When was the last time you got onto a commercial flight and the voice you heard from the cockpit was a woman? If you can’t remember, it’s not surprising. Only 6.9 percent of commercial pilots in the U.S. are women. But a group of five inspirational women have banded together with a common goal — to change those statistics.

My story starts on a beautiful beach in Costa Rica. As the owner of a video marketing production company, my creative bucket needs a refill every now and again, and the best way to get my creative groove back is to go surfing. So I left my two kids and husband at home and jetted off on a solo surf adventure in Tamarindo.

On my first day surfing at a break called little Hawaii, I ran into a surfer I know from back home in Redondo Beach. I didn’t know him well, but I had filmed him surfing during big swells so we were acquaintances. After our surf session, he brought his girlfriend, Jenny, to the pool by the surf break and introduced us. In the pool and over margaritas, she told me about her career as a flight attendant, and how she had decided to transition from a flight attendant to a pilot. As a sport pilot myself, I was blown away by her goal. I know what it takes to become just a sport pilot, so the idea of her becoming a commercial pilot for Delta seemed almost unattainable to me. I pressed on and asked her to tell me more.

It turns out that Delta Airlines has a program called Propel, where it offers Delta employees a 66-month leave of absence from their job capacity with the airline. If accepted, the trainee gets to keep their employee start date and seniority while they train to become commercial pilots and get their hours flying at a regional carrier. Once the program is complete, they’re guaranteed an interview with Delta to become a pilot.

Jenny had plans to apply to the program and wasn’t alone. Four of her flight attendant girlfriends were also applying, and they already had an application party scheduled a few weeks out so the five of them could apply to Propel together and support each other during the process.

This is when I had my lightbulb moment. I had been waiting my whole life to find the right story to produce as a documentary, and it just swam up beside me on a surfing trip. As a female TV director in the industry for 20 years, I was always aware of the unique struggles women faced in a male-dominated career. I saw the parallel immediately between the TV industry and the airline industry — it was the same story in so many ways. I wanted to share that story in a positive way, not in a male-bashing way, to empower and encourage other women to dream bigger and know they can achieve any goal they set for themselves. I saw these five women as role models and women supporting other women. It was a story I needed to document.

So I asked Jenny if I could follow her and her friends on their journey for the next five years. I told her I wanted to shoot on-camera interviews and go up in the planes with them and be a fly on the wall all the way through until they received their pilot wings and walked down the concourse as a pilot, rather than a flight attendant.

I was a little concerned that Jenny might not take me seriously, so I did a bit of a hard sell, convincing her that my 20-year, Emmy-winning TV career made me legitimate. After all, to her I was just a surfer she met in the swimming pool in Costa Rica. She later told me that her boyfriend vouched for me, as he had seen and been in some of my short surf documentaries over the years.

So the journey began. Jenny introduced me to the other women, and I filmed their application party. I also interviewed each one of them. It turns out they are all diverse women with amazing cultural backstories that affected their lives and their career paths. Jenny is American, but raised culturally as Korean. Megan is American, but her roots are in Japan. Jennifer’s family fled communism in Hungary and Romania, and she’s first generation American. Soyla, from Mexico, is a single mom with a two-month-old baby. Sheena is from a small village in the Philippines where she was expected to be married with kids by the time she was 23.

My goal is to tell a visual and in-depth story about the women, document their journey, their personal and professional lives, while uncovering the historical reasons why so few women are pilots and help to change that for the future. Megan refers to the group as “aviation’s five musketeers,” and it’s a perfect description for their bravery and dedication. There’s a looming pilot shortage expected in 2023, and hopefully with this documentary we can encourage the next generation of females to look at piloting as a viable career option.

We just wrapped our first crowdfunding campaign and upon publication of this article we plan to start another campaign and are actively seeking sponsors. If you have interest in participating in this project, please reach out to marci@kleincreativemedia.com.