{"id":24501,"date":"2023-01-13T16:15:25","date_gmt":"2023-01-13T16:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=24501"},"modified":"2023-01-13T16:19:22","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T16:19:22","slug":"colorados-hetty-carlson-inspiring-our-future-aviation-workforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/colorado\/colorados-hetty-carlson-inspiring-our-future-aviation-workforce\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Colorado\u2019s Hetty Carlson Inspiring Our Future Aviation Workforce"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo above – Supporting Colorado\u2019s aviation community is an important component of Hetty Carlson and Colorado Division of Aeronautics outreach. Here Hetty provides a new aeronautical chart to a pilot at the EAA Chapter 1267 regional fly-at Emily Warner Field (KGNB). (Penny Hamilton Photo)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Penny Rafferty Hamilton, Ph.D. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Hetty Carlson<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hetty\nCarlson is the latest addition to the Colorado Division of Aeronautics team.\nShe serves as the Division\u2019s Education Grants and Outreach Program Specialist.\nHetty has nearly a dozen years of aviation education experience, including over\neight years serving as the Teacher Flight Program and Education Outreach\nManager for the Wings over the Rockies Air & Space Museum. Hetty earned a\nbachelor\u2019s degree in Aviation Management from Metropolitan State University of\nDenver\u2019s Department of Aviation and Aerospace Science. \u201cThe best part of my job\nis educating and inspiring Colorado\u2019s future aviation workforce,\u201d Hetty says of\nher role. \u201cThere is nothing more rewarding than supporting Colorado Aviation\nfrom a state level!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you first get\ninspired to work in the aviation industry?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My journey into aviation\nwas an interesting path.  When I was 11\nyears old, I saw the movie Top Gun and decided \u201cI want to do that!!\u201d I was told\nat the time that women do not fly combat aircraft. Unfortunately, in my very\nyoung, impressionable mind, I believed that flying was not something that women\ncould do. That all changed my freshman year of college when I was sitting in my\nEnglish Literature class at Metropolitan State College of Denver (now\nUniversity).  Directly across the hall\nwas the Aviation and Aerospace Department. I thought to myself, \u201cYou can do\nthat? You can get a degree in aviation?\u201d I read every pamphlet outside the\ndepartment doors; women in aviation, aviation careers, education, etc.\nBeginning the next semester, I enrolled in the Aviation Fundamentals class and\nchanged my major to Aviation Technology. As the years passed, I quickly\nrealized my flight training was not keeping up with my schooling, so I decided\nto put flying on the back burner and finish my B.S. in Aviation Management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Carlson signals thumbs up from the aft tandem cockpit of the classic 1942 yellow Stearman biplane used in the \u201cEmpowering Educators\u201d Wings over the Rockies Air and Space Museum Teacher Flight Program which Hetty managed before joining the Colorado Aeronautics Division staff recently. (Courtesy Photograph) <\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Once I graduated from\ncollege, I did not jump right into my career. I chose to stay home and raise my\nchildren for nearly a decade before I went back to work as a Classroom\nParaeducator. Aviation is an affliction and I never stopped dreaming of ways to\nwork my way back into the industry.  As a\nvolunteer tour guide at the Wings over the Rockies Museum, I relished in\nteaching school age children all about the four forces of flight and the unique\nhistory of the nearly four dozen aircraft scattered around the hangar floor.\nAfter a year as a docent, I was hired by the museum and started my unique\naviation journey that included working with a 1942 Stearman PT17 biplane that\nwe affectionately named, YP.  (Yellow\nPeril was a nickname given by cadets during WWII to these primary trainers that\ndescribes their ability\nto shame inattentive pilots and contribute to them \u201cwashing out\u201d of training.)\nShe was beautiful with her yellow US Navy paint scheme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus began my love affair\nwith warbirds and radial engines! I loved getting my hands dirty and helping\nwith annual inspections just as much as scrubbing the oily grime off the belly\nof a Stearman. I\u2019ve had the opportunity to not only fly in, but take the\ncontrols of a Stearman, a SNJ-5, and a B-17!! My ears still perk up and my\nheart leaps at the sound of a round engine flying overhead. I have had the\nopportunity to work with some amazing organizations including the National\nMuseum of WWII Aviation, the Commemorative Air Force, and the Experimental Aircraft\nAssociation (EAA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s\nyour first memory of aviation?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My parents divorced when I\nwas very young. My mother and I ended up halfway across the country from my\nfather. Every summer of my young life, I flew back east to see my father, as an\nunaccompanied minor. Those long flights became a very natural thing. I fell in\nlove with flying during those years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who has inspired you the\nmost (any mentors you want to mention?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Hetty Carlson was encouraged by Captain Emily Warner to pursue an aviation career when Hetty was a college student. Carlson earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in Aviation Management from Metropolitan State University of Denver\u2019s Department of Aviation and Aerospace Science. (Courtesy Photograph)<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

During my early years of\ncollege, I had the opportunity to see and speak with Emily Howell Warner, who\nwas giving a speech at the Aurora Public Library. What an incredibly gracious\nlady! I was so honored to meet her and hear her story. She shattered glass\nceilings without compromising her femininity. She was never a bull, never had\nthe chip on her shoulder, but persisted with dignity, grace, courage, and\ntalent. Coincidentally, I was able to converse with her 20+ years later with my\nown young daughter. When I shared with her that she inspired me to pursue\naviation but that I never finished my private certificate, she smiled with a\ntwinkle in her eye and said, \u201cYou will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advice for other women\ninside our industry or thinking about aviation and aerospace?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you set your sight on\nwhat you want, don\u2019t let anyone tell you it\u2019s not possible. Aviation is for\neveryone and there are no barriers, except our own self-doubt. There are so\nmany opportunities in the aviation industry if you just look. So many young\npeople believe that if you want a career in aerospace, you either must be a\npilot or an engineer and that simply isn\u2019t true. My personal mission is to show\nevery young person that no dream is too big or off-limits. It doesn\u2019t matter\nyour gender or socio-economic situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Background Information?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hetty Carlson also has\nprofessional experience managing the Boeing Blue Sky Gallery Exploration of\nFlight at the Centennial Airport location of the Wings over the Rockies Air and\nSpace Museum. Her aviation member-customer service experience with American\nFlight Schools gave her important contacts with aviation enthusiasts and their\nflight training network. Hetty continues to volunteer with her local\nExperimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Chapter 301 at their Young Eagle\nrallies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Ginni Rometty, former CEO of IBM Corporation, for the aviation and industry to move successfully into the future, “You have to value skills and not just degrees. You have to have new education models and new pathways to get people retrained and back into the workforce.” <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Hamilton is the author of the aviation careers book, Inspiring Words for Sky and Space Women, partially funded with a Women in Aviation International grant. <\/em>https:\/\/www.cogreatwomen.org\/project\/penny-hamilton-phd\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo above – Supporting Colorado\u2019s aviation community is an important component of Hetty Carlson and Colorado Division of Aeronautics outreach. Here Hetty provides a new aeronautical chart to a pilot at the EAA Chapter 1267 regional fly-at Emily Warner Field (KGNB). (Penny Hamilton Photo) By Penny Rafferty Hamilton, Ph.D. Hetty Carlson is the latest addition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[144,98,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aerospace-education","category-aviation-education","category-colorado"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/P1100287-edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24501"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24509,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24501\/revisions\/24509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}