High-flyers:
Once women were locked out of the world of aviation. Stefanie Costi meets the trailblazers who, unwilling to stay earthbound, reached for the skies.
four women who are reaching for the sky
Alaina Keniger, 38 RESCUE CREW OFFICER, QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT AIR
In her early twenties, Alaina Keniger developed a fascination for helicopters. This, combined with her passion for adventure and helping people in need, has led to a career in air rescue.
“I love being the first to be winched out of a helicopter and the last one to leave the ground,” she says. “You never know what each day will bring. It is like waking up to a choose-your-ownadventure every day.”
Her most memorable rescue was late last year: “We heard that there had been a helicopter crash and, the next thing I knew, I was being winched to the ground in a very remote area surrounded by a tall, thick forest canopy.
“The crash site was on fire and there was a fair bit of rubble and destruction. I was the one who found the injured pilot in the aircraft. The whole crew displayed amazing teamwork to get him out of there and to medical care. When it was over, we were all hugging.”
“In my plane all by myself, I can do whatever I want.”
Cassandra Moeller, 32 AEROBATIC PILOT
For Cassandra Moeller, flying is about freedom. “When I am in my plane all by myself, I can do whatever I want. Nobody is telling me how to live my life or how to fly,” says Cassandra, who works for Qantas as an aeronautical information analyst, and has been an aerobatic pilot for nearly 10 years. “It is the perfect solitude up there in the sky.”
Ironically, Cassandra used to get sick as a child on aeroplanes, but she now enjoys doing complex rolls, spins and loops in planes purely for fun – and has won Victoria, SA and Queensland state Australian Aerobatic Club competitions.
The craziest thing Cassandra has ever done in a plane is “learn how to do aerobatics while being upside down. And at different altitudes.
“I love the challenge that comes with flying the perfect manoeuvre and the fact that perfection is totally unattainable,” she says. “I have never flown anything that I have been completely happy with, so that is what constantly keeps me coming back.
“If I win, I want to win by more.”
Captain Deborah Lawrie, 64 AUSTRALIA’S FIRST FEMALE COMMERCIAL PILOT
From 1976, Deborah applied several times to pilot planes with the nowdefunct Ansett Australia, but she was always rejected for being a woman. She fought all the way to the Victorian Equal Opportunity Board after Ansett claimed women’s menstrual cycles made them unsuitable to be pilots, and that pregnancy would jeopardise safety and cost the company money.
Deborah ultimately won the right to fly, and took the cockpit of her first commercial flight in 1980, as an Ansett co-pilot from Alice Springs to Darwin.
It all began when she was 16 and her father – a hobby pilot – gave her two flying lessons and said that it was up to her from there. Even after the battle with Ansett, Deborah struggled to earn respect as a woman in what is, still today, a male-dominated profession.
“Men were suspicious of women flying,” says Deborah, who is now a check and training captain for Tigerair. “They didn’t think we were good enough to do the job, so flying with different men every day and having to prove myself each time was difficult. The fact that I am now respected for what I do by my colleagues is endorsement for me that I have done well in my career.”
And she’s paved the way for others. “To know that I have helped and mentored women into a career that
I love is a very special feeling,” she adds.
Wing Commander Linda Corbould, 54 FIRST FEMALE COMMANDER OF AN RAAF OPERATIONAL FLYING SQUADRON
Amazingly, women have only been allowed in combat zones since the 1990s, and, true to form, Linda Corbould was one of those leading the charge. From 2003 to 2008, she regularly risked her life to fly massive C-17 Globemaster III and C-130 Hercules aircraft into war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan.
Linda wanted to be a pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) since she was 11. “I saw the RAAF roulette display team fly at a regatta in Launceston,” she says. “I was so inspired and decided that was what I wanted to do as a career.”
But in the early 1980s, when Linda eventually joined the RAAF as an 18-year-old, women were unable to become pilots. So she bided her time, serving as an air traffic controller until 1989, when she eventually had the opportunity to train as a pilot.
After graduating from the pilot course, she became the third Australian female to obtain her RAAF wings and rose up the ranks to serve as a commanding officer of No 36 Squadron, becoming the first female flying unit commander for the RAAF. “They were the proudest moments of my life,” she says.
Flying into Iraq and Afghanistan “was a very exciting, but apprehensive, time for me,” she says. “Even though the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up with the thought that people could be down there trying to shoot me, it was very rewarding to be able to make a difference in the lives of others by providing them with humanitarian aid and supplies. The comradeship and mateship of flying with a crew in circumstances like that is unsurpassed.”
Linda, now a reservist in the RAAF, has never regretted her 30-year career. “My mantra is not to be ordinary but extraordinary. I do what I love,” she says.
“I am sure people think we march around all day, but the truth is we give real-world, real-time support and only march when appropriate.”
“The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up.”