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Bluebag Media
GHS grad first woman
to fly the Apache
SAN DIEGO, CA – Retired U.S. Army CW2 Pamela Carpenter Summers, GHS
Class of 73, made history when she became the first woman to fly
Boeing’s AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter. But she wasn’t in the army
when she did it.
“I want to correct that,” she said from her home in Southern
California. “Everyone thinks I was in the army at the time. I wasn’t. I
was a civilian commercial helicopter pilot working for Boeing
Helicopters.” After she got out of the Army in 1981, she got her
commercial helicopter license. She was later hired as an aircrew
instructor for the Apache systems in Hughes Helicopter’s flight
training program. She taught 11 different systems on the Apache in the
classroom, such as hydraulics, fuel system, power plant (engines and
APU), flight controls and more.
“I was hired by Hughes to learn the system (Apache),” she said. Hughes
was then bought out by McDonnell Douglas, which was in turn bought out
by Boeing Helicopters. “I only flew it (the Apache) one time,” she
said. “It gave me a chance to get the feel of the helicopter, the
power. It gave me credibility.”
This was on March 27, 1984. “It was quite fortuitous for me to be a
civilian out of the Army,” she added, “because female pilots on active
duty during that time were not yet allowed to fly combat aircraft like
the Apache, so I was lucky to be a civilian to get that honor of being
first.”
Summers served in the Army for eight years, straight out of high school
from 1973 to 1981. During her time of service, she was one of only 13
females to go to flight school...
Read the rest of the article at Bluebag Media
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