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I had a bridge partner who was a retired pilot and he told me that almost anyone can learn to fly/land a plane, but good pilots are distinguished by their ability to do it well in bad circumstances, which only comes with lots of experience. (I hope I’m reporting his comment faithfully.) The women in the photo don’t look old enough to have gained the kind of experience my friend was talking about. If the Toronto flight is any indication, “unmanned” flights seem like a very risky gimmick.

My father was a pilot, USAF, then commercial air, then recalled to Vietnam, then back to airline. He told me that most of the female pilots he had flown with were excellent, though he did have one bad one. She ended up being killed in a crash about a month after he flew with her, which was very weird. I don’t believe she was flying the plane at the time.

But your friend was right; it’s all about the hours, and hours are expensive, which is why military make the best pilots because they get the most hours and the taxpayer pays for them.

I had a bridge partner who was a retired pilot and he told me that almost anyone can learn to fly/land a plane, but good pilots are distinguished by their ability to do it well in bad circumstances, which only comes with lots of experience. (I hope I’m reporting his comment faithfully.)

A mentor of mine was a railroad man who was considered a consummate pro when I knew him, but he used to tell a lot of stories about his learning the job the hard way back in his fireman and early engineer days. One of his stock comments was "Any fool can run a train, but getting it to where it needs to go without breaking things and maybe killing somebody in the process takes experience."

(There were actually a couple of dandy genuine railroad expletives sprinkled in there, but they are omitted for the sake of propriety.)

There is an incident in a book I recently read where a younger man learning the ropes made a mistake and was instantly worried about getting some sort of disciplinary action or at least a poor reputation. The older gent training him leaned over and said ominously "I hate to tell you this, but... (dramatic pause) ...the only way to get ten years of experience is by having ten years of experience."