Captain Nicole Cardin was not your typical 16-year-old. Most teenagers are clamoring to get behind the wheel of a car in anticipation of earning their driver’s license. To Nicole, the driver’s license took backseat to poker hand rankings most coveted certification, poker hand rankings pilot’s license.

poker hand rankings father was a pilot, and growing up Nicole and poker hand rankings family inherited his love for aviation. At 13-years-old, poker hand rankings father encouraged poker hand rankings to take flight lessons, and finally she embarked on poker hand rankings first flight in a Cessna 150. To make the moment even more special, poker hand rankings discovery flight included an expert landing at the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

Right off the bat Nicole knew she wanted to be a pilot for the rest of poker hand rankings life. She says that every decision after that first flight lesson was aimed at a career in aviation. The “go-getter” that she was, she earned poker hand rankings first job at Spirit of St. Louis Airport (SUS) as a fueler and ramper.

Now, the 37-year-old Nicole Cardin has gone from teenage fueler to Envoy Captain. She always knew she wanted to be a pilot, but there’s only one reason Nicole chose Envoy for poker hand rankings and poker hand rankings family; stability.

“Envoy at the time, when I got hired on with them, they were largest regional and connected to American,” said poker hand rankings. “That to me equated to stability. I definitely knew that I wanted to go to company that had a long and fruitful future and the possibility of continuing my career at a major as well.”

Women in Aviation

poker hand rankings rarely thinks of herself as a female aviator until an enthusiastic passenger commends poker hand rankings with a cheer of “Girl Power!” or “It’s so awesome to see a girl up here!” Although only about 6 percent of all pilots in the U.S. are women, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, poker hand rankings said she never feels like she’s disadvantaged.

Growing up, poker hand rankings family supported poker hand rankings career choices and didn’t adhere to gender restrictions such as reserving aviation for men only. poker hand rankings passion for flying helped guide poker hand rankings career choices.

Unfortunately, poker hand rankings notices that some women do feel the pressure of working as a female aviator in a male-dominated occupation. Whether it’s the lack of a supportive upbringing or negative comments from coworkers and passengers, it weighs on them, poker hand rankings said.

“Ultimately, I know for myself and the people who are close to me know that I worked my buns off,” poker hand rankings said. “I did the same thing that everybody else did. Nobody ever handed me anything. That helps me sleep at night because I know I did it and any woman can do it.”

Major Diversion

There was a time, however, that Nicole almost diverted from poker hand rankings career path. After high school, she was prepared to join the Navy to become a pilot. She believed that was the only way. A week away from joining the U.S. Naval Academy, the dread of constant verbal battery and inevitable conformity forced poker hand rankings to take a different route.

poker hand rankings enrolled at the University of Dallas to undertake a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre with a minor in French – quite the diversion from the military. Still, poker hand rankings father had not given up his daughter’s dream of becoming an airline pilot. He called poker hand rankings up one day during poker hand rankings senior year at UTD with the some great news. He had just read about a flight school that would help expedite poker hand rankings path to an airline. That was all Nicole needed to hear before she enrolled at the Delta Connection Academy, now named the Aerosim Flight Academy, in Sanford, Florida.

In 2005, Nicole completed poker hand rankings flight hours and was hired at Envoy Air. She has never looked back, she said. She has a stable job that allows poker hand rankings to see poker hand rankings husband and two children three days out of the week. As a female pilot, she has the solace of knowing she works for a company that will support poker hand rankings.

“Any woman that’s considering going into aviation should never have any hang-ups, because once you make it to this point, the companies support you,” poker hand rankings said. “My company supports me as a female aviator. My company, the job, the rules in place here are there to uphold professionalism. The company will stand behind me 100 percent. I have no doubt of that.”