BRUNSWICK, Maine — March is Women's history month. In Brunswick, there's a flight school where a group of seven women is making history.
They all have their eyes to the sky and are going through training to someday soon, get up there and fly.
"I'm becoming a pilot, finally," said Patty Pike. "A little different than driving my car"
For one group of women, the place they like to hang out is at the hangar.
"My grandfather and dad both have private pilots licenses," said Shelby Faux. "So I've grown up around planes."
"I think if you go up in a plane over Maine with a really good pilot you can't help but fall in love with it," said Lisa Anderson.
If they aren't at the hangar, they're in flight, or at their day job. Lisa Anderson is an OB-GYN. She says her medical background lends well to her new training.
"The fact that you can have extreme emergencies and that you need to follow protocols, I think I should be a really good pilot once I get everything down," she said.
Anderson is one of seven women who are student pilots at the American Classic Flying Club in Brunswick. They make up the majority of the ground school class, with nine students in total.
An interesting ratio when you compare it to the national average: the Federal Aviation Administration says only 7% of all U.S. pilots are women.
"It's always been a passion of mine," said Michelle Baker, another student. "I've always been curious about it. Some would say I'm a daredevil. I love to live on the edge and do all the fun things."
While it's not necessarily a career change for these women, flying has become a hobby their passionate about.
That's the case for Kate Dempski. Her son is currently in pilot training with the military.
"My husband and I, we knew nothing about planes or what to do we just know we raised a pilot," said Dempski.
But then, a relative passed away, leaving the family a plane in his will. When her husband wanted to take lessons she thought:
"Well, if I want to sit in that seat next to you, I want to fly!"
And now she's here, at the hangar.
"Now that I'm meeting another group of women that are doing it with me, I have other friends now that I can share this with," Dempski said. "This has been a great adventure so far."
"When you can take somebody up to fly, even if it's just an introductory flight," said David Keen, American Classic Flying Club President, "and they come back and it's more than they expected it to be and they have a smile they can't get off their face, those are the things that we live for."