A Chick in the Cockpit (26 page)

About Erika Armstrong

Erika Armstrong is currently an award winning staff writer for
Colorado Serenity Magazine
, and her professional aviation articles can be found in
Disciples of Flight
,
NYC Aviation
,
General Aviation
,
Contrails
, and
Business Insider
. Most uniquely, Erika was an international corporate, airline, Red Cross, and 24-hour air ambulance pilot. Even though she isn't currently flying the heavy iron, she is entrenched in aviation, where she owns Leading Edge Aviation Consulting, is a flight dispatcher and pilot recruiter.

Adopted in Seattle but raised in Minnesota, Erika's early membership in the Minnesota 99s (International Women Pilots Association) jump-started her career. After meeting several women pilots who spent their lives complaining about discrimination, Erika decided to handle every challenge with humor and perspective. This attitude and obsessive focus landed her in the captain's seat of a commercial airliner by the age of thirty. She also holds a type rating in Boeing 727 and CE-500 series aircraft and has extensive pilot training from Flight Safety, SimuFlite, NATCO, CAE, Pan Am, and has flown 28 different types of aircraft.

To back experience with education, Erika attended the University of Minnesota's Journalism program as an undergraduate before being lured into the world of aviation. To round out her education, she attended Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University and has a B.A. degree in International Business, Economics and Culture with National Honor Society recognition from the University of Denver.

Living at 8,700 feet in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Erika can almost touch the airplanes she used to fly. She shares her house on the hill with her family, friends, three dogs, rabbits, horses, guinea pigs and any other strays she finds along the way.

She always has a spare room for guests so just bring some good stories and a smile.

More information about Erika can be found at her website:
www.achickinthecockpit.com

A Chick in the Cockpit
Discussion Questions

1.
Could this story have happened fifty years ago? What is your view on feminism and how has it changed through each of your own life phases?

2.
Is the title,
A Chick in the Cockpit,
sexist or offensive to you? Why? Can you separate your own beliefs from what society has taught you?

3.
There are certain industries that simply cannot be conducive to raising children/having family life. What other careers take parents away from home and what solutions are there to an absent parent?

4.
Are you afraid to fly? Why or why not? What is your worst/best aviation experience?

5.
Have you ever wanted to be a pilot? If you didn't follow through, what held you back?

6.
Have your views or thoughts on aviation changed after reading this story?

7.
Do you use checklists at work, at home, anywhere in your life?

8.
Have you ever experienced sexual harassment or discrimination? How is it different from the last generation?

9.
Erika uses an example of swearing in the cockpit to “talk like a man.” Do women swear more now to fit into the man's world? Are we desensitized to it?

10.
Erika loses one of her mentors and several friends in aviation accidents, but because of her mentor, she continues training. Have you ever had a mentor? How have mentors changed your life and why aren't there more?

11.
Have women changed to blend into corporate America or has corporate America changed to allow women in? Do women lead or still just strive to blend in?

12.
In
A Chick in the Cockpit,
Erika mentions being adopted and her belief that core character is set at birth. How does your character affect life choices and do you believe it is set at birth? How do life choices affect character and vice versa?

13.
Like most of us, Erika had to spend some time working terrible jobs. What's the worst job you've had and what did you learn from it?

14.
Erika never considers that her new female boss would ban her from the cockpit for being a woman. Have you ever been discriminated against based on gender by someone of the same gender?

15.
How well do you think you know the opposite sex, and how did you gather that knowledge?

16.
How have the roles of men and women changed during the last fifty years and is it a natural change or does it feel forced? Who or what is forcing it?

17.
Why is there more divorce in our society now than the last generation? Are couples/families more or less “happy” that the last generation? What do you attribute that to?

18.
Did Erika fit your image of an abused woman? Have you or someone you know been involved in a domestic abuse situation? Give examples of abuse, besides obvious physical damage. What would you have done differently to get out?

19.
Faced with the probability of divorce while approaching the end of her childbearing years, Erika conceived a child on purpose. Do you agree or disagree with this choice?

20.
Do you know your local laws on domestic abuse and what actions warrant arrest?

21.
What can we do, as a culture, to strengthen marriage and curb abuse?

22.
What past influences are shaping Erika's actions in the story?

23.
What gives you serenity and can you find it even though you are alone? Are you only happy when in a relationship? What does our society teach us about happiness?

24.
Now that an entire generation has lived through the post Gloria Steinem era, are we better or worse off now as an individual, a family, a child, an employee, a nation. How much of that status is based on the changing roles of women? How can we do better?

25.
If you are in a book club, why? Would you have been willing to help Erika like the Book Club Warriors were willing to help her?

26.
Has our society created a collaborative environment for women to work together, or compete against each other, and how does that affect our society as a whole?

27.
Were there any moments where you agreed or disagreed with Erika's choices? What would you have done differently?

28.
What would you do for your children?

29.
Did your opinion of the book change as you read it? How did you experience the book?

Thank you for reading!

If this book put the jam in your jelly doughnut, and you have some spare time, we would love it if you left a review. Behler Publications thinks you rock!

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And finally, before you go...

Here are a few other wonderful stories you might enjoy:

FIGURING SH!T OUT:
LOVE, LAUGHTER, SUICIDE, AND SURVIVAL

By Amy Biancolli

“Your life isn't over.” My dad says this. “I mean, YOUR life isn't over. Beyond the kids. You'll go on living, doing things. This isn't it.“

I know, I assure him. I have the kids. They need me. They're my life now.

“OK,” he replies, then grunts -- more of a brief hum. He only hums when he thinks I'm full of shit.

Shockingly single. Amy Biancolli's life went off script more dramatically than most after her husband of 20 years jumped off the roof of a parking garage. Left with three children, a three-story house, and a pile of knotty psychological complications, Amy realizes the dead car battery, rapidly growing lawn, basement sump pump, and broken doorknob aren't going to fix themselves.

Amy learns that “Figuring Sh!t Out” means accepting the horrors that came her way, rolling with them, slogging through them, helping others through theirs, and working her way through life with love and laughter.

Amy speaks frankly about suicide and its aftermath. Her humor links the sacred and profane -- the spiritual and the down-and-dirty -- in a way that's honest and reflects how real people grieve and, more than that, live.

FINDING DAD: FROM “LOVE CHILD”
TO DAUGHTER

By Kara Sundlun

Kara Hewes knew her father, Bruce Sundlun, was a dynamic man whose legendary bravery during WWII transcended to his life in the courtroom, the boardroom, and finally as two-term governor of Rhode Island. But she'd never laid eyes on him until one transformational moment, when she awoke in the middle of the night as a TV news anchor announced he was running for office. One look at his picture and she knew she needed to find the other half of her.

Her letters and phone calls went unanswered, so the determined teen hired a lawyer, arranged a secret meeting and DNA test, but he still refused to acknowledge her. His rejection permeated every cell. She was bright and ambitious, so why wasn't she worth loving?

At 17, ready for college, Kara boldly faced a packed press conference to file a paternity suit. In the middle of the media frenzy, Bruce did the unexpected and offered to help pay for college and invited Kara to come live with him so he could get to know her better.

It was a summer of firsts for Kara; living in a Newport mansion, meeting her new family and, toughest of all, trying to find space in her father's heart. It was Kara's effervescent smile and inherited stubborn determination that proved impossible for Bruce to resist. It took the unconditional love and forgiveness of a 17-year-old girl to break down the barriers that had separated father and daughter for too long.

THE FOUR GIFTS

By Father Joe Bradley

By all rights, Father Joseph Bradley should be dead. If past usage of beer, marijuana, and cocaine didn't do the trick, then certainly heart failure should have. Instead, by the grace of God, he is alive, clean, sober, and a functioning Catholic priest with another man's heart beating in his chest. But it came at a huge cost.

While Joe was in his late teens, his father died suddenly. The loss was devastating and Joe's emotional desolation found escapist bliss in a beer bottle and cocaine vial, and he pledged irrevocable devotion to both. The slide into the abyss was ugly, and Joe finally sought help because there was nowhere else to go—which led him to serve others as a Catholic priest. The day of Joe's ordination, an old friend came to the mass and announced for all to hear, “Well, now I can say I've seen a miracle.”

Joe functioned for fifteen years as a sober priest before his heart gave out from the same heart disease that killed his father. But another miracle came his way, and he was blessed with a new heart—a gracious gift from a family during the most painful moment of their lives.

Joe has been granted the blessing of four gifts: faith, sobriety, a new heart, and a fulfilling ministry. As Father Joe says, “Gratitude inspired this book. I owe it to people who helped rescue me from alcohol and drugs, and I owe it to my heart donor for giving me yet another chance at life.”