[00:00:03] Cynthia Glenn: And I went to their conference a couple of years ago and oh my gosh, I was in a room with 4,500 of the smartest people I've ever had the privilege of being even near.
And almost every one of them was a woman.
And it was so amazing. They were so helpful, they were so involved and they were so relational. And that brings me to why I think this is the key to get especially women involved.
[00:00:38] John Ramstead: Welcome to Hangar X Studios where former fighter pilot and host John Ramstead takes us on a journey across aerospace as it enters an historic period of innovation and transformation.
Our guests include aviation experts, pilots, financiers, military leaders, and innovators of all types.
Buckle up for another episode of Hangar X.
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Now please remember to like, comment and share on this channel and enjoy today's podcast. All right. Welcome to the Hangar Egg Studios podcast. We are live at verticon and this is a place where disruptors and innovators and investors and thought leaders gather together. And we've had some incredible interviews with people that are changing aviation and aerospace as we know it. And today we're going to have a great conversation, an important conversation with Cynthia Glenn. Cynthia, welcome to the podcast.
[00:01:48] Cynthia Glenn: Thank you very much.
[00:01:49] John Ramstead: And we're going to be talking about how do we get more people into aviation, especially women. I don't know if you've noticed this. I'm guessing you have, But I'm guessing nine out of 10 people that walk past this booth is not a woman.
So we need to get, I think more women in aviation. And I volunteer with, through my EAA chapter back in Denver with Young Eagles. And we've really done a good job. I think we have what Young Eagles is. It's a phenomenal program.
And we fly once a month, anywhere from 20 to 30 young men and women. A lot of them are from the inner city, you know, disadvantaged. But it's about half men, half women. But they are so excited to go up on their flight. And we had, I don't know if you know Stephanie Chung. We had Stephanie Chung on.
[00:02:31] Cynthia Glenn: Oh, I do know.
[00:02:32] John Ramstead: Oh, she is incredible. She started out as a baggage handler and she was told, you know, she was the only woman working on the line and worked her all the way up to be the first African American, let alone woman, but CEO of a jet charter company.
[00:02:48] Cynthia Glenn: Excellent.
[00:02:49] John Ramstead: And just an amazing person. So she's also a huge advocate, and we had Tammy Barlett on yesterday. But love to hear your thoughts on just, you know. Well, before we get into this and how we can, I think, be better advocates, tell us a little bit about your background, how this became a passion.
[00:03:05] Cynthia Glenn: Okay, so that sounds like. How did the aviation bug bite me?
[00:03:09] John Ramstead: Yes.
[00:03:09] Cynthia Glenn: All righty. When I was 17, I was invited on a double date. And my boyfriend at the time had a best friend who had an airplane, and they flew to Buchanan Field, which was kind of near my house in the East Bay, California.
And they picked me up and we flew to the nut tree and had dinner, and they flew me back this whistle stop, and I drove home and I thought, wow, that would be so awesome. But I'm old.
And back then I had my little head patted. I was told, sorry, you're a girl.
You're a word girl. Math is hard. And so I let the dream die. Okay, so fast forward now we have Covid.
One of Covid's gifts to me was to give me the time and the money at the same time to study aviation.
[00:03:57] John Ramstead: Okay?
[00:03:58] Cynthia Glenn: So I have a mentor, and he took me flying, and he said, you're a natural. Women are natural pilots for the most part, because we don't, as a general rule, we don't chase needles like most men do or most engineers do, regardless of your. Of your. Of your gender. So he said, go just get your toe in the water. So I studied drone and I passed the test. I came back and I said, next. He said, okay, do your.
Do your bgi, your basic ground instructor. So I did that. And then I said, next. He said, go away already. Do your AGI, your advanced ground instructor. So I did that. I said, now what? He said, oh, my gosh. Just go do your formal training. And so I did my training.
And what is fascinating, you mean fixed.
[00:04:48] John Ramstead: Wing, like, now you're flying an airplane.
[00:04:50] Cynthia Glenn: Now I'm flying an airplane.
[00:04:51] John Ramstead: What'd you start with? Cessna.
[00:04:52] Cynthia Glenn: I started in a Cessna 152.
[00:04:54] John Ramstead: Okay.
[00:04:55] Cynthia Glenn: So a little itty bitty thing.
And I had my. I had my training.
Not the best experience. However, now I've been assured, I can say this. There are so many badass women in aviation and.
[00:05:09] John Ramstead: And world class.
[00:05:10] Cynthia Glenn: Oh, my gosh. And so I got involved. I jumped in because I do nothing in half measures. And I'm told I've got the energy of three people. So I got involved with 99s, founded in 1929 with Amelia Earhart as the first president.
And the story of that, if you don't know it.
There were 140 women pilots in America. And they were getting short shrift, of course, especially back then. So they decided, the women pilots decided, let's start a group to advocate for ourselves and to support one another and what should we call ourselves? And someone said, why don't you send out an invitation to every American pilot who is a woman? And they got 99 responses. And that's how we got the name 99s.
[00:05:53] John Ramstead: Okay.
[00:05:53] Cynthia Glenn: And I also joined Women in Aviation International.
And I went to their conference a couple of years ago and oh my gosh, I was in a room with 4,500 of the smartest people I've ever had the privilege of being even near.
And almost every one of them was a woman.
And it was so amazing. They were so helpful, they were so involved and they were so relational. And that brings me to why I think this is the key to get especially women involved. I have found that in aviation in general, it's a tight knit group. Fun fact. 1/4 of 1% of people are pilots in the United States.
[00:06:40] John Ramstead: Okay.
[00:06:41] Cynthia Glenn: And out of that, maybe 20% are women.
[00:06:45] John Ramstead: Okay.
[00:06:46] Cynthia Glenn: So by having these.
[00:06:47] John Ramstead: So the people that are pilots is seven. I think there's 700,000 licensed pilots, something like that.
[00:06:53] Cynthia Glenn: So 20% of women, 20% of the pilots, but the population, one quarter of 1% of the entire population are even pilots.
[00:07:01] John Ramstead: Yep. Okay.
[00:07:02] Cynthia Glenn: And so what I'm finding is that aviation is so close knit and it's a small community and it's an elite community because you have to be so skilled to do well.
So what happened is because it's so relational, what I do to get women involved is I personally invite them. Come to a meeting.
Let me tell you about this conference. Let me tell you about what we're doing. Come to this, come to this. Come join me. Come do this. And right now, I'm personally mentoring five women. In fact, I think I just got Paige on board.
[00:07:36] John Ramstead: Oh, good. You know what? I've been telling Paige, she not only needs to get her drone license, but I'd love to see her get her pilot license.
[00:07:43] Cynthia Glenn: Well, she's already. She's. She's way ahead of you, John. She's working on it. So I told her, let me help.
[00:07:47] John Ramstead: Paige is our marketing operations specialist and she is amazing.
[00:07:52] Cynthia Glenn: She's a rock star. She's a rock star. She's a badass, and she's not even.
[00:07:55] John Ramstead: Old enough yet and she's world class.
[00:07:56] Cynthia Glenn: Yeah. I'm telling you what, you know, as.
[00:07:58] John Ramstead: A matter of fact, her, she's the volleyball coach.
[00:08:00] Cynthia Glenn: She told me that.
[00:08:01] John Ramstead: And her team won the state championship, what, three out of the last three years.
[00:08:05] Cynthia Glenn: See, I didn't know that. And she's modest.
See, you know, there's a pilot in the room. Cause they'll tell you.
[00:08:14] John Ramstead: Yeah, we need to get. Well, you know, think about just Paige, you know, and I think about the, you know, the, you know, the young, you know, the girls in the, you know, the EA program that are, you know, 12 to 17 years old.
Right.
How do you overcome this? Is, you know, I think we've, I'd like to think it's gotten better as far as some of the stereotypes, as far as what you can and can't do.
But I would think, you know, there's still a perception though, aviation is hard, it's expensive.
You kind of need to know somebody to do it.
[00:08:47] Cynthia Glenn: Not so much that, but I have.
[00:08:48] John Ramstead: A friend of mine, she became a pilot. Grew up in a just lower middle class family, but she went to University of North Dakota. Now I, you know, flight training in the winter in North Dakota, but, you know, it was covered under her whole tuition. She became a pilot through that and she actually decided junior year that, you know, she wanted to take a different tax. And she actually went and became a psychologist. But she could have finished. Right. But I think a lot of, I don't know, what are your thoughts on, like, how do we get people more, you know, into the pipeline and actually start training? I don't, you know, the flying club where I fly of, I see maybe two or three in that ready room. It's a training school. I just rent my 172 there once in a while.
[00:09:31] Cynthia Glenn: But yeah, so again, I think it's relational. I have an airplane. I bought it three weeks after I got my private certificate.
[00:09:38] John Ramstead: Which one?
[00:09:39] Cynthia Glenn: I've got a Cessna 182 Papa.
[00:09:42] John Ramstead: Oh, I love 182s.
[00:09:44] Cynthia Glenn: Love my aircraft. In fact, I was telling Paige earlier, I came this close to buying a second 182, but I walked away because I just, I walked away. It didn't feel right. And I thought, if I don't have peace about it, I'm not doing it. And so I said, you know, whatever. But the way I'm doing it is because it's relational and it has to be individual, in my opinion. Because even if we come to this show and you've got how many people here, it only takes one person to say, come with me, you know?
[00:10:15] John Ramstead: You know, this is a great action item for I think for maybe people listening is if you have an airplane or access to an airplane. What if you just once a month or even once a quarter, found somebody, somebody under 18, and take them for a flight?
[00:10:28] Cynthia Glenn: You know, it's funny you say that.
[00:10:30] John Ramstead: What do you think?
[00:10:30] Cynthia Glenn: Well, I've just started a business, and rather than a club or rather than a school, it's a cooperative. So I have my planes on the line, but I can also have your planes on the line and your planes on the line and your planes on the line. I see your big group out here.
And by doing that, you get lots of people to say, come ride with me. So it's not just my one plane. Now I've got your plane. You can invite me and the word.
[00:10:58] John Ramstead: Can get out and people can come sign up and say, here's a waiting list. So what's the. How do people get in touch with you? What's the.
[00:11:04] Cynthia Glenn: Oh, to contact me. Yeah.
[00:11:06] John Ramstead: For this.
[00:11:06] Cynthia Glenn: Apogeeairlcmail.com.
that's a P O G E E a I r
[email protected]. and also they can contact me. I write for an aviation magazine in Flight usa. Another way to reach out. And you can reach me through Cynthia. Cynthia.
At C W Glenn Glen Consulting dot com.
[00:11:34] John Ramstead: What is it?
[00:11:35] Cynthia Glenn: CW Glenconsulting dot com.
[00:11:37] John Ramstead: Oh, yeah. That's what I have for you. Okay.
[00:11:39] Cynthia Glenn: And I can. I can. If I can't provide an answer, I will point them to someone who can.
[00:11:45] John Ramstead: Well, Cynthia, thank you for what you're doing. We need a voice like yours out there and people can, you know, people get in touch with insia. And you can also look at inflight usa, see what you've written there. But love what you're doing and thank you and just keep knocking them live out there. I am rooting for you because it's needed.
[00:12:01] Cynthia Glenn: Thank you. Thanks for your time. I appreciate it.
[00:12:03] John Ramstead: Yes, absolutely.
[00:12:04] Cynthia Glenn: Okay. Bye. Bye.
[00:12:05] John Ramstead: Bye.
