For every 1,000 people who applied to be airline pilots in BEA/BOAC back in the day, about four made it. The other 996, plus their wives, parents, and children, might wonder how their lives could have turned out, so here is the story of one of the four. Besides, the passengers who sit behind that locked door and trust us with their lives must wonder, “What goes on up there, and how does it affect their lives and families?” My education included the University Air Squadron, then learning to fly at the College sponsored by British Airways. There is a chapter of general information on aviation, then most of the book is an account of my experiences, whether dramatic, disappointing, exciting, or amusing, during my varied career in British Airways. Some incidents occur within the cockpit, others in social interaction outside, and a few come from pilot folklore. I also describe visits to sights around the world, an aspect that draws people to aviation as a career, and interests everyone. I have added one professional pilot’s opinion on aviation topics in the news, the mysterious Malaysian disappearance, and the Alpine tragedy, and finish with my lifelong interest in designing model aircraft.

Kathy McCullough learned to fly at the age of sixteen, but her story began much earlier. Her challengers, 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 he 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 herself in the pages of this book. Anyone who has had a dream come true will empathize with the struggle it takes to make that dream a reality. And each of us who has a thirst for adventure can take a long drink from these pages. What does it take to become a female pilot? Exactly the same thing it takes for you to achieve your dreams.

On a sunny morning in 1927, George Lichter, barely six years old, donned his new skates and rolled to the beach at Gravesend Bay where he witnessed a spectacle that would determine the course of his life. As he watched an airplane take off from the water and fly over the city, he decided he would one day become a pilot. George held onto this dream throughout his childhood in Brooklyn, wild adventures as a trumpet player in the Borscht belt and during his escapades at college in, of all places, the Deep South. A week before his twentieth birthday in 1941, immediately following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, George rode the subway to the nearest recruiting center and joined the United States Air Force. By the end of WWII, having flown eighty-eight combat missions over Nazi-occupied Europe, he had become a decorated fighter pilot. Two years later, in 1947, retired from the Air Force, he learned that the new nation of Israel was about to be attacked by its Arab neighbors. Though George felt the Jewish State had no chance of survival against such insurmountable odds, he knew he had to help. He signed up as a Machalnik (volunteer) and was assigned to an air base in Czechoslovakia where he helped train Israel’s first fighter pilots. Within a year they owned the skies over their new nation.

I escaped jail for the second time and finally got out of Colombia. I should have been happy, but my feelings were forlorn. I could never return. I would never drink the waters or the local rum or a perfect cup of coffee again. I already missed my friends, associates, and all our pleasant, exciting times together. With two counts of jailbreak, possession of six thousand pounds of marijuana, and violation of Colombian airspace, I would serve a total of twenty years in prison if I ever return. Good-bye, Colombia. I shall always think of you with love.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1873.