The annual event that promotes women in aviation took off Saturday at the Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre, inspiring the next generation of girls to experience what it is like to take flight.
Iffat Chowdhury took her 4-year-old daughter to the ‘Girls Can Fly’ event to give her experience in the aviation industry and see if she had any interest.
“I’m learning to fly,” said Afseen as she ran to look at the Waterloo Warbird again.
“The kids are very interested to see the planes. She’s enjoying it, she pulls me along ‘mom,let’s go see this one.’ I just wanted to see if they were interested in flying.”
Great Lakes Helicopter from Cambridge was there to offer free rides and help educate girls on what it is like to be pilots.
“They're all running back to their parents with stories about how they're going to be helicopter pilots, it was very sweet,” said Grace Freiheit, a commercial pilot.
“Part of the reason I came to Great Lakes Helicopter in the first place is because they have 5 or 6 women working for them.”
The event hosted different vendors and educational activities for girls of various ages. A flight simulator, Lego building station, food trucks and plane tours were available all day as well as pre-registered flights for a plane or helicopter.
Arpan Srawn, a science and aviation student at the University of Waterloo, doing her licensing at the WWFC, volunteered at the ‘Girls Can Fly’ event Saturday.
“This is really, really important to me, being a woman myself and seeing all these little girls who want to be in aviation one day and seeing them be so inspired by all of us over here.”
“I want to be a pilot but before that I want to be a flight instructor and the main reason for that is I want to see more little girls like this in aviation. I see myself in them and I remember when I started my training I wanted to be here and I wanted to fly.”
Srawn helped give girls tours of the inside of a small plane and educate them on how they can become a pilot like she’s doing.
The event was able to inspire Jennifer Young’s daughter, Megan, to think of a future career as a pilot.
“I’m learning what it’s like to be a pilot and what age you have to be, things like that."
When asked if she wanted to be a pilot and fly in the sky the answer was a clear and simple, “yes.”