FEMALE INSTRUCTOR

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22248, 18 January 1944, Page 5

FEMALE INSTRUCTOR

TRAINS MEN AND WOMEN Flight-Captain Hughes, of the British Air Transport Auxiliary, can fly anything—from single-engined training planes to giant four-engined bombers. And Flight-Captain Hughes —Joan is the name—is the only woman flying instructor in Britain. She trains both men and women. Flight-Captain Joan, aged 25, is only sft. 2in. tall, and has to have a special cushion behind, her back, in most planes, if she is to reach the controls at all. “I’ve been flying since I was 17,” she said. “Got my first instructor’s job at Chigwell Flying Club before the war. As soon as the ATA began taking women pilots—in January, 1940—1 joined them. “I’ve been instructing where I am now for nearly two years. It’s hard work, of course, but most interesting. Instructing isn’t very difficult. I get a very low percentage of failures.” And Flight-Captain Joan set off to give some advanced instruction in the control of a twin-engined bomber. Her pupil was a man this time—and a six-footer at that. “To be a successful instructor,” said Commander T. G. L. Gale, O.C. the Advanced Flying Training School, later, “needs much patience. We And that scarcely any women have the combination of patience and the right temperament. “Miss Hughes is an unusually fine pilot. We have about 120 women pilots on this station. The women are treated exactly the same as the men. They do the same jobs, and they are just pilots, like us.”