Our Published Work | ISA+21: International Society of Women Airline Pilots

Our Published Work

Women Who Fly: True Stories by Women Airline Pilots
International Society of Women Airline Pilots

Women airline pilots share their stories, including an emergency landing in Russia, a flight over Antarctica, and a trip to Washington, D.C. to accept a Congressional Medal of Honor. These accounts, thirty-six in all, will entertain, thrill, and inspire while giving you a glimpse inside the lives of these female aviators. The book includes over 70 photos and all proceeds go to support our scholarships. ISA+21 has already helped over 200 women by donating over $1.3 million dollars to aviatrices whose stated career goal is to become an airline pilot.

Life Takes Wings
Lynn Rippelmeyer

Captain Lynn Rippelmeyer, first woman pilot of the revolutionary Boeing 747, learned to fly in the face of obstructionism, sexism and disappointment—and soar where no other woman had gone before. By sharing her story of “firsts” and spiritual philosophy of “receiving through giving” with humor and gratitude, Capt. Lynn provides a blueprint for those interested in achieving their dreams, no matter what the goal.

Life Takes Flights
Lynn Rippelmeyer

United and Division. Awards and Angst. Serendipity and Stumbling Blocks. Life Takes Flight picks up where pilot Lynn Rippelmeyer’s first book, Life Takes Wings left off. Here she shares more adventures and milestones as she navigates her 747 through the skies and herself through the highs and lows of life.

Jett Boss
Laura Savino

Captain Laura Savino takes you directly into the cockpit for an exclusive look into the boy’s club of airline pilots—told through the eyes of the first female pilot many of them ever flew with.

“No math,” Laura’s counselor told her in high school. “That would ruin your GPA.” Laura had other plans. One teenage act of rebellion changed everything for her at a time when STEM opportunities for women were rare. If passengers on a commercial jet had trouble imagining a woman flight engineer — which Laura became — imagine their disbelief to see her as the pilot flying their widebody jet around the world.

She exposes both the harsh truths and the exciting adventure of her years in the airline industry as a commercial pilot, reveals the emotional impact of 9/11 on pilots, and writes honestly about what it means to be a working mother while keeping her dreams alive.

Laura’s powerful story is a blueprint for how to defy expectations and follow your inner compass to do things you never thought possible.

Amelia Earhart AudioBooks
Pamela Almand

Amelia Earhart captured the hearts and imaginations of people around the world when she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic by airplane. Award-Winning Voice Actor Pamela Almand •The Captain’s Voice • brings these two Amelia Earhart audiobooks to life with a narrated voice reminiscent of Earhart’s Midwest twang.

20 Hrs. 40 mins. includes logbook entries from the historic flight as well as an autobiographical account of her young adult life and fascination with airplanes, and a serious-minded discussion of the future of flight and the important role of women in aviation. Audible

The Fun of It: Random Records of My Own Flying and of Women in Aviation Amelia Earhart’s autobiographical book which covers Earhart’s life through May 20-21, 1932. Audible

The Airline Transition Manual
Jolanda Witvliet

The Airline Transition Manual is your ultimate guide to navigating and managing your airline pilot career. It includes numerous crucial topics such as flight training tips, medical certification information, life as an airline pilot, interview and hiring assistance, reserve and scheduling guidance, and much, much more! This 300+ page manual is not just for people who are starting out, but military aviators, corporate pilots, college students, foreign pilots, and current regional airline pilots. Let this guide be your precision navaid for your career.

The Aviatrix Mindset: Stop Stalling And Start Soaring in Every Aspect of Life
Dawn W. Cook

The Aviatrix Mindset is a must read for every successful woman that is ready for more! Every woman that is ready to stop stopping, every woman that is ready to get out of her own way…every woman that is ready to start designing the life she desires! Join life coach and professional pilot, Dawn Cook, as she guides you through 3 simple steps to take control of your life, achieve your goals and create the life you are meant to have! She uses proven aviation techniques and provides you with life long learning! Right now you are on a non-stop flight called LIFE! Make it your best flight ever!!

Beyond Haiku: Pilots Write Poetry
Captain Linda Pauwels

Beyond Haiku peeks through the cockpit door to reveal the poetic heart of airline pilots. Captain Linda Pauwels, instructor pilot on the Boeing 787 and former aviation columnist for the Orange County Register, presents a selection of haiku and short poems by men and women who fly airplanes for a living. The writing is niche and empathetic. The humor is characteristically wry, befitting the pilot persona. Beautiful illustrations, by children of pilots aged 6 to 17, bring this flight of fancy in for a smooth landing. Proceeds from Beyond Haiku will go to the Allied Pilots Association Emergency Relief and Scholarship Fund, to provide support for pilots furloughed due to the industry effects of COVID-19.

Me and the Sky
Beverley Bass

After decades of refusing to take no for an answer, in 1986 Beverley became the first female pilot promoted to captain by American Airlines and led the first all-female crewed flight shortly thereafter. Her revolutionary career became even more newsworthy when she was forced to land in the remote town of Gander, Newfoundland, on September 11, 2001, due to US airspace closures. After several days there, she flew her crew and passengers safely home.

Beverley’s incredible life is now immortalized in the hit Broadway musical Come from Away. Here, discover how she went from an ambitious young girl gazing up at the sky to a groundbreaking pilot smiling down from the cockpit.

You Can be a Pilot
Evey Cormican

Take off on an exciting journey into the world of piloting, and follow in the footsteps of daring women who’ve contributed to aviation.

Girls (and boys alike!) will be empowered with stories of trailblazing female pilots. Designed for ages 7-12, this educational and fun activity book walks kids through a day in the life of a pilot. With hands-on experiments, art projects, and fun facts about flying, You Can Be A Pilot is great for parents and kids to read and share together.

LadyBirds
Various Authors

If you think the skies belong to birds and men, you might want to consider a different notion. Ladybirds is a history of American women in every aspect of aviation from a woman balloonist of 200 years ago, to the early days of Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart, to today’s commercial women airline pilots (co-author Lori Griffith is a Boeing 737 captain with USAir).

Here, in biography style, the niece of one of these pilots recreates the amazing story of what she calls “one of the best-kept secrets of World War II.” Together, these books record an unexplored part of American and aviation history along with the passion of women who loved to fly. — From The Woman Source Catalog & Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women.

Nothing Stood in Her Way
Captain Julie Clark

Julie Clark, orphaned as a teen, forged two successful careers. With 35 years in aviation she has flown twenty-seven accident-free years as an airline pilot and twenty-four as an air show star. She became an airline pilot when women’s applications were routinely thrown into the trash. Julie’s book contains 16 pages of color photos.

The co-author, Ann Lewis Cooper, is also an experienced pilot. She has previously published biographies of other female aviators, including Ednat Gardner White, Jessie Woods, Patty Wagstaff, Dot Swain Lewis, and Emily Warner. With her husband Charlie, she has written Tuskeegee’s Heroes, How to Draw Aircraft Like a Pro, and War in Pacific Skies.

Flight Guide for Success
Captain Karen Kahn

If you have ever wished for a trusted advisor to answer your really tough pilot-career questions without sugar coating the answers, Captain Karen Kahn is the one to turn to. She overcame a mountain of obstacles to command the cockpit of a jetliner. It is a tough road for anyone, but Karen will be the first to tell you that it’s worth the effort to get there. She not only knows the ropes but also is masterful at sharing lessons learned in achieving that professional pilot’s seat to which so many of us aspire.

If you want straight talk and hard-hitting advice on how to achieve the professional-pilot career sought by so many, Karen Kahn has the answers you need. No matter how many other pilot career books rest on your shelf, Flight Guide for Success is one you must read.

Letting Fly: Deborah Wardley, Australia’s trail-blazing pilot
Elaine McKenna & Deborah Lawrie

At the age of 14, Deborah Wardley couldn’t wait to start flying lessons. She progressed rapidly up the aviation ladder, setting her sights on flying the “big jets”. When the airlines repeatedly knocked her back, she took the matter to court. This set her on a collision course with Ansett’s autocratic head, Sir Reginald Ansett, and turned her into a media heroine. After a long struggle, Deborah Wardley won her battle and became Australia’s first female commercial pilot. In this book, she relates her story to Elaine McKenna, author of “Better Than Dancing.”

Flying Tigress
Norah O’Neill

More than a witty memoir by the first woman pilot at a macho cargo airline and her adventures flying around the world, this is the excruciatingly honest yet compelling account of one woman’s ascent to 747 pilot, the price exacted for the privilege, her devastating fall from grace, and gutsy journey back into the cockpit. Flying Tigress is human drama played out against the breathtaking backdrop of the skies.

Weaving the Winds
Emily Howell Warner

Women flew in balloons before the Wright Brothers conquered powered flight. Soon after, they tested their skills in new-fangled flying machines. Women pilots taught male pilots to fly for two World Wars. Someone said, “A woman taught you to walk; a woman can teach you to fly.”

Yet, it took 59 years for the first U.S. woman to become an airline pilot in jet-equipped craft—one special woman. To melt ingrained resistance, she brought many more flight hours than most male applicants and she understood well the value of cockpit teamwork and cooperation. That special woman was Emily Howell Warner. Early in 1973, Emily wove the winds of chance, of change, and of opportunity to give wing to her own flying career and to throw open cockpit doors to women who followed.

Aviatrix: First Woman Pilot for Hughes Airwest
Mary Bush Shipko

Aviatrix is the captivating story of one of the first women pilots to break into the all-male airline flight cockpit. Hired in 1976 at Hughes Airwest, Mary Bush made a herculean effort to overcome the resistance and harassment she faced in such a position, but it was to no avail.

Mary was introduced to flying at an early age. She started flying as a teenager, studying and training long hours until she painstakingly obtained her ratings one by one. Financial hardships hit the family hard, though, and Mary—desperate for both flying experience and money–headed down to the infamous Corrosion Corner in South Florida to be a “freight dog” for fly-by-night operators. However, she was frequently denied work because of her gender. She kept praying, working, and struggling, though, with the hope of one day becoming an airline pilot, a job in which she would have both steady work and steady pay.

Takeoff!
Bonnie Tiburzi

Bonnie Tiburzi, at twenty-four, broke the gender barrier in commercial aviation by becoming the first woman pilot ever hired by a major United States airline. Takeoff! is her own candid story of how she won her wings—the high price she paid in hard work, disappointment, and personal heartache—and why she feels it was worth it. It is also a fascinating behind-the-scenes story of the real world of aviation, which few passengers ever see—inside-the-simulator and inside-the-cockpit glimpses of major airline training, apprenticeship, on-the-line operations, camaraderie with pilots and flight attendants, and very occasional nerve-shattering danger.

Bonnie Tiburzi grew up in a flying family. She knew early on that what she really wanted to be was an airline pilot, but the reply was always “Don’t be silly. Airlines only hire men.” She relates her experiences as a pigtailed charter pilot and the long, often frustrating struggle to open that first airline door.

Flying Above the Glass Ceiling
Captain Nina Anderson

Flying Above the Glass Ceiling chronicles the accomplishments of pioneering women flyers and distaff members of the aviation industry from the 1800s to the present, noting their specific struggles because they entered a man’s profession! Their personal stories, determination, passion, triumphs, and disappointments provide insight into what kept them moving toward their dream. This book gives hope to everyone who has the qualifications to achieve his or her career goal.

Ups and Downs
Kathy McCullough

Kathy McCullough learned to fly at the age of sixteen, but her story began much earlier. Her challenges, accomplishments, and indomitable spirit come to life within the pages of Ups and Downs. Becoming the fourth woman pilot hired by Northwest Orient Airlines in 1981 and earning her captain wings in the Boeing 747 a quarter of a century later, was not an easy journey. There is no better way to understand the gender issues in a cockpit than through the eyes of a woman pilot who lived the many challenges. Kathy takes us on the flight of her life with compelling stories of what it took to get into the cockpit of the largest airplane of its time, and what it took to stay there. Now retired, Kathy lives with her husband Kevin on a wheat ranch in eastern Oregon. She shares her experiences with young adults, inspiring them to explore the world. Everyone who has a goal in life will see themselves in the pages of this book.

To the Edges of the World
Kathy McCullough

Travel the world through the eyes of a Boeing 747 pilot. Kathy McCullough flies you from the icebergs of Gerlache Strait in Antarctica to the jungles of Laos in Southeast Asia. From an island in Canada to the island of Batam, Indonesia, follow her on the trek of a lifetime. Kathy’s unique perspective and many adventures will give you the courage to set out on your own journey to explore a world of mysteries, murder, synchronicity, and fortune.

Poseidon’s Sword
S.L. Menear

An 11,000-year-old prophecy plunges airline pilot Samantha Starr into an international maelstrom. While flying to exotic locales during a round-the-world charter flight, Sam stumbles upon the enigmatic key to Poseidon’s Sword, an ancient weapon of unimaginable power. Her discovery triggers a race among secret cults, arms dealers, and world leaders intent on possessing the doomsday weapon. Old enemies and mysterious allies enter the fray, believing Sam is vital to locating and activating Poseidon’s Sword. She becomes an unwilling pawn thrust into a treacherous game trapping her crew, passengers, and family in the rivals’ deadly power plays. Sam struggles to save them and thwart her evil adversaries before time runs out in this fast-paced action thriller. Poseidon’s Sword is award-winning author S.L. Menear’s second book in the Samantha Starr Series.

Deadstick Dawn
S.L. Menear

The Belfast Agreement is about to be shattered by Operation Blue Blood. One young American stands in the way, airline pilot Samantha Starr. She is catapulted into a deadly chess match with police, assassins, and British Special Forces, all who want her dead. The fate of nine noble bloodlines depends on Samantha and a boy whose hero is a wizard. Stranded in Scotland where she is accused of kidnapping and murder, where can she run? When a US Navy fighter pilot and a SEAL join the hunt and every choice can get her killed and start a bloody war in Northern Ireland, on whom should she rely? The line between trust and betrayal is razor sharp, and it is cut at Deadstick Dawn.

Flight to Success
Karlene Petitt

Inspiration, motivation and lessons learned…Flight to Success is the author’s journey through eight airlines, seven type ratings, two master’s degrees, and motherhood. Intertwined with her stories are those of others who share their successes, failures, losses, fears, hopes and dreams. They have all learned from their experiences. What drives people to phenomenal success? The secret correlates with many aspects of flight. If you apply these tips to your everyday life there will be nothing you cannot accomplish.

Life is about choice. The choice now, is to open your mind and heart and begin to dream. This inspirational, motivational memoir will take you on a journey through the author’s life, to assist you with yours. How did she do it? Why didn’t she quit? Where did she find the time, courage, stamina, and strength to persevere during the most challenging times? The answers to these questions and many more will be answered.

Flight for Safety
Karlene Petitt

Flight For Safety is an aviation thriller where fiction mirrors truth and each flight is a game of Russian roulette. Aircraft are crashing after computer failures, incidents are occurring worldwide, coming close to hull losses, with mismanagement of aircraft navigation systems, and airline training programs are being canceled. Aerodynamic skills are failing and the new generation pilots never learned them. But when Darby Bradshaw learns what is happening at her airline, she steps into a far-reaching conspiracy where she has become the target.

Flight for Control
Karlene Petitt

After a ten-year leave, Kathryn Jacobs has been invited back to the N.T.S.B to investigate a series of unexplained airline crashes. But her husband, Captain Bill Jacobs, has his concerns. While her twin daughters are off at camp, and Bill is actively campaigning for the Pilot Union Presidency, Kathryn secretly begins her investigation. What she learns will shock the nation. Flight For Control is a thriller that reads like a mystery. But to Kathryn, there is no mystery on the condition of the airline industry-it’s broken. Planes are crashing. Pensions are lost. Pilots are financially and emotionally bankrupt due to fatigue, furloughs, and loss of seniority. It’s time that someone takes control before it’s too late-unless it already is. Your life is in your pilot’s hands. Do you know who’s flying your plane?

Flight for Survival
Karlene Petitt

NextGen is on the horizon with multiple threats looming. Aircraft complexity, fatigue, and training issues leave pilots open to error. Unmanned aircraft systems-drones-are flooding the airspace, creating a regulatory nightmare. Safety Management Systems are mandated to be in place by 2018, but creating a safety culture is an essential ground floor requirement. FAA inspector Kathryn Jacobs is in charge of drone regulation, Jackie Jameson is managing flight attendant training, and Darby Bradshaw is flying an A330 for Global Air Lines while fighting for safer skies. Darby has just been offered a two million dollar publishing deal for her safety management book: Fight For Safety, Inside the Iron Bubble. Unfortunately, there are those who would do anything to stop the book’s release. The darkest realm of Global Airlines’ secret sub-culture surfaces between the pages amidst fear that the truth about what happens inside the iron bubble will come to light. When a Boeing 777 disappears, and a pilot intentionally flies into a mountain, suspicion points to Captain Bill Jacobs, hidden inside prison walls. But the truth is never what it appears. The worst crash in airline history plunges these three friends into a fight for their very survival.

BJ Erickson WASP Pilot
Sarah Bym Rickman

World War II brought to young women an unprecedented opportunity to fly military aircraft for their country and make an important contribution to the outcome of the war. In the summer of 1939, Congress approved the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPT). The government offered to pay for flight instruction for students on selected college campuses. One student out of every ten could be a female. Many of the young women who later flew for the United States during WWII came from the more than 2,000 who learned to fly through CPT. One such young woman was Barbara Jane Erickson of Seattle, Washington.

BJ was ISA charter member Terry Rinehart’s mother

International Society of Women Airline Pilots

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