The award-winning and highly successful The Sky’s No Limit – Girls Fly Too! event is moving from Langley to the Abbotsford Airport this year.
Langley plane and helicopter pilot Kirsten Brazier created this outreach two-day event in 2012 to encourage more females to think of a career in aviation and aerospace. She has brought the event to the Yukon and Langley.
On March 7 and 8, more than 10,000 females of all ages are expected to gather at the Abbotsford Airport to take in free flights, hands on aerospace activities, and civilian and non-civilian pilots will be on hand with aircraft to explore.
The entire event is free.
“We’re not taking the event away from Langley, rather we needed a larger venue to support the size of the event, as well as long runways for the really cool aircraft we have planned for the static display this year,” said Brazier.
“Another benefit is that it exposes repeat participants to other airports — kind of like what a pilot experiences.”
Brazier said the Langley event was ‘awesome’ and supported by many in the community.
“Many of the volunteers will be helping us again in Abbotsford, including MP Mark Warawa and his wife,” she said.
Despite poor weather the first day, hundreds of females took to the skies in Langley for the first time in their lives.
Out of 24,505 professional pilots in Canada, only 1,356 of them are women.
Out of 19,601 aircraft engineers, only 560 of them are women. Less than 3 per cent of the technical positions in the Royal Canadian Air Force, such as pilot or maintenance technician, are held by women.
There are some huge developments coming to the Abbotsford Airport in the aerospace industry, with the B.C. government investing $5 million into the industry over five years.