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a pilot's license. (Alys McKey Bryant never took the test for hers.) Ms. Hodge became interested in learning to fly in 1916 and tried to enter the Christofferson Flying School in San Francisco. Even with all the fame that women were gaining in the field of aviation, the school turned her down because of her sex. She persisted, however, and kept hanging around the school. They finally agreed to accept her if she would take all the same courses as the men. So Ms. Hodge's training began with the study of engines, airplane construction, and the theory of flight. Finally, her actual flying lessons began in a Curtiss-type biplane, with Frank Bryant, Johnny Bryant's brother, as her instructor. She received her license November 12, 1916, and began flying mainly for her own pleasure.

During World War I she taught U.S. aviation cadets and also made some exhibition flights. During one of these flights, the engine mount broke and her engine fell out of the plane. She managed to land by taking the controls in her hands and climbing out on the front wheel to nose it down.

Aviation was becoming more and more popular with women on the West Coast. Another pupil at the Christofferson School was Jean Doty Caldwell. She, too, studied under Frank Bryant.