How Not to Fly an Airplane
A Female Pilot’s Journey
by Shirley M Phillips
You must sign in to see if this title is available for request. Sign In or Register Now
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date May 20 2025 | Archive Date Not set
Mindbuck Media | Apprentice House
Talking about this book? Use #HowtoNotFlyanAirplane #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
Shirley M Phillips knew she wanted to be a pilot when she was fourteen years old, thanks to an introductory flight in a Cessna that her father gave her and her twin sister at their local airport. Living in a small New England town where no one in her family had aviation experience, and at a time when only two percent of professional pilots were female, her decision to pursue aviation from the moment she left the ground set her on an unexpected path.
How Not to Fly an Airplane: A Female Pilot's Journey is about learning to fly before you are old enough to drive a car, and teaching others when you are nearly always mistaken for being the pilot’s girlfriend, wife, or daughter. It’s about the many mistakes you can make in an airplane, and what it’s like to solve them, thousands of feet in the air or just a few feet above the trees. It’s about finding a sense of identity as a twin, becoming the first pregnant pilot at an airline, and losing a friend and former student in an infamous plane crash.
What happens when a student pilot freezes on the flight controls just a few hundred feet in the air? How do you deal with a flight instructor who takes out a runway light during a botched landing and then lets go of the stick? What’s it like to have an engine failure when your airplane only has one engine? Told through Phillips’s wide-ranging experience in over four decades of flying, How Not to Fly an Airplane is a memoir for anyone who has ever wondered what it’s like to fly, and inspiration for anyone who has felt compelled to do something nobody thought they could do.
Advance Praise
“Shirley M Phillips’s memoir is a story of breaking barriers and persistence in being taken seriously as a pilot and a mother of a child with disabilities. Her experiences as one of few female pilots honed the advocacy skills needed to ensure the medical field took her daughter’s, and later her own, health care needs seriously. Phillips uses humor to help us grapple with weighty issues. She reminds us to trust our gut when facing challenging situations. Truly an inspirational story of courage and perseverance against the odds.” — Laurie L. Gordy, PhD, Higher Education Administrator
“How Not to Fly an Airplane is an exhilarating book that reveals the joys and challenges of being an early female pilot for a major airline, teaching aviation to college students, and balancing motherhood. Phillips shares her experiences as a child model with her identical twin sister, her flying lessons at the age of fourteen, piloting scenic flights during her college days, and the two engine failures that she experienced before she even turned twenty-six. The book is a memoir of her career and personal life, filled with white-knuckle moments and twists and turns.” — Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Professor of History
“In this engaging memoir, Shirley’s journey as a pioneering female pilot is both inspiring and heartfelt. The stories of her overcoming resistance from male colleagues, who doubted her abilities simply because of her gender, are empowering and relatable for women in male-dominated fields. Her reflections on downplaying femininity to fit into a masculine culture resonate deeply with my own experiences in the industry. The emotional depth of her family life, particularly the medical struggles of one daughter and the loving care by the other, brings a personal touch to her professional triumphs. Shirley’s writing strikes the perfect balance, offering enough detail to captivate readers without getting lost in nuance. This book is not only entertaining and uplifting but should be on everyone’s must-read list.”— Kimberly Perkins, PhD, B787 Airline Pilot
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781627205917 |
| PRICE | $20.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 232 |
