Inspirational Life Changes – Airline Pilot, Captain Emma Youngman
The more we encourage young women to think about aspirational careers – and careers that have previously been the domain of men – the better. Which is why I thought catching up with airline pilot Emma Youngman would be valuable to show girls what you can achieve if you want to (literally) ‘fly high’ on leaving school. Emma is at the top of her field, recently becoming a Captain at Virgin Airlines.
I’m not sure how many careers advisors at high schools put forward this option to women, and Emma says it certainly wasn’t a job she considered when she was in Year 12. ‘I really wish that I’d had more focus in school in those final years,’ she said. ‘Even when I started to learn to fly, it didn’t occur to me that I could do this commercially. I’m annoyed it wasn’t presented to me at school as a viable option.’
When you hear Emma’s family history, you might wonder why she didn’t. Emma’s grandfather flew in World War One and was a founding director of Ansett Airlines, and her father flew privately. Emma grew up in southwest rural Victoria, near Hamilton, where her father had a light aircraft on their property.
‘From nought to five, I spent a lot of time in Dad’s plane,’ said Emma, smiling as she remembered. ‘Sometimes I’d take the cat for a fly, or we’d take the dolls. It was a great form of entertainment back then.’
‘You were allowed to take the cat on the plane?’ I asked. ‘That was lovely of your Dad.’
‘It was,’ said Emma. ‘But it didn’t work out so well. The cat freaked out and poohed everywhere. So that went down like a lead balloon obviously.’
Sadly, Emma’s father died when she was just five years old, so the flying stopped. ‘It wasn’t until after I left school that I flew in a small aircraft again,’ she said. ‘It was the first time I’d been back in a plane and I couldn’t work out why I felt this strange attraction to it but it felt like it was home.’
For Emma, that light bulb moment was life changing. ‘I felt, oh my God, I have to do this,’ she said. ‘So I quit my job as a secretary at a sports marketing company and went back home to the farm to learn to fly at Hamilton.’
Emma (centre) and the crew at Virgin Airlines
