Girls In Aviation Day Opens Eyes on Caribbean Island – Aviation International News

The school girls who attended the Girls in Aviation Day event on St. Maarten on Friday received more than they expected when the event was interrupted by the arrival of a pair of U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys loading troops on a training mission.Coming after the conclusion of the Caribavia conference this week, the Women in Aviation International (WAI)-sponsored event at Grand Case Airport hosted 30 eleven-year-old students split equally between the Dutch and French sides of the island.

Corporate pilot and WAI member Kristina Tervo explained how to read a sectional chart to an attentive audience of school girls at St Maarten's/Saint Martin's first annual Girls in Aviation Day. (Photo: Curt Epstein/AIN)

Held at the HeliRiviera hangar, it featured 11 stations, including "talk like a pilot" (introducing the phonetic alphabet), marshaling aircraft, learning about air traffic control, and aerodynamics. Veteran corporate aviation pilot Kristina Tervo also demonstrated how to read a sectional chart.

Its very important to get more ladies into aviation in different careers, not only pilots but maintenance and all the other fantastic careers that we have, she told AIN. When I started flying, I really didnt have role models at all so what we want to do here is show that there are so many different possibilities in aviation.

A highlight of the event was the display of a St. Barth Executive PilatusPC-12. For many of the attendees, it was their first time aboard an aircraft.

The event had been under discussion since last years Caribavia, when several conference attendees, including WAI director of communications Kelly Murphy, met with Ludmila de Weeverwho was at the time St. Maarten'sminister of tourism, economic affairs, transportation, and telecommunications, and is now a member of parliamentand lit the spark.

We hope to let girls know that any job is available to them, and they can see through this event that we have females that are in aviation-related jobs on the island already, said de Weever, adding she hopes to make the Girls in Aviation an annual event. By having a WAIchapter locally, its aviation scholarship program is available to help fulfill their dreams.

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Girls In Aviation Day Opens Eyes on Caribbean Island - Aviation International News