But despite the roughly 150 female pilots in attendance, AWPA Victorian secretary Linda Beilharz said women still only made up three per cent of all pilots in Australia.

“We still hear stories of young women who would like to be pilots being told they can’t so that’s a current dynamic that there’s not an expectation that women can fly,” she said.

“We know that’s not true because there are some fabulous women flying at all levels of aviation but I guess it just doesn’t fit the general stereotype still.”

But Ms Beilharz said the situation was changing, with a greater emphasis on science and technology education helping break down some of the old barriers.

“With the growth of interest in the science, technology, engineering area I think that might grow, we’re trying to grow the visibility of women in aviation so the young ones see that it’s an option,” she said.

“It’s [also] expensive and I think maybe it’s harder for women and girls to get hold of the finance – it’s hard for the blokes as well – that will be a limitation, but those who are really keen find a way and get through.”

Despite the challenges, Ms Beilharz said once pilots took to the air for the first time it all became worthwhile, describing the experience as “addictive”.

“Someone said yesterday ‘Once you’ve been into the sky you can’t put your feet on the Earth again’,” she said.

“It is something that is just a pleasure to do it, to see the world that way.

“There’s a pleasure in the the achievement of the technical aspect of doing the flying, learning to be a pilot, understanding all of that’s quite a sense of achievement – and then you can get to places faster and better so it’s quite enjoyable in that sense too.”

Ever since she was a little girl, Haidee Wong knew she wanted to be a pilot.

“Going overseas on holidays, I liked the flight much more than the destinations we went to,” she said.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, something about being up in the air where you can see all the whole horizon.

“I’m really lucky now I’m the first officer on the 737 for Qantas so I actually get to to look out the window and see the horizon all the time.”

Now Ms Wong said she hopes to lead by example and encourage more young girls with dreams of capturing the horizon to follow in her footsteps.

“When I stand at the front of the flight deck saying goodbye to all the passengers, at least once a month I’ll still have people say to me that I’m the first female pilot they’ve ever seen – and this is in 2017,” she said.

“Hopefully if I’m standing up there and all the other girls are putting their hands up then everybody will be able to see that this thing exists and, if they were ever interested in flying, people coming through now can go ‘Yeah, you know what I actually can’.”