 plane, flew 476 times, spending more than 130 hours in the air!.. The girl was awarded the first category in gliding. Lityushkina expressed a desire to work at the Saransk Aviation Enterprise, where she also retrained to fly the An-2 aircraft. When she had flown more than two thousand hours on the Yak and Annushka, she was approved as the commander of the An-2 aircraft. And then at the Kirovograd Aerobatics School she mastered the Il-14 and An-24.

They write and talk a lot about Siberia in those years, but youth does not tolerate monotony, and Nina Lityushkina agrees to work as a co-pilot of the Il-14 and

Il-18 at the Krasnoyarsk Aviation Enterprise. Three years later, he retrained in Ulyanovsk to drive the Il-18 ship and received an assignment to the Krasnoyarsk 214th flight detachment. Her personal file is replenished with invigorating lines: “For health reasons, she is fit for flying work without restrictions, she flies confidently, and is resilient in flights.”

She is on earth so little that she barely has time to write letters to her family and see her dear friend Galina, a nurse from the clinic. They're like sisters. “There is no buying and selling in friendship, there is only honesty and trust,” says Nina. “I am afraid of unscrupulous people,” she adds. “If I see bad people, I avoid them.” She believes that “aviation is the domain of decent people.”

That is why, apparently, Nina Vasilievna never doubted her choice. And on Lityushkina’s flight uniform a second badge was added: “For 7,000 hours of accident-free flight time.” And again Nina picks up speed: in Ulyanovsk she is retraining at the course for ship commanders of Tu system aircraft. Here again is the aerobatics of her life - the certification commission in 1983 approves her for the position of second pilot of the Tu-154.

Nina Vasilyevna smiles: “Of the women in Russia, I am the only one who flies on the Tushka...

In her description there is an entry: “She performs complex, sometimes difficult work on an equal basis with men, without demanding discounts...” Further conclusion: “Worthy to be a candidate for ship commander...”

It will not be a secret that the human resources departments of airline companies keep an insurance policy for pilots in case of death. Nina Vasilievna bequeaths a modest amount to her sister Lida. We are, of course, talking about risk in flying. She somehow confidentially says: “The Almighty protects us!” He adds: “I will fly as long as I live!”

And this is natural. To the sky - Nina’s prayer, but one day Mother Earth finally took her toll - she helped me experience female happiness with Sergei, to share with him the love of heaven. Now she not only greets the takeoff with delight, but also the landing. They are waiting for her on earth, here she and her husband are growing a garden in which every flower, every blade of grass caresses the heart with joy. Nina worships flowers and regrets that they are not among the indescribable beauties of the sky...

But she was given, as she claims, “to see all of Russia from the sky!..”

That is, she was already a PIC in the USSR, and with this rank she transferred to new Russia. So what...