applying to Lufthansa or any other Eu-
ropean airline, as women were simply
not hired.
That changed in 1986, when after
much pressure from the government,
Lufthansa started to hire female pilots.
I remember the first two clearly, as I was
green with envy! By then I was too old
to apply as the cutoff age for
ab initio
training was 27, and I was 32.
Somewhere in all this travel our
daughter, Kimberley, was born, and like
so many dual airline career couples, we
found it became increasingly difficult to
juggle two schedules and a baby. With a
heavy heart, I resigned from Lufthansa
to be a stay-at-home mum, which I also
liked. Still, I found work once a month
at big international fairs doing anything
from serving coffee to interpreting.
;never lost my interest in flying, how- ever, and would periodically bug my poor husband for flying lessons. Fi-
nally, in April 1992, my husband said to
me: “Look, I have 10 days off, why don’t
you go to Florida and fly for a week, just
to get it out of your system.”
Not wanting to be asked twice, I
picked a flight school, Florida Flyers in
Fort Pierce, called them up, booked my
lessons, and then flew over. My charm-
ing instructor was Jamie, all of 19 years
old—I was 39. He did a great job and af-
ter a week of hard work, I soloed.
I could hardly believe it! My hus-
band could hardly believe it either, and
offered to cover for me so I could stay
on and continue my training. The catch
was that I had to return to Germany in
a little more than three weeks, because
he had a trip to the Far East. My instruc-
tor’s eyes bulged when I told him what
I wanted to do. But, together, we did it,
and I passed my Private Pilot check and
flew home that same afternoon!
Florida Flyers was a good school for
us, and we returned together for me to
build time and for my husband to be-
come reintroduced to small aircraft (he
was flying the B747-400). That winter I
passed the German private pilot course,
and the spring after I returned to Flor-
ida Flyers and got my instrument and
multiengine ratings. In August 1993, my
husband and I flew to Los Angeles, Cali-
Above, top: On the ground in Mauritius with the Lufthansa crew. Center: Nothing like sitting in the left seat
of a cockpit full of modern glass panels to make your day.
Bottom: In her captain uniform in front of the J32, a 19-seat turboprop.
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