Photo courtesy of Selma Keochakian ‘27.
By Sydney Wiser ʼ27
Staff Writer
“Northampton traffic, Warrior 17 November Alpha departing runway 14 Northampton,” Selma Keochakian ʼ27 said, giving her departure call as she took off from the Northampton Airport for a short flight above the Pioneer Valley.
Keochakian, who attends Mount Holyoke College, is a student pilot working towards getting her second pilot’s license in instrument reading. She’s been flying since she was 15 at the Northampton Airport.
Located in Northampton, Massachusetts, the Northampton Airport describes itself as “a privately owned, public use airport.” According to the organization’s website, it offers various services, including aircraft maintenance and airplane rentals. It has also become a flight school destination for many student pilots, particularly for women pilots like Keochakian.
In the United States, female pilots make up less than 10% of total pilots with any level of license, according to 2020 data compiled by Women in Aviation International. At Northampton Airport, the ratio of female to male student pilots is approximately 40 to 60, according to manager and chief flight instructor Rich MacIsaac.
While the ratio of male to female pilots is not equal, the percentage of female pilots at Northampton Airport is more than four times the national percentage. MacIsaac believes the culture might be a reason why it attracts female students.
“[Northampton Airport] is such a welcoming place,” MacIsaac said. “It doesn't really cater to one type of person or anything like that. So whether it's an 80-year-old person that comes in or a 20-year-old female that's going to college here, or even a high school student, they all get treated the same. … We have worked really hard to make [it] that way.”
Sage Mylek, who is currently the only female flight instructor at the airport, echoed MacIsaac’s sentiments. She explained that flight instructing is a more individualistic process at many of the airports she has flown out of, which is not something she sees at the Northampton Airport. “We have such a good work culture at Northampton … we really stand by the ‘home of friendly flying’ slogan.”
Keochakian noted that another reason for the high percentage of female students is the airport’s Mary Shea Wright Flight Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship is open to female high schoolers in the local area who are around 16 years old and covers the expenses of getting a private pilot’s license, the first license most flight students receive.
These expenses include flight training, plane rentals, instructor time, ground training, online courses, books and tests. Without the scholarship, a flight student would pay around $15,000 to $18,000 to get their private pilot’s license, according to MacIsaac. The scholarship is in its sixth year, and this year, the airport gave out one full and three partial scholarships.
“A scholarship that covers the entire private pilot's license is very rare, very unheard of. And to make that specific to women [and] to bring women into the field is huge,” said Keochakian, who was the third recipient of the scholarship in 2022.
The scholarship was named after Mary Shea, who was a pilot and flight instructor at the Northampton Airport.
“One of the biggest things for her was to see other female pilots, whether it [was] somebody who had their license already and was flying or whether it was somebody that came in to get it, and so when she passed away, we were trying to think of … some way to honor her,” MacIsaac said. “I thought the idea of the scholarship and giving it to a female would really be something that would make Mary really happy.”
Before they became pilots, many of the women at Northampton Airport saw little representation in the field of aviation. Keochakian was interested in aviation from a young age; however, as a child, she thought she wanted to be a flight attendant since on the flights she took with her family, the women were often flight attendants, and the men were pilots. “Being a pilot never really occurred [to me] as an option,” Keochakain explained.
Twenty-four-year-old flight student Jade Cloud, who recently got her private pilot’s license, was intimidated to enter the male-dominated world of aviation. However, at the Northampton Airport, Cloud found that “everyone was so welcoming, and I think it was helpful to see so many female students here as well. I think that made me feel like I belonged a bit more.”
The women of Northampton Airport have built a community with each other. At the airport, Keochakian works as a flight dispatcher, where she schedules flights and meets other pilots coming into the airport. She says that whenever prospective female students come in, “I always make sure to emphasize the fact that this airport is so inclusive and so supportive, just in general, but also specifically for women in aviation.”
For Mylek, the few women pilots she worked with at other airports during her flight training left lasting impressions on her. Now, as a flight instructor, Mylek imparts her knowledge to her female students and helps them achieve their own dreams.
“I have a few [female students] that want to go to [work for] PlaneSense or Cape Air or even have airline dreams. Seeing that is so nice, and it honestly is such a confidence boost [to be] able to talk about my experience and share that with them, to give them tips and tricks [of] what to avoid and share the wisdom that my female role models shared with me.”
The future of women in aviation remains to be seen, but airports like Northampton Airport are continuing to work to change the gender composition of the field.