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State Aviation Journal (SAJ) contributor and volunteer director of the Teaching Women to Fly.jpg)
Research Project, Dr. Penny Hamilton has been awarded a 2011 grant from the prestigious Wolf Aviation Fund. Hamilton explained that of the top 10 barriers identified in their original 2008-10 research, the number two barrier identified by participants to female success in General Aviation was ‘Instructor-student communication incompatibility–Venus vs. Mars.’ "Only the lack of money was listed as more important,” said Hamilton.
Recognizing the need to strengthen communication skills for General Aviation Flight Instructors, The Wolf Aviation Fund grant will be used to partially fund the research and production of the new Teaching Women to Fly: General Aviation Flight Instructor Communication Manual.
“This will be an easy-to-read textbook for flight instructors with self-study exercises and case studies to increase flight instructor communication skills,” said Hamilton. Topics will include an introduction to male-female brain research and common communications barriers. 
Hamilton has earned academic degrees from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA; Columbia College, Columbia, MO; University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE; and completed post-doctoral studies at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, KS. She is the author of the history book, Granby: Then and Now 1905-2005.
She co-holds with her husband, Bill, World and United States Aviation Speed Records, set October 22, 1991. Recently she was inducted into the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame. Hamilton is an active member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) as well as one of their first AOPA Airport Support Network Volunteers.
Hamilton is also a member of the Colorado Aviation Historical Society, Colorado Pilots Association, Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Friends of Granby Airport, Inc. (Founding member and 20+ year Board volunteer), Founding Board member of the Grand County Aviation Association, National Aeronautic Association, National Association of Flight Instructors, National 99s and Colorado 99s Chapter, Spirit of Flight Center & Museum, Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum, and Women in Aviation International-WAI.
The new Effective Communication text book foreword will be written by Captain Emily Howell Warner, America’s first female Airline Captain for a US scheduled airline and an experienced flight instructor with over 21,000 total flight hours and has performed more than 3,000 check rides and pilot evaluations.
If you have ideas of what information and topics which should be considered for the new text book, email drpenny.hamilton@gmail.com or call her 970-887-2101 to share your thoughts. Learn more at www.teachingwomentofly.com
