Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase: Hilarious Stories of Air Travel by the World's Favorite Flight Attendant (16 page)

“Women do get more glory than men for comparable feats. But, also, women get more notoriety when they crash.”
—Amelia Earhart

“No. I just wanted to fly airplanes.”
—Lt. Col. Jackie Parker
,
when asked if she pursued her flying career because she viewed herself as blazing trails for other women. She was the first woman in the U.S. to be assigned to an F-16 fighter squadron.

“I'm an Air Force officer first, a pilot second, and then Nicole. The female part is last… My job is to be the best right wingman that I can be.”
—Captain Nicole Malachowski
,
first female pilot with the Thunderbirds, the United States Air Force flight demonstration team.

“My daughter just thinks that all moms fly the space shuttle.”
—Air Force Col. Eileen Collins, first female Space Shuttle commander, 1999

“It is now possible for a flight attendant to get a pilot pregnant.”
—Richard J. Ferris, President, United Airlines

A female pilot:

“A couple years back I was flying a 727 with an all-female crew. We were sitting at the gate waiting to push back when a male passenger boarded and stuck his head in the cockpit. He saw first one, then two, then three women and he exclaimed, ‘Wow! Look at all the women up there!’ Quick as a flash, the second officer turned around and said to him, ‘And we’re not afraid to stop and ask directions, either!’”

Random Factoids

•  Female flight attendants still outnumber male flight attendants by a margin of 6 to 1.

•  About 10% of commercial pilots worldwide are female.

•  In 1970, 1% of business travelers were female.

•  By 2000, 51% of business travelers were female.

The Last Word

Betty:

Well, that’s about it for this book of crazy airline stories. I hope you have enjoyed the ride through the sky as much as I have. When I travel to foreign countries my favorite thing to do is to get to know the locals. I try to learn and understand how their world is like or unlike my own. The airline world is like its own country, with its own rules and language and culture. It’s a world that I still feel privileged to be a part of. Maybe after reading this book, you can feel like you’ve gotten to know the locals (your flight crew) a little better.

If luck is on my side I’d like to put together another book. So if you have any of your own airline stories, you can send them to
[email protected]
and maybe you can be part of the next Betty book!

If you want to hear new airline stories you can always hear me and my pilot and flight attendant friends on my podcast at
www.BettyInTheSky.com
or in
www.iTunes.com
. I hope you will join me for my next episode…so we can travel the world together!

Happy flying!

Betty!

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Betty was born the youngest of ten children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She knew from a young age that she wanted to travel and see the world. After graduating from Shippensburg University, she got a job as a flight attendant for a major airline. Betty currently lives in Los Angeles, California and is still flying—so you might see her on your next flight!

In September 2006 she started her own podcast called “Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase.” Composed of airline and travel stories, the podcast is reminiscent of an old fashioned radio show, giving listeners an insider’s view of life in the air.

You can find more information at
www.BettyInTheSky.com
.

Janet Spencer is known as the Trivia Queen of the Universe, the Royal Ruler of Useless Information, the Master of Arcane Knowledge and Extraneous Lore, the Keeper of Forgotten Facts and Startling Statistics. She began her trivial career in 1987 when she started a weekly newsletter called Tidbits. After running that for nearly a decade, she wrote for a company called Trivia Time for six years; spent two years as a staff writer for Uncle John's Bathroom Reader; and then published a book called
Montana Trivia
with Riverbend Publishing. That was followed by
Yellowstone Trivia
. Her next book project will be published in 2010. Called
Quick Quirks
, it's an addictive set of trivia quiz questions. Find Janet's books at
www.RiverbendPublishing.com
or
www.TriviaQueen.com
.