Article June 4, 1979 Issue

An interview: with a woman pilot

by PERSIS E. ZUBER

Marion Barnick has been a Christian Scientist since age five, when she was healed of severe deafness. Her extensive flying career began in college and includes training general aviation pilots, later owning and operating an airfield offering charter flights, instruction, and rentals, as well as repairing and rebuilding all makes of general aviation planes. She is presently a partner in Gee Bee Aero in San Jose, California.

Looking back over your years in aviation, would you say you met with much resistance because you are a woman?

I'm sure I did. When I taught combat pilots there were several instances of men reluctant to be taught by a woman, but that seemed to be the way the world was. My concern for their instruction and my love of flying usually won them over. Actually, men have been less of a problem than other women who seemed to resent our entry into the so-called man's world. And, until very recently, there were some airlines who snapped up men trained by women but who refused to hire the women who trained them.

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