Episode 9 I Got Stripes
[00:00:00] Enid: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to the ninth episode of if women were meant to fly, the sky  would be pink. I got two stripes. I'm Enid Otun. In this episode, I start work as a second officer at bristow helicopters in Lagos on the DHC 6 twin Otter, twin engine turboprop. I realized pretty quickly that having a woman up front at the sharp pointy, end is a novel idea to most people at that time, and I develop a strategy to deal with the distrust and suspicion of having a woman pilot in a position of authority at 7,000 feet and above.
[00:01:08] [00:01:00] Before I begin this episode, I have some very exciting news. In episode five, I spoke about a wonderful friend of mine, whom I flew with and who was a pivotal part of my life as I trained as a pilot in the US, and who took me under her wing and to my first Disneyland in LA, Heidi Bruder Welch. Well, I am overjoyed to announce that after 39 years apart, she found me through this podcast.
[00:01:35] We had our first FaceTime chat last week, and it was like the 39 year gap didn't exist. What Heidi didn't realize is the impact she had on my life as a young woman who lacked confidence and how her true friendship, kindness, and support helped to change me as a person. We didn't speak of it then as young women back in 1981, But we certainly did last week.
[00:01:58] It was the most [00:02:00] cathartic feeling  to engage with a time when we were both just starting our lives. We both now have a wealth of life experience and a ton of memories. And I would just like to say, thank you to you, Heidi, for being there all those years ago, you have certainly made my year and to see what you have achieved in your life, has made me so proud to have been a part of it.
[00:02:23] So now, on to the continuation of, I got stripes. The interview at Bristow helicopters located at the far end of the Murtala Mohamed airport, general aviation section was nerve wracking enough for me. I was convinced I would fail it and fall at the first hurdle, but then that was my general mindset for most everything I put myself up for at that time. It was still an unheard of thing to have a woman pilot in Nigeria and of that I was painfully aware.
[00:02:52] As confidently as I hoped to present myself, it was difficult knowing that perhaps I would be judged not only on my professional ability, [00:03:00] but also my gender. Well, I needn't have worried. I got the opportunity to show what I could do, and to my absolute amazement and delight the plan was to report to HR and operations the following Monday. I could hardly contain my excitement as I rushed back home to tell my mother. She was so pleased and excited in a way I hadn't seen, since she had visited me back in San Francisco. The following Monday, I reported to operations, I met the operations manager, Fidelis, who was to become a good friend and support to me as I navigated unchartered waters as part of the Bristow helicopter fixed wing crew.
[00:03:39] There was a lot to be done. My log books and FAA license had to be presented to the Nigerian civil aviation authority to be converted into a Nigerian commercial pilot's license. I had to be measured for my new uniform of six white short sleeve shirts and three pairs of black trousers. The Tailor was so astonished that I was a [00:04:00] woman, he dropped his tape measure several times at the thought of a mere woman flying a plane. Next onto HR for all the contract formalities and finally to the chief pilot for my first briefing and introduction. That week was a whirlwind of necessary formalities along with the first introductory flights that I would take before my base training began in earnest.
[00:04:23] After a few short weeks, I would be sent to the company headquarters in red Hill to complete the rolls Royce based engine course, as well as complete a multi-engine course. Training was intense as there is for all newbies. There's a lot to learn quite apart from just flying the aircraft. We were contracted to shell petroleum and as such had a myriad of rules and regulations to follow in addition to Bristow's. Whilst I was in redhill, I was in the company of fellow helicopter, cadets who were undertaking their initial courses. Bristow had their own guest house for students in Horley, in Surrey, and it's here that I would make a number of [00:05:00] lifelong friends. We had a lot of hard work ahead of us and long, long classroom sessions, no time for slacking off.
[00:05:07] So our downtime was very precious. We had a small in house bar where we were trusted to be sensible and honest. We also had visiting crews who were training with us from Saudi Arabia and  many other  locations. It was here that I had my first yard of ale, and for a nine stone skinny girl that was quite an achievement.
[00:05:28] At that time, I felt like I had to prove that I was worthy of my place amongst the lads. And as such undertook some pretty ill-advised challenges like these. Bets were taken and challenges made. I'm not sure they quite realized how much my reputation meant to me. Not that I particularly wanted the yard of ale title.
[00:05:47] In the end, it actually came down to the Saudi pilots suggesting that no woman should be partaking in drinking games, such as these, or had no place in this world other than the kitchen. Well, my blood [00:06:00] boiled, and surrounded by a rowdy, half cut gang of mischievous fellow students, a yard of ale was duly consumed in the allotted time.
[00:06:09] Nothing gets me riled up quite like, girls don't do things like that challenge.  I sent them packing with an earful as an added bonus, and they were never seen in the lounge again, well, certainly not whilst I was there. Given the amount of work we have to get through. I'm glad to say that episodes like that were pretty rare for me.
[00:06:42] I returned to Lagos a much smarter pilot with a shed load of information about commercial flying locked in my head and the yard of ale title, obviously. Local training would begin in earnest with Captain Gillette. Yes, I know, and yes, we made all the jokes [00:07:00] count. I remember Captain Gillette is a very competent and kind training captain who smoked Rothman cigarettes like they were going out of fashion.  In those days, smoking was allowed in the cabin and the cockpit, and if you didn't smoke, you were certainly the recipient of secondhand smoke in abundance, so you might as well start. I used to joke that it was  more like low visibility instrument conditions on the flight deck than outside the aircraft.
[00:07:26] The aircraft would be positioned down in port Harcourt in the east of the country for the training flights. Port Harcourt was a regular scheduled route and the reduced traffic, as well as the layover of five or more hours made it a good training area. The twin otter DHC 6 aircraft, was a short takeoff and landing, high wing, turboprop aircraft, which meant it was an excellent utility aircraft that could get in and out of small and or rough airstrips easily.
[00:07:52] With a short takeoff and landing capability and the equivalent of a couple of jet engines with propellers. She remains to this day [00:08:00] an absolute favorite with me, I had many many happy hours flying her and boy, did we fly through some atrocious conditions during the course of my career, more on that in future episodes.
[00:08:12] For now I dutifully handled her with the utmost respect, and under the guidance of training Captains, Gillette and Sam St. Pierre.  Aren't those great names?. They sound like a couple of heroic matinee idols, don't they? Anyway, finally, I was ready to take my type rating and instrument rating. Yeah, more tests. An examiner was booked from the civil aviation authority and a date was set, and four days later I would take the tests and pass.
[00:08:42] Now a fully qualified second officer, I was rostered as such ,to begin my very first copilot duties as crew. In those days, we ran scheduled services for Shell oil, between Lagos and Warri, which is a small town in Eastern Nigeria and Port Harcourt, which is a city in Eastern Nigeria. [00:09:00] We would have day stops, which saw us depart Lagos  at 0700 hours in the morning, and route through Warri to Port Harcourt. We'd spend approximately six hours on the ground and return at 1600 hours, which is four o'clock via Warri, and again, back to Lagos. Additionally, we had a second flight leave Lagos at 1600 hours, which is 4:00 PM via Warri to Port Harcourt to night  stop onsite. 
[00:09:26] Every two weeks, we would shuttle shell staff to a holiday location in Jos, which is 450 miles North of Lagos in the middle belt plateau state. We flew passengers out on a Friday and picked them up on the following Monday. I was soon in the swing of it and enjoying every minute. However, back in the early 1980s, it was unheard of to find a woman up front.
[00:09:47] There were a lot of comments, stares and general debate on the subject. My colleagues, both ex-pat and Nigerian were extremely supportive. We even had a female avionics engineer, Yewande Cole who became a [00:10:00] firm friend and with whom I'm still in touch today. She understood the difficulties back then and we banded together where necessary. She was amazing at what she did, and rightly went on to become a flight engineer for a Nigerian airline called ADC. When I look back in minute detail at some of the uneasy situations that I found myself in, I sometimes wish that I had had the wisdom and confidence that I have today.
[00:10:24] I will admit it was difficult. For the most part, I ignored it, or when I felt that it had gone too far, I addressed it head on, much to the shock of the people dishing out the ridicule. Amongst some of the things said in my first few months were along the lines of, I don't think women can really fly, can they? You don't touch anything, do you? You must be a man. Yes, you are a man. You should be married and in the kitchen, please find a real pilot, this will not do, are you very sure you're qualified. Whilst the women came up to congratulate me for breaking down the barriers of a male dominated [00:11:00] profession and wish me good luck,the male of the species just couldn't cope with it. I was laughed at, scorned, talked about behind my back, but no matter how hard they tried, they just couldn't break me. I engaged them head on, showed no fear, although I would go home sometimes and cry. Most, if not all of my male colleagues, were as  angry as I was,and hit back too, we were treading in new territory, and if I was to make a difference, I had to wait out the storm, stand fast and wait for the hysteria to pass. 
[00:11:32] Years later as a Captain, I would still be the subject of intense, but short-lived ridicule. And they would always approach my male copilot if they wanted something or a ride somewhere. When they tried to board my aircraft, though, they would be met by a five foot, six inch Captain who gave them a lesson in respect in front of their compatriots, and then booted them clean off my aircraft.
[00:11:56] I have many stories like this for future episodes. 
[00:12:00] [00:12:00] Passenger waiting areas were another hotbed of speculation, when discussing women pilots. I would have to, as part of my duties, liaise with the dispatchers and boy did it get silent when I walked in, anyone would think I was Jennifer Aniston off friends.
[00:12:14] Passengers would fixate on me, if I was on board or doing aircraft pre-flight inspections, some of them would actually walk into the person in front of them or trip over. Oddly enough, although this scrutiny and sexism was frustrating, I never once considered not forging ahead with my career. I'd suffered far worse abuse as a child with nowhere and no one to turn to, I'd survived and  endured that,  and although it had affected me a huge amount, it had probably made me extremely resilient. 
[00:12:44] Now that I was an adult with choices and a voice, I wasn't going to let anything or anyone stop me. In spite of all this, I made many, many friends with my shell passengers in the years to come. 
[00:12:56] Thank you for listening, as always, your reviews and comments are very much [00:13:00] appreciated. Thank you to Lucy Ashby for the editing of this episode. If you have any questions or comments on the podcast, this episode or previous episodes, please feel free to check in with me. Do you see what I did there, pardon the pun . Check in with me at the sky is pink pilot, that's al lower Case @ gmail.com So thats theskyispinkpilot@gmail.com. Please also join our Facebook group of the same name, where you can ask questions and share stories, and I'll be happy to answer any questions. In the next episode, my schedule gets busy as I build my flight hours for promotion to first officer, I meet many different characters on board, some of my flights, and I meet my match in the rainy season with some spectacular flights, emergencies, and weather.
[00:13:49] Thank you and goodbye. [00:14:00] .