Erna Scriven

Erna Scriven was in her forties when she slipped the surly bonds of society and fulfilled her dream of learning to fly.

"It was just one of those little wishes that you have that you don't tell anybody about," said Mrs. Scrivens, the holder of private and commercial pilot's licences.

"As a young person growing up, the reaction you got was negative because girls don't fly, boys fly."

"I was well into my forties and my husband said 'If you're going to do this you'd better get going'."

After her first lesson, the instructor told her to think about it carefully before signing up for more.

"I suppose that a 40-year-old woman is not the stereotypical person that learns to fly.  That person is an 18-year-old boy."

"That doesn't bother me.  I was doing it for myself.  What someone else thought didn't matter," said the Halifax woman.

Five months later, she earned her private pilot's licence, which allowed her to carry passengers.  Her longest solo flight was from Halifax to Montreal. 

Today, she owns a Piper Cherokee and chairs the Atlantic Chapter of the Ninety-Nines Inc, an international organization of female pilots. 

Mrs Scriven is proud to be a member of the Ninety-Nines and honoured to follow in the footsteps of one of the grou's famous co-founders, Amelia Earhart.

The pioneering American pilot, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, disappeared when her plane went down somewhere over the Pacific during an attempt to fly around the world in 1937.

The organization, now holding its four-day annual convention at the Halifax Sheraton, was founded in 1929 in New York.  Its purpose was to educate and encourage women to break into the formerly exclusive boys' clubs of science and aviation, said Mrs. Scriven.

For lack of something better, the women called themselves the Ninety-Nines because there were 99 members.

The group continues to provide a support network for 7,000 members in 35 countries.

The group supports science fairs, offers scholarships and holds seminars and workshops.

"It's basically to spread the word I guess that flying is one of life's great things," Mrs. Scriven said.

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Additional information not included in the above article: 

Erna was one of the Atlantic Chapter's founding members (1989). 

In 1996, Erna won the Governor's Service Award for her contributions within the Ninety-Nines's East Canada Section. 

Erna has recently returned to the Atlantic Chapter's Chairman position. 

Erna and the Atlantic Chapter are frequent winners of the Annual Proficieny Training Award (E. Canada Section).

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