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Riikka Vilkuna is a young, 33 year old, Finnish woman who in a few years has become a personality of the CIVL to the extent of being elected Vice President of this FAI Air Sport Commission at the beginning of this year.
Nothing predestined Riikka to be interested in air sports. Yet, in 1985, her father (who is not an aviator) urged her to participate in a parachuting course in her home town, Lappeenranta, because he thought that parachuting would be a good hobby for a girl. So she made her first jumps on a round canopy in February 1985 over a snowy airfield and was hooked ! Her aviation career began.
Whereas she had studied translation at University and should have become a translator/interpreter, Riikka began to work for the Finnish Aeronautical Association in 1991 and found herself being made responsible for hang gliding and paragliding. As a course started 3 weeks later, she jumped at the chance to make a dream come true (watching hang gliding on TV when she was about 15, she had been quite impressed). Riikka learned the importance of patience and concentration with Heikki Pimiä, "an excellent pilot" to her mind, competed at national level, but then started helping with the organization of contests. In 1992, Riikka became involved in CIVL as an observer and was nominated Finnish delegate the following year.The young woman, who describes herself as serious but sociable, finds international cooperation very natural because, in her mind, things which work well in one place, could be of benefit to others. And, since she has worked for the Finnish Aeronautical Association, she realizes that a NAC or the FAI is necessary to develop air sports and "discussing these matters (changes, future, ...) at international level will help us to find ways to make the sports more attractive and available to people" she says. As Vice President of the CIVL, she wishes to contribute to making things run smoothly; she thinks that she will have more work but also many things to learn. When she is questionned about the possible difficulties being a woman in the midst of the FAI, she is amazed that it gets so much attention. She answers that being a woman in aviation is not a problem and as it has not been difficult so far, she has no reason to believe that it will be in future. On the other hand, she deplores that there are so few active female hang glider pilots and she wishes to see more women flying. She, who enjoys almost all outdoor sports, likes hang gliding , "a wonderful sport but not the easiest to get into", because it gives a chance to experience the air, a place man is not made for, and because it requires constant decision making, like three dimensional chess. She remembers with pleasure her feeling when she free-fell next to a large cloud for the first time and realized the amazing speed at which she moved in the sky or other memorable experiences, such as good thermal and cross country flights on a hang glider. But as she says "all explanations about how it feels to fly are so vague, going up there, one way or another, is the only method of finding out what it is like. Everyone who is interested in aviation should at least try it". |
| OTHER ARTICLES OF ASI AUGUST'98 ISSUE | News In Brief | Letters To The Editor | World Records | | Overture For Airplane & Orchestra | | British Pilot Breaks Aviation Record | | 2nd World Conference On Women And Sport | | 10th International European Club Class Gliding Championship 1998 | | Portrait Of A Woman |  More articles on Hang Gliding
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