Fanny Chollet


Fanny "Shotty" Chollet is the first woman in Switzerland to fly a jet fighter plane, the F/A-18,
and the first female F/A-18 pilot outside North America. She is a career officer in the Swiss Air Force and currently holds the rank of captain.

Career

Fanny "Shotty" Chollet graduated from Pully High School with a baccalaureate in biology and chemistry. She has worked at the military airfields in Payerne, Dübendorf and Alpnach. In 2012 Chollet joined the Swiss Air Force and is a member of Pilot Class 11 in the pilot school in Emmen. She completed the first part of her education by earning a civilian commercial pilot license from Swiss Aviation Training and a Bachelor in Aviation from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Winterthur. This was followed by one-year stints on the PC-7 and the PC-21. She is the first woman to fly the Pilatus PC-21. In December 2017 she received her military pilot's license.
In early 2018, she began her F/A-18 training in the simulator and with F/A-18D double-seaters. On March 18, she completed her first solo flight in an F/A-18C. She is assigned to the Fliegerstaffel 18 squadron in Payerne. She is fluent in French, English, German, and Swiss German.

Aircraft types