{"id":4033,"date":"2017-01-03T10:30:20","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T16:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/?p=4033"},"modified":"2017-01-03T10:30:20","modified_gmt":"2017-01-03T16:30:20","slug":"women-wings-arpinder-kaur-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/2017\/01\/03\/women-wings-arpinder-kaur-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Women With Wings: Arpinder Kaur"},"content":{"rendered":"
Anyone’s first flight\u00a0has the potential to be a profound one. For the 14-year-old Arpinder Kaur, her flight from India to the United States evoked her\u00a0desire to be a pilot.<\/p>\n
As a child, she says she was a \u201ctomboy\u201d. She climbed trees, played cricket and played outside with the boys. Her parents allowed her to be this rambunctious, because they saw how happy she was.<\/p>\n
Yet, nothing made her as happy as her very first flight. During the trip, the flight attendant asked young Arpinder if she would like to go inside the cockpit.<\/p>\n
This being her very first time to see a plane, let alone fly on one, Arpinder the \u201ctomboy\u201d said yes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went in and sat in the jump seat,\u201d says Arpinder. \u201cI was just mesmerized. The uniforms, the view, just everything in the cockpit told me, okay, this is what I want to do when I grow up.\u201d<\/p>\n
That flight represented the start of a new life for her family. Growing up in India, Arpinder says she felt the opportunity to be whatever she wanted to be waited for her in the U.S.<\/p>\n
However, the dream to become a pilot was set into a holding pattern. Arpinder\u2019s parents urged her to pursue a degree plan in Information Technology at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.<\/p>\n
Arpinder cruised through her studies and graduated in 2002. The very next day, her boyfriend, Pritpal Singh, proposed marriage. The only caveat; she had to move with him to his home state of Kansas.<\/p>\n
Pritpal asked Arpinder whether she would enter a master\u2019s program or find a job in IT. That\u2019s when she opened up and told her husband that she wanted to pursue her dream of aviation instead.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Her husband and his family have always valued education over everything, and supported Arpinder when she decided to go to aviation school. She immediately began with her discovery flight in Manassas, Virginia and then\u00a0completed the rest of her pilot licenses at Air Associates of Kansas in Olathe, Kansas.<\/p>\n After three years in Kansas, Arpinder and her family moved to San Antonio, Texas to explore new career opportunities. Arpinder climbed the next rung in her aviation career becoming a flight instructor at Wright Flyers Aviation.<\/p>\n She was well on her way to fulfilling her dream of becoming a commercial pilot when her close friend, Kulbir Singh Sandhu, who worked with American Airlines recommended that Arpinder interview with their regional partner American Eagle (now Envoy).<\/p>\n In 2008, Arpinder became an Envoy First Officer on the Embraer 145 (E145). Little did she know, she would be embarking on a barrier-breaking journey.<\/p>\n Women make up just over six percent of commercial pilots in the U.S., according to the Federal Aviation Administration\u2019s 2015 Active Civil Airmen Statistics. So, as rare as a female pilot is, Arpinder is like feathers on an elephant.<\/p>\n She\u2019s the first female Sikh pilot in the U.S. and the first Sikh pilot of any gender to wear a turban on the flight deck. For this opportunity, Arpinder commends American Eagle\/Envoy\u00a0for evaluating her request and recognizing her religious right to wear her turban, or dastaar as they are called by Sikhs.<\/p>\nWomen in Aviation<\/h3>\n