Cloud Dancer

When little Brooke Castillo was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she had a safe but honest answer: "I want to be a bank manager like my Papa."

Between toothy grins, she now admits that its stark contrast to what really happened would haunt her for the rest of her unusual life. Last July 9, Brooke Castillo became the first female Filipino pilot to fly a jet plane.

Prior to the Cebu Pacific early afternoon flight to Cebu, airport reporters swarmed around her like bees. Though she answered questions calmly and did not flinch at the glaring camera lights, Brooke was in fact shaken by the attention. Of course, the interest comes from being female in a field once dominated by macho males.

Fortunately, she passes through a door already forced open by pioneers like Aimee Carandang, the first Filipina commercial pilot. The public is more celebratory than critical of Brooke’s accomplishments. Even the macho-est of males discreetly show their admiration for the attractive woman whose appeal is, according to their reactions, enhanced by her captain’s uniform. Passengers applaud upon touch-down in Cebu. They were, in fact, pleased that their flight was manned by an all-female crew. (Also onboard was First Officer Mayra Florencio.) And a good number posed for pictures with their captain, obviously proud they had been part of history.

While everyone thought Captain Castillo was cool and collected, she was actually quite the opposite. "I had performance anxiety because I knew everyone was observing me. Having been a pilot for many years, it’s no longer that important for me to have smooth landings. Safety is more important. Most people think that the positive or baaaag landing"–she mimics the sound the plane makes–"is a bad landing. Actually, that’s a safer landing because you take less of the runway and establish contact with the ground right away. That means there are less chances of skidding. Some people say that female pilots make smoother landings than male pilots. I honestly don’t think there is a difference. It’s probably just a perception."

Bong Mojica, CEO of Cebu Pacific, agrees there is equality of the sexes in the vast blue skies. The eight-year-old airline would have hired female pilots at the onset if they were in abundance back then. Brooke only joined the company three years ago and had to establish seniority before being promoted to captain. Says Mojica: "What’s more important to us is that we signify to the industry and to the country that Cebu Pacific is an equal opportunity employer. We have the same opportunity for both females and males to get into the aviation industry. Flying is an exact science where you have to study the instruments. You go through the rigors of the training. It’s a judgment-type job as well. Because it is an exact science and because it’s a thing of the brain, I don’t think there is a difference between male and female."

Cebu Pacific’s male pilots are reportedly impressed with their 34-year-old colleague. Even her boss insists she has been an achiever long before she joined the airline and he predicts she will continue being an achiever long after her current promotion.

The drive to succeed has nothing to do with the war of the sexes. Brooke has always felt comfortable around men. She was the middle child in a brood of five, with three brothers and an adopted older sister. Though outnumbered by the boys in her immediate family, she belonged to a barkada of mostly female cousins, and the girls dictated what games would be played. So, instead of catching bugs and getting into scrapes, they all played ‘house’.

Gender was never an issue in their family. Both parents had careers. Brooke’s dad is a banker; mom Carmelita became the first Filipina casino branch manager two years ago. The Castillo kids were never pressured into pursuing certain fields, and there were also no gender biases. Surprisingly, the siblings’ hobbies show just how accepting their parents are of their interests. While the Castillo sisters were into sports, the brothers were into music.

All five siblings have done well for themselves. Baby, the eldest, works for Duty Free in Dubai where she is raising her own family. Raffy, the eldest brother, is an industrial engineer. Dondi is a computer expert based in Seattle. Rocky, the youngest, is into sales. And Brooke, as we all know, is a commercial pilot.

Love for music is common to all. Not to be outdone by her brothers, Brooke plays keyboards in the all-pilot band of Cebu Pacific. She is also the manager of Silver, an acoustic band, which performs in lounges and casinos.

Being articulate comes in handy whenever she does the manager thing for the band whose members are her good friends. But her gift of gab was not always seen as a virtue. She flunked Homeroom class in high school because teachers felt she was just "too talkative". The bad mark on her report card kept her from getting Third Honor upon graduation.

After graduating from St. Scholastica’s Manila, she found herself in UP Diliman taking up Business Administration. Neither the university nor the course were her choices. Brooke allowed her brothers to decide where and what she was going to study. All she wanted was to be shown the quickest route to a college diploma.

"There was a time I wanted to transfer to engineering because I loved math. But I decided not to because my brother Raffy was also enrolled in that college. I also didn’t shift anymore because I wanted to get my degree right away. Ayoko talaga kasi ng school," she says unexpectedly. "Since I was in kinder, they had to force me to attend school. Sometimes, I even pretended I was sick. How did I manage to get good grades? Well, I didn’t want to disappoint my parents. I’m also the type of person who would always do my best. That’s why, even if I think I can do something well but I can’t give it my all, I won’t commit myself to that task anymore."

Doing her best means actually excelling in whatever she gets into. Her dedication to sports shows how determined she can be. Brooke performed so well in basketball, bowling and taekwondo that she competed abroad in the national teams of all three. A black belter in taekwondo, she eventually retired as an athlete to shift focus on her aviation career.

"I don’t think of myself as really good at the things I do," she humbly declares. "I just think I’m very blessed. Like in basketball, I never planned to get into that. In high school, I was in the volleyball varsity. Because of my height, they got me to join basketball even if I didn’t know the rules. After two years, I ended up in the Philippine youth team."

Becoming a pilot was one other thing she never planned on doing. Eager to graduate, Brooke completed her college degree in the prescribed four years and decided against getting a double major in accounting all because it meant an additional year in school. Flying as a career did appeal to her but the idea was more as flight attendant than pilot. Her love for travel and adventurous eating aside, she imagined herself an entrepreneur. Years later, she would automatically describe a dream business she intends to put up in the next decade of her life. Her audience was dumbfounded especially since, at that moment, she was facing a panel deciding on whether or not she would make an good pilot trainee.

Who could blame Brooke for the unintended slip? Until 1991, her mind had been set on putting her knowledge into practice. In fact, she first worked for her uncle’s export firm as an administrative and finance officer. She kept her options open by allowing friends to drag her to job interviews, staunch believer that she is of pakikisama. That, she insists, was as far as it went. "I guess I realized that I couldn’t take being inside an office for nine straight hours," says the same Brooke who once wanted to be a banker.

That was her exact mindset when a friend asked her to try out as a pilot trainee for the Philippine Airlines (PAL) Aviation School. She said yes without finding out what she was getting herself into.

"I didn’t know what kind of training they had at PAL. Nagtataka lang ako sa friend ko that she was training and training–jogging ng jogging and all. I was wondering what all that training had to do with being a pilot," she laughs.

In an unkind twist of fate, it all boiled down to the height requirement. Brooke, at 5‘7", had a three-inch advantage over the required height of 5’4" while her friend, who had wanted to be a pilot all her life, missed it by a mere inch.

Brooke went through the rigorous screening process which involved no less than five separate sessions. Word was that out of 3,000 applicants, only 20 were to be chosen. But she was no quitter. So, even if she was now going by herself, Brooke kept showing up whenever PAL called her.

When she eventually told her family about it, they did not discourage her and instead offered support. "They had no doubts I could do this because I’m the type of person who would not venture into something I wasn’t sure of," she explains.

If Brooke was sure, PAL was not. She almost failed the physical exam when doctors discovered that she had an irregular heartbeat. The truth is that her pulse rate is slightly slower than normal. But since her heart rate normalizes under stress, the problem was sorted out.

Even without that issue, however, there were apprehensions about choosing Brooke. PAL executives were hesitant to train female pilots. Someone later told her that her interview lasted an hour longer than usual and that the panel grilled her for the sole purpose of getting her to quit. That didn’t happen. Instead, she joined the 20 trainees as one of only two females. In the end, however, Brooke became the only female pilot to pursue commercial aviation from this batch. The other resumed her career as a physical therapist.

During training, there was no special treatment for the female recruits. The only concession was that they were allowed to sport short hairstyles while their male classmates turned skin heads. They had to do as many pushups as the rest. Says Brooke of the military-style training: "Usually, our classes would start around 8 or 9 am but they would ask us to report by 5 am. So ang daming pwede nilang ipagawa sa amin. They made us do pushups until we couldn’t do any more. There was a certain stage na wala kang pwedeng gawing tama. So anything you did, mali. Did I ever cry? Hindi. Nakakahiya ha!"

It took some adjusting to get used to the level of testosterone. She was initially intimidated by complete strangers who also happened to be male. All in all, it was not a traumatic experience. Some of the guys even became close to her. Asked if any of them ever asked her out, she says sheepishly: "Secret!"

The gender factor was, of course, not easily ignored. Some instructors could not help but single her out. "Once, there was this trainee who had such a hard time doing pushups. The instructor told him: ‘Hindi mo kaya? Kung si Brooke nga nakaya, ikaw pa!’ Actually, di ko din kaya pero sa sobrang takot ko, nagawa ko din," she admits.

The love for flying only kicked in when Brooke finally began flight training in early 1993. That was when it dawned on her that this was what she was meant to do. After securing her commercial pilot’s license, she began working for PAL as first officer of the Fokker 50 in 1995. She later became second officer (relief officer) on transpacific flights aboard the B747-400. In 2002, she joined Cebu Pacific as first officer on the DC-9. Her maiden voyage was scheduled exactly two years to the day she was hired.

When meeting strangers, Brooke avoids introducing herself as a commercial pilot. She also feels uneasy when friends boast about her unusual career. "I try to avoid having to tell people what I do but I don’t lie. I just say I work for an airline," she repeats her standard but vague spiel. "If they ask about particulars, I say I work in flight operations. Actually, I only do that when I’m in a big group because I don’t want to call attention to myself or be the center of the conversation. But when meeting people one-on-one, I don’t really mind if they find out that I’m a pilot."

One of her pet peeves is explaining over and over again that a first officer is actually a licensed pilot. Unfortunately, that’s a common misconception. "First officers also fly planes but the authority is with the captain," she stresses. "Usually, hati kayo ng pilot. Sometimes, it’s the pilot who would assist you."

Chances are slim that she will ever need to make such clarifications now that she is a captain. Things do get better with time. Take for example Filipino society’s response to female pilots. Brooke confirms she is having an easier time than, say, Aimee Carandang a few years ago. "We’ve gone quite far. Although iba pa rin yung reaction ng mga tao compared to those in the States where it’s normal for you to see female pilots in the airport. Sa atin, lalakad pa lang ako sa airport in my uniform, ang daming nakatingin. Nahihiya tuloy ako. When I started flying, I used to hear comments from passengers. Ngayon, hindi na. Passengers are more accepting."

That may be true for society in general. But the story takes on a different light when you consider how the Filipino man actually feels about dating a female pilot. Brooke confesses there are some who actually find her job intimidating. No one has ever said it out loud but the vibe is somehow there.

"Maybe it’s just that some of them would not admit it. Pero alam mo from the conversation or from the questions they ask. Minsan nakakainis na. Sometimes you can tell that it actually bothers the guy you’re dating. Once, there was this guy who used to praise me for being so independent and all. On another occasion, I asked him how many kids he wanted. He said he wanted 12 kids and a wife who would always be at home to serve him breakfast. That’s when I thought he didn’t need me, he needed a maid," she says matter-of-factly.

Looking young enough to pass for someone in her late 20s, Brooke denies she feels pressured to get married. In the first place, she hasn’t had time in the last few months to actually date. During the few times she has gone out, it was just to watch the band she manages.

Though she insists she is not in a relationship, with much prodding, Brooke admits that she is quite friendly with a Filipino-Chinese pilot who is based in Seattle and works for Cathay Pacific. Asked if the rumors are true about the reputation of male pilots, she is quick to say: "I don’t think all male pilots are womanizers. There are a few who are. What probably established that stereotype was other pilots’ tolerance of such behavior."

While male pilots have always been united by their own issues, the women are only beginning to organize themselves. An attempt was made recently by a Filipina pilot based abroad to set up an affiliate association of female pilots in the Philippines. This, however, did not prosper. Instead, Filipina pilots and pilot trainees are now taking steps to create their own locally-based group. Busy Brooke failed to attend the last meeting where she was supposedly nominated for president of the organization with an initial membership of 50.

That idea scares her more than flying a plane. Even as a passenger, she never loses her nerve especially since she knows exactly how much control a pilot has over the aircraft.

But plane crashes do happen. And this pilot does not deny she is affected by news about terrible accidents. She says quite honestly: "I do get nervous but the good part about having that feeling is that it prevents you from being complacent."