The circle of pilots in the ROC Air Force has an especially masculine character, but a breakthrough took place when the first group of qualified female pilots soared into the sky after graduating from the Chinese Air Force Academy (CAFA) in 1993. Yin Su-hui, twenty-nine, is one of the pilots who blurred the line between the sexes in the military, where males still account for the majority. Having served as a pilot for about six years at the Sungshan Air Force Base in Taipei, Yin, now a captain, has kept her family's tradition--three of Yin's male family members have served in the air force, including her husband, who is Yin's senior at CAFA and now a fighter plane pilot.
I took the recruitment test to become an ROC Air Force pilot not long after I graduated from a pharmaceutical college in the summer of 1991. I did so at the urging of my father, who used to be a fighter pilot. My grandfather had also served in the air force as an aircraft mechanic. My mother, however, didn't agree with my father. She didn't want to make me follow him and live the hard life he had led. As for me, I had no opinion about taking the test, since I didn't think I would pass it. But in the end, as you know, I passed.
Before the written test, I had to receive a physical examination. A pilot must have good eyesight, and a female had to be over 158 centimeters [five feet, two inches] tall. [This requirement was subsequently changed.] A total of seventeen women registered as recruits at CAFA in Kangshan, Kaohsiung County, to receive training for one year and nine months. At first, I didn't quite understand the situation I was in. When they cut our hair as short as a boy's, we girls started to cry. I even tried to argue with the barber and the officer beside me.
The training programs included running, weightlifting and swimming. At the academy, male and female students had to run three thousand meters [1.86 miles] together every day. But in the middle of these runs, the guys would often wonder where the girls had gone. You know, we were physically weaker than the men, so we lagged far behind the group. As a result, two or three senior male students would often have to run after us to push us onward.
In the beginning, I really felt exhausted and unable to adjust to the new environment. You know, I was kind of a spoiled child in my family. Several times my female classmates and I would cry in the dormitory bathroom late at night. I also called my mom and cried on the phone. She in turn got angry with my father, who said that I should handle my own affairs.
You know, I originally thought we women were special in the academy because there were between three- and four -hundred male seniors there. Yes, high-level superiors took special care of us, perhaps because we were the first female students at CAFA. But we weren't treated as girls at all by senior male students, and were ordered to do the same things other male students did.
How did I feel when I was first learning to fly? So many people have asked me this question. You know, on the first flight an instructor usually demonstrates their flying skills on purpose to let you really know what it is like to fly. But some of the recruits had never taken a plane before entering the academy, and threw up after the flight. As for me, I felt okay since I had taken military planes with my father. I threw up after a flight only once, and even then it was just because I had caught a cold.
The training program could be divided into three stages, and not all the women survived it. Many men failed as well. I remember that after the basic level, only seven girls went on to the second one, after which two more were out. Those eliminated from the training either went to other military schools or abandoned their careers in the armed forces for good.
I think the first time I felt really afraid was when I was taking a test after the first stage of training. A lot of reporters came to cover a story on flights by Taiwan's first female pilots. I knew I had to fly on my own for the first time in front of them and many military superiors, including CAFA's dean. I felt nervous because I was afraid of making a terrible flight and losing face before such a large audience. And when you take the test, there is another plane behind you with an instructor and a student aboard. So as I was in flight, I heard the instructor's voice scolding me incessantly and calling me names through the radio. I was really at a loss at the time.
As a result, I didn't pass the test. Another woman didn't either. After I got off the plane, we immediately buried our heads in each other's arms and cried bitterly. At the sight of two girls crying, my instructor tried to comfort us. But I knew he actually wanted to beat us up [laugh].
I made it when I took the test the second time. After graduation in 1993, I was assigned to serve at the Sungshan Air Force Base. Today, all four of the other women recruited during the same session are here. We're all flying VIP planes that carry government officials and military officers around the island. We were given the chance to try different kinds of aircraft before we graduated from CAFA. The military wanted to see how we girls handled the different kinds of aircraft, and we were picked for the experiment since we were pioneer pilots.
So female pilots from subsequent graduating classes started to fly other aircraft, such as helicopters, fighter-jets, and C -130s that carry soldiers or paratroopers. At present, there are two female fighter pilots. I've seen them once. They're bigger than I, about 167 centimeters [five feet, six inches] tall. I don't think I qualify for their job, which requires excellent physical conditioning and a swift mind. It's possible to faint in the middle of a fighter mission if you're not in good health. For these reasons, I think, generally speaking, men are more fit than women to be fighter pilots. Today more than ever, people are accustomed to seeing female military officers and sergeants. They don't make a fuss about our existence in the military anymore. But we women were not welcome when we first appeared in the military, which, you know, was a world only for men. They thought we should be at home, taking care of the husband and kids, rather than competing with them for jobs.
Today, I still feel people hesitate about taking a plane flown by a woman. Generally speaking, passengers from the air force are okay with me because they give me more support. As to those from other branches of the armed forces and from the government, they tend to express their concern about my job. I've heard them talking with each other before the flight and saying things like, "The pilot's a girl. Have you bought insurance?" or "How about changing planes?" But I've gotten used to such comments.
Now I've been steering military planes for almost six years and I earn about eighty thousand NT dollars [approximately US$2,500] a month. I've never left this base since I graduated from CAFA. Here, life is simple and kind of secluded from the world outside. After I get off work, I usually go straight home, just next to the base. Only when I call my former college classmates do I find out more about what's happening in society. As to my husband, he's now in Hualien [eastern Taiwan]. Unlike me, he has been transferred to different bases around the island. Our separations are longer than our times together. In the beginning of our marriage, we weren't comfortable with this situation, but today it's okay. Sometimes I can take advan tage of chances to do duty off-base to see him.
And there are tests in store for me. I have to pass them one by one in order to move onward in my military career. There are so many books on aviation and there are so many things I have to comprehend and memorize. Now I'm a co-pilot, but I recently passed a test that will enable me to do the job of a pilot. I think it will take me over ten years to become a senior pilot.