 
Story by Tom Hawthorn
Originally published in the Globe and Mail, Wednesday, January 5, 2005.
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History Main Page
"Denied a job
as a pilot,
she still managed
fly bush planes
and landed a job
as an airline
radio operator."
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Denied a job as a pilot, she still managed to fly bush planes and landed a job as an airline radio operator. She also formed the Flying Seven, an elite group of Canadian aviatrixes.
Margaret Fane Rutledge founded the famed Flying Seven, a legendary group of pioneer aviatrixes from Vancouver who proved a woman's place was in the cockpit.
Inspired by the wonders of flight after seeing an airplane aloft early in childhood, she became the first woman west of Toronto to earn a commercial pilot's licence.
 She was unable to earn a livelihood in the air, however, as even the smallest airlines refused to hire a woman pilot. She, instead, learned to operate a ham radio and is regarded as the first woman to do so for an airline in Canada, if not the world. Once in the airline's employ, she managed to pilot several commercial flights without mishap.
Margaret Rutledge as a stocky, square-jawed woman whose considerable aviation skills elevated her above every roadblock placed in her path.
Born in Edmonton on April 13, 1914, a time when newspapers cheered the "dizzy doings" of daredevils performing loops in rickety biplanes, she enjoyed a birthright as the daughter of parents thrilled by the dawning of the age of flight. Both her mother and father had flown as passengers in the first airplane to arrive in the Alberta capital. Her father, who owned an automobile repair shop, later built a glider with his own hands.
Miss Fane first flew aboard an aircraft in 1928. Three years later, a tour billed as the Trans-Canada Air Pageant landed in Edmonton. The thrilling display convinced 17-year-old Margaret that her future was in the air. She crimped for two years before enrolling at the Edmonton and Northern Alberta Aero Club, which had been launched with First World War ace Wop May as resident and chief instructor. Miss Fane became a prize pupil of Moss Burbridge, of whom it is said not one of his 700 students ever suffered an injury.
She trained on such biplanes as a Cirrus Moth, Gypsy Moth, American Eagle and Alexander Eaglerock, the latter a favourite of prairie barnstormers. On Oct. 2, 1933, she was issued private pilot's licence No. 1317.
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By doing the club's books and handling chores such as stretching fabric over the wooden ribs of an aircraft, Miss Fane earned free flying time, according to aviation historian Shirley Render. The deal was a necessity for the ambitious pilot, whose earnings of $22 per week were not enough to cover lessons that cost $12 an hour. On Aug. 29, 1935, she was issued commercial licence A1236, becoming the first woman in Western Canada to be so qualified.
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