The Sky’s No Limit – Girls Fly Too!

The Sky’s No Limit – Girls Fly Too!

The Sky’s No Limit – Girls Fly Too! an epic hands-on outreach event to address gender and cultural diversity in aviation, aerospace, marine and defence.  

Despite the inclement weather during the event, and a catastrophic windstorm that, 36 hours prior, had demolished 10,000 square feet of indoor display area, The Sky’s No Limit – Girls Fly Too! 2016 was a resounding success. A testament of dedication and support to the advancement of women in aviation, aerospace, marine and defence, hundreds of volunteers, and agency and industry partners worked feverishly together to re-locate the display area over to the Shell hangar in time for launch.

Honoured distinguished guests included The Honourable Judith Guichon, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia; The Honourable Harjit Sajjan, Minister of National Defence; Mark Warawa, Member of Parliament; The Honourable Mary Polak, Minister of Envioronment; Canadian Coast Guard Director of Fleet Pacific Region, Joanne McNish; Rear Admiral Gilles Couturier, Commander Maritime Forces Pacific; U.S. Consul General Lynne Platt; and Rajiv K. Chander, Consul General of India.  Special VIPs also included NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy helicopter pilot (Ret’d) Wendy Lawrence; Isabelle Tremblay, Manager of the Project and Program Portfolio Canadian Space Agency; and RCAF Colonel (Ret’d) and Aviation Hall of Fame inductee, George Miller.

In total, 10,000 people from around the Lower Mainland and several remote school districts attended the two-day event.  A U.S. Air Force KC-135 refueling aircraft from 63rd Air Refueling Squadron, MacDill AFB, Florida, came with 25 crew members on board to share in the fun.

Participants were able to explore aircraft and tactical assets from the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Air Force, Canadian Army, Canadian Coast Guard, RCMP, Cadets, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, Civil Air Search and Rescue, plus civilian and education partners from aviation, aerospace, marine and defence.  All participants were able to see inside aircraft engines, place rivets in a real aircraft, fly various aircraft simulators, try their hand at 3-D printing, and much more.  Everyone was thrilled to learn about space first-hand from NASA astronaut Wendy Lawrence and CSA space engineer Isabelle Tremblay.

The RCMP were very popular and stole the show this year with puppies and dogs-in-training from the Lower Mainland Integrated Police Dog Service.  They gave scent, obedience and suspect take-down demonstrations each day.  

Free flights were available for female first-time fliers – 1,557 females of all ages were able to fly despite the fleet of nine helicopters being grounded several times to wait out the weather. 

 
The Sky’s No Limit – Girls Fly Too! events are part of an outreach initiative founded by myself, Kirsten Brazier, a B.C. pilot, in 2012.  Events are held annually during the week of International Women’s Day and in celebration of past, present and future women in aviation, aerospace, marine and defence.

Events organized by The Sky’s No Limit – Girls Fly Too! have won several international awards and have set four world precedents as the largest single outreach event of their kind.

Events are always open to the public and families are welcome – including the guys.  Thanks to the generous support of agency and industry partners, events are completely free to ensure no barriers to participation.

After the overwhelming success and support of this year’s event, I am looking forward to announcing exciting plans for year-round programs of lasting value towards real change in addressing the missing female demographic in aviation, aerospace, marine and defence.  Those interested in learning more or who would like to participate in future events and activities are encouraged to visit www.girlsfly2.ca.

Kirsten Brazier
Founder The Sky’s No Limit – Girls Fly Too!