"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We're about to enter an area of known turbulence, so please put on your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy ride."

Erika Armstrong is the first modern woman airline captain of a commercial Boeing 727 to write a book about her experiences. Women in aviation are sparse, and Erika quickly learns the humor of being locked in the cockpit with men for countless hours, the grace of suffering discrimination from the most unlikely places – her female boss, the determination to fight for flight time by flying for the Red Cross and being a twenty-four-hour air ambulance pilot/captain, and the pain of losing two dear friends when their plane crashes.

Throughout it all, Erika's cherished book club members keep her grounded while she balances marriage, her daughter, her flight duties, and spousal abuse. When Erika becomes the victim of a false arrest by her husband, it's her book club friends who continue to support her and secretly come to her rescue in a dramatic courtroom appearance. It's Erika's cockpit training and years of experience that give her the strength and determination to fight her way back.

With twenty-five years in the aviation industry, Erika Armstrong has worked in every aspect of aviation, including an international corporate airline captain. She is an award-winning staff writer for Colorado Serenity Magazine and is also a contributing writer for Mountain Connection and General Aviation magazine, and is a former editora and writer for Air Line Pilot Association. Erika owns Leading Edge Aviation Consulting and is currently a flight coordinator for International Jet Aviation Services.