In America, less than 6% of pilots and flight engineers
are women, and only 10% of those women
are black, Asian, Hispanic, or Latino.
Our next guest is a 24-year-old pilot
who is breaking those barriers down
and is determined to teach young women to do the same.
I love this story, and I love her.
From Houston, Texas, please welcome, Tahchiona Smith.
Hi, Ellen.
Tahchiona, hi.
Hi.
I love-- I love this message.
So when did you say to yourself--
I know your story, but I'm going to let you tell everybody else.
But tell everyone when you knew you wanted
to fly a plane for a living.
So I first grew a passion at the age of six.
My grandmother used to take us to the airport,
and we used to watch the airplanes take off and land.
And so we would go out and tailgate,
get some popcorn and a couple of snacks
and just watch the airplanes take off the land.
And then the passion grew even further.
And I started my aviation career at the age of 16
when I got to my high school.
So you started training at 16?
Yes, ma'am.
And you're determined to change the representation
in the airline industry.
Tell us about this.
Yes, ma'am.
I'm determined by-- first, I think
that becoming a flight instructor
is going to be a huge part of that.
Because with me, being able to teach,
I'm able to expose a lot of other individuals, kids, adults
and be able to just have that representation from them to be
able to see, like, hey, I can become a pilot.
And so there are a few women, like I mentioned,
or people of color in the airline industry.
And again, explain why that is.
I think one of the main reasons why those numbers are so small
is because of money.
Money is a huge barrier for a lot of us.
And you know, Ellen, there was times where I didn't even
have enough money to fly.
It wasn't until I got into a car accident,
where I was able to get a lot of money to start flying.
And then from there, I just got scholarships.
And then the scholarships were my way of pay for flights,
started [INAUDIBLE] and license.
And then another part of that is representation.
I think representation is a real big thing
as far as the shortage.
Because if you're not able to see
a lot of people that look like you or you don't have
that mentorship at an early age, then it's harder for you
to be exposed to these type of careers.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that goes in every profession in life.
I think people need to see themselves and go, oh--
that's because very few people don't see themselves
on TV or in a profession and go, but I still can do it.
Like it's really rare for someone
to just take that chance.
You're a licensed pilot.
But in order to work for a major company,
you have to have a certain number of hours, right?
Yes, ma'am.
So I have to have at least 1,500 hours.
I'm at 350 hours right now.
So I have about 1,000 more hours left to go.
And where do you fly to accumulate those hours?
I go to different city and state.
It really depends on our time block.
Most of the time I get with the instructor
now is part of the reason why I became a flight
instructor, to be able to instruct to build those hours.
But another portion is that I build time just going
on cross-country flights.
And so me and a couple of pilots, we get together,
and we'll fly like different cities.
And main contributing factor to that
will be weather for that day and mainly where we like to eat--
those type of things.
Yeah, you can just fly to San Francisco
to get something to eat if you want.
That's the bonus there.
So the first time--
so you learned to fly with someone, obviously,
training with you and teaching you.
What's the first time, by yourself, in a plane like?
Is it scary?
I will call it more excitement and nervousness than scary.
I couldn't really believe that I was actually flying an airplane
at the age of 17 by myself.
You know, it's one thing for you instructor to be like,
you know, OK, you're going to fly by yourself one
day until like you're actually doing it.
And you're actually sitting there in an airplane all
by yourself.
That was like really exciting for me.
Yeah, that's amazing.
All right, we're going to take a break.
Tahchiona, we're going to talk to you more after this, OK?
OK.
All right, thank you.
So I heard that you flew over my hometown of Louisiana.
Well, it was my home state.
Yes, I flew actually to New Orleans last week.
Oh, yeah?
How's it looking--
Yes, ma'am.
How's it looking there?
The weather was actually pretty nice when I flew there.
There was clear skies.
Partly cloudy, a little bit.
But for the most part, it was really nice weather.
Did you stop and get something to eat in New Orleans?
Because that's a good place to eat.
Yes, we stopped and got crawfish.
Oh, good.
Good.
All right, I got you something.
It's like a tailgate kit for the next time
you and your grandma spend a day at the airport.
And it has-- thank you so much, Andy.
You're welcome.
All right, so it has hoodie's in it.
It has all kinds of little stuff for you.
And we have-- oh, look, some popcorn for you, some hats.
Anyway, we also have some tickets for you
and your grandma when you're able to come and sit
in my skybox when we have audiences again.
So you and grandma can come sit here.
And then, one more thing, Shutterfly
loves helping people telling their inspiring stories
like yours.
They want to give you $10,000.
Thank you so much.
You are so welcome.