Angelina Jolie, Gisele Bundchen, and Hilary Swank are among the list of high-profiled female celebrities who took private flying lessons and eventually got pilot licenses.
Clearly, wealth is not an issue. These women have to go through all the troubles of flying an aircraft despite having the money to pay for first-class travels in the comfort of full-horizontal reclining seats and other luxurious amenities on air.
Some of them wanted to learn aviation mainly to appear daring and make other people proud.
Angelina Jolie, one of the first women in Hollywood who earned a pilot license, has studied flying on a Cessna 172, but bought a powerful $360,000 SR22 plane after getting her license in 2005. Always a daredevil, Angie has had Vogue photographed her hopping on a plane with a designer skirt and high heels. Once inside, she kicked off her shoes and reportedly flies barefoot!
It has been said that she got interested in flying her own plane in order to help refuges in Asia and Africa, but a 2005 interview on People magazine offers a different theory. The actress has been quoted as saying, “Every time Mad sees a plane, he’s amazed. If I could actually fly a plane… I’ll be like Superman to him.”
Ah, women! Our passion for flying an aircraft still have to be rooted in our desire to please other people.
Gisele Bunchen is a licensed helicopter pilot since 2009. Known for being athletic and will-powered, she has taken helicopter-flying lessons during the eighth month of her pregnancy.
Her motivation to learn aviation has been her role as a UN Goodwill Ambassador for Environmental Programme (trying to promote alternative fuel). But there have also been reports of her wanting to ride helicopters in order to shorten the commute between her home in Boston and her modeling job in NYC.
While there are women who look at aviation as an extension of the roles they play at home, there are many others who learned to fly aircraft for the primary purpose of self-advancement and conquering new challenges.
Hilary Swank has to take flying lessons in 2009 when she filmed the movie “Amelia”, a biopic of Amelia Earhart. Basically, she needs to learn aviation in order to effectively play the role of the first aviatrix who flies solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
But the Academy Award-winning actress has gotten interested of aviation so that she went on to continue her flying lessons and get a license after making the movie:
“When you’re a kid, there are so many firsts – you learn how to ride a bike and read and you’re in the moment. Then you’re an adult and there’s not a lot of firsts anymore. Learning how to fly for me was like learning how to ride a bike – it was a first.
It takes all of your senses, it’s dangerous and adventurous, I love to learn something new and challenging and I didn’t realize all the calculations that go into flying.”
Women pilots have different purpose for flying aircraft. Many study aviation because they want people to see them as “cool” and adventurous. Some of them want to “make a difference”, while some have to learn because their professional careers collide with the necessity to master an aircraft. Many others do it for the thrill. And some sees flying an aircraft as an opportunity to turn their fears of flying into passion. But all of them are equally daring to fly into the open sky.
Flying can also be a form of liberation for women. Feeling that rush that we get the moment the aircraft lifts into the air is like letting ourselves float into space then soar into other worlds in a matter of hours.
Do you want to take flying lessons and become a licensed pilot? Then conquer your fear of flying by determining the source of your fear and turn that fear into passion. Get an excellent flight instructor to teach you aviation, pass the written exam, and believe in yourself and be courageous as you take the practical exam. (Try flying helicopters for a start. Only 40 hours of airtime are required to become a chopper pilot.) Soon enough, you’ll be flying aircraft across the sky and soar into life with a new, wider perspective.
