Plane spotting

[Macareaux]

Oh FFS
BBC4 programme plane spotting and they interview a woman pilot. Great news as women are still in a minority so it's good to have the visibility. This one has been flying for BA since the 1970s. Odd that when BA only started taking female pilots in the 1980s.

Was it the same person macareaux

Well blow me down, this is amazing. My good wife, who is totally not interested in this latest political/ideological hot potato, came into the room whilst I was watching "Planespotting", took one look at Catherine Burton and said - "Is that a man?"
I replied that I didn't think so, but had second thoughts when I saw Catherine towering above everyone else.
I am now going to have to eat humble pie and tell my wife she was quite right.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/transgender-british-airways-pilot-flying-4255502

Oh so it was the same person...

I wonder how the penny dropping is going

FFS. I think it was Catherine Burton, transwoman. I wondered too and so did DH when we happened across the prog. And that was watching on a small telly, across a room with no close ups. I didn't want to speculate until I had researched and didn't see the intro that gave people's names.

It is exactly as women have been predicting. A male replaces a woman and ticks the extra diversity box. He gets to be male, a woman and trans. Definition the right kind of woman.

I don't mind a bit of engineering myself so it make me really angry. I faced a lot of sexism from my dad etc when I was growing up and it was such hard work being a girl interested in cars, engineering, making stuff etc and not one person encouraged me in that direction, quite the opposite, plus the usual sexual comments etc. I would have loved to see a woman as the expert pilot.

The video below is rage inducing. the first line is the intro "I'm Cat Burton, one of British Airway's most senior women captains". Yes, one who got there as a man :(
runwaygirlnetwork.com/2017/08/21/retired-but-not-retiring-bas-catherine-burton-reflects-on-pilot-career/ (that website name offends me as it has nothing to do with women flying - but with passenger experience as facilitated by 'runways girls', grr)

There was an interesting moment on the show that I half heard (was doing other things too) where the woman in overalls was looking through the binoculars and said something like "I see a female, so I am going to say a woman" presumably in response to being asked who was flying the plane. It struck me as in odd thing to say, but in the context of having a transwoman on the show, it might make some sense.

www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2019/07/23/planespotting-live-review-shambolic-show-ever-cleared-take-bbc/

I can't read the article but the comments are interesting. No one seems to know or is saying that Captain Cat is might be a male who is a transwoman.

rant over :(

It was one of the worst programmes I've ever seen on the BBC, and that's saying something. We had it on because my husband thought it might be good. I clocked Captain Burton early on. I do think it's unfortunate that the BBC couldn't find a female captain who slogged all the way up the ranks as a female, but at least they showed a female air traffic controller at work.

Name changed and scarpered, cos I went right off strawberries.

So, back to female pilots.
I really can't abide transwomen winning some kind of breakthrough medal as a woman.

It is cheating and its the same as what's happening in sports.

It denies a real woman of recognition that
she has earned.

Be trans if you want but don't claim the top spot just because you find it easy.

Because it isn't an achievement.

Had Catherine Burton transitioned prior to becoming a pilot, then they may have a point - but even that would be questionable.

But flying for 40yrs as a man, then transitioning ?? And talking about it "as a woman" - winning women's awards?? - there aren't enough WTFs in the world for that

She was working as backroom staff for many years then decided she could be a pilot.

Not.

wrath

No penny dropping for you

I'm on fire Rufus

Fire and fury

Oh FFS! Can they never find an actual natal woman who's first in her field. Or sky, in this instance. Does it always have to be a man who identifies as a woman?

I'm well pissed off.

This is so fucking depressing.

As someone who was told at the age of 15 (many years ago) that I couldn’t be a pilot because I’m female, this type of story really boils my piss. It’s not like I could identify out of that discrimination. And don’t those programme makers ever ask themselves how it was that Cat was able to train as a pilot in the first place. It’s all bollocks. Literally.

Okay I'm confused. A couple of people upthread saying 'she is a woman, I’ve flown with her' and 'yes, she is a woman'. But then people are saying it was the transwoman Catherine Burton, who flew for decades as a man before transitioning. So... which is it?

i2-prod.walesonline.co.uk/incoming/article11210604.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/womenspire-02.jpg

It's Catherine Burton in the programme. I think the earlier posters saying she's a woman think TWAW.

Ah I see. Deceptive.

The early posts, when the person in the programme had not been named, referred to other pilots.

Or at least mine did.

Because at that stage whuch pilot was in the show had not been specified. And women had entered the BA pilot training pathway by the 1970s, so that seemed a logical way to settle the apparent anomaly.

If it had been clear in the opening post which pilot, then responses might have been different.

Thanks for clearing that up, VikingVolva. But it's a bit odd to say, 'yes, she's a woman' if you didn't know which pilot was being discussed. Unless there was an actual female pilot featured in the programme as well (I didn't watch the whole programme).

Weird posts Viking

Your first post seems to be talking specifically about someone but you don’t say who? Was it another named pilot in the programme?

Or what OldCrone said!

It is a bit weird, OldCrone.

It was another long-serving BA ilot, a woman whose flying career could be described as starting in the 1970s, and that struck me as an obvious way to make sense of the dates.

Because I hadn't watched the programme, and a specific pilot had not been named on thread at the time. There are at least 3 pilots who fit my description of time lines, one of whom I know in RL which is why my solution to the (unnamed) pilot mystery as written in the opening post, sprang to mind.

I had also assumed that other posts, where posters refer knowing pilots and their families in RL, are about one or more of those three

"Unless there was an actual female pilot featured in the programme as well (I didn't watch the whole programme)."

I watched the programme and there was supposedly a female BA pilot, who stood out from all the others on the programme. There was only one pilot who had over 40 years experience.
The pilot in question was Catherine Burton who is a transgender woman.
British Airways has more female pilots than any other airline in the UK, with around 200 female pilots out of the 3,500 total pilots.
Would it really have been so difficult to have a female pilot on the show?