LAKEPORT — Flying was too big a dream for Anny Chen when she was a little girl growing up in China, she said in a translated interview with the Record-Bee Sunday at Lampson Field in Lakeport. Chen is China”s first woman private pilot.
At the request of Herb Lingl, a Petaluma-based aerial photographer and journalist who met her while visiting China, she came to Lampson Sunday for an aerial tour of Lake County.
“Aviation is in its infancy in China, because the air space is mostly controlled by the military, except for some commercial routes,” Lingl said, giving perspective to Chen”s accomplishment.
Chen said it was her first ride in an open cockpit. She sat in the pilot”s seat and gave attending journalists and photographers the thumbs up, ready for her 11:30 a.m. takeoff.
Chen was also visiting her 18-year-old son, Chenchen Yu, who is working toward an international finance degree in the states. In his own broken English, Yu translated his mother”s words and enthusiasm during the Sunday interview.
“It”s hard to travel by yourself from place to place, because you need to send a report to the air control office, so you just fly in a limited area,” Yu said, relating the difficulty Chen faces as a private pilot in China.
Additionally, a shortage of commercial pilots in China creates a greater demand for commercial training, as against private training.
“It”s really much more a male-dominated profession even than in the United States,” Lingl said.
Further highlighting her accomplishment, Solo Flight School co-owner Nancy Brier said, “Far less than 1 percent of the world”s population gets a private pilot”s license.”
Chen said when she married a former air force mechanic, she saw an opportunity to use his connections to help her get into the military flight school, where it took her a year and a half to earn her license. She passed a battery of tests, including a physical, a test flight and a written exam ? the latter of which Chen said was the hardest for her.
Chen said she got her license too late in 2004 to participate in China”s largest air show, held bi-annually in Zhuhai, southwest of Hong Kong. Nonetheless, she achieved rock star status in her home country for the accomplishment. She issued a press release when she got her license from a military flight school, and appeared in the 2006 Zhuhai air show.
Translating for Chen, Yu said the benefit of her fame in China is “to encourage other people to join her.”
Chen also holds a master”s degree in business, and owns a chain of three Blue Angel Caf? restaurants.
Lingl piloted the Lampson-based Solo Flight School”s 1941 Stearman biplane, allowing Chen to take over and get a feel for the antique craft. Brier said there are less than 1,000 of its type left in the world.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
