What do you think?
Rate this book
How Not to Fly an Airplane: A Female Pilot's Journey
232 pages, Paperback
Published May 20, 2025
1 person is currently reading
19 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 13, 2025
Book Review: How Not to Fly an Airplane: A Female Pilot’s Journey by Shirley M. Phillips
Shirley M. Phillips’ How Not to Fly an Airplane is a compelling and refreshingly candid memoir that chronicles her unconventional path to becoming a professional pilot in a male-dominated industry. Blending self-deprecating humor with hard-won wisdom, Phillips dismantles the myth of effortless expertise by detailing her early mistakes, near-disasters, and gradual mastery of aviation. The book serves as both an inspiring personal narrative and an insightful commentary on gender dynamics in STEM fields, offering valuable lessons about resilience, humility, and the power of learning from failure.
Phillips’ writing shines in its ability to transform technical aviation scenarios into gripping, accessible stories. Her descriptions of botched landings, misjudged weather patterns, and comical miscommunications with air traffic control are rendered with vivid detail and wry humor. What elevates these anecdotes beyond mere entertainment is Phillips’ thoughtful reflection on how each failure contributed to her growth—not just as a pilot, but as a leader and mentor. The memoir particularly excels in its portrayal of workplace sexism, from subtle microaggressions to overt discrimination, though some readers may wish for deeper structural analysis of the aviation industry’s gender gap.
The book’s structure follows a loose chronological progression from Phillips’ first flight lessons to her eventual command of commercial aircraft, interspersed with thematic chapters on specific challenges like instrument flying or emergency procedures. While this approach effectively showcases her development, certain sections feel disproportionately detailed compared to others. The most powerful moments come when Phillips connects her aviation experiences to broader life lessons, particularly in chapters discussing how embracing vulnerability ultimately strengthened her authority in the cockpit.
Rating: 4.2/5
Section Scoring Breakdown:
-Narrative Authenticity: 5/5 – Unusually transparent about professional failures
-Technical Communication: 4/5 – Makes complex aviation concepts accessible
-Gender Analysis: 4/5 – Personal insights could benefit from more systemic critique
-Structural Pacing: 3.5/5 – Some unevenness in chapter depth
-Inspirational Value: 4.5/5 – Powerful model of competence through perseverance
Thank you to NetGalley and the author, Shirley M. Phillips, for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Shirley M. Phillips’ How Not to Fly an Airplane is a compelling and refreshingly candid memoir that chronicles her unconventional path to becoming a professional pilot in a male-dominated industry. Blending self-deprecating humor with hard-won wisdom, Phillips dismantles the myth of effortless expertise by detailing her early mistakes, near-disasters, and gradual mastery of aviation. The book serves as both an inspiring personal narrative and an insightful commentary on gender dynamics in STEM fields, offering valuable lessons about resilience, humility, and the power of learning from failure.
Phillips’ writing shines in its ability to transform technical aviation scenarios into gripping, accessible stories. Her descriptions of botched landings, misjudged weather patterns, and comical miscommunications with air traffic control are rendered with vivid detail and wry humor. What elevates these anecdotes beyond mere entertainment is Phillips’ thoughtful reflection on how each failure contributed to her growth—not just as a pilot, but as a leader and mentor. The memoir particularly excels in its portrayal of workplace sexism, from subtle microaggressions to overt discrimination, though some readers may wish for deeper structural analysis of the aviation industry’s gender gap.
The book’s structure follows a loose chronological progression from Phillips’ first flight lessons to her eventual command of commercial aircraft, interspersed with thematic chapters on specific challenges like instrument flying or emergency procedures. While this approach effectively showcases her development, certain sections feel disproportionately detailed compared to others. The most powerful moments come when Phillips connects her aviation experiences to broader life lessons, particularly in chapters discussing how embracing vulnerability ultimately strengthened her authority in the cockpit.
Rating: 4.2/5
Section Scoring Breakdown:
-Narrative Authenticity: 5/5 – Unusually transparent about professional failures
-Technical Communication: 4/5 – Makes complex aviation concepts accessible
-Gender Analysis: 4/5 – Personal insights could benefit from more systemic critique
-Structural Pacing: 3.5/5 – Some unevenness in chapter depth
-Inspirational Value: 4.5/5 – Powerful model of competence through perseverance
Thank you to NetGalley and the author, Shirley M. Phillips, for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
May 17, 2025
This book has been described as the aviation version of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, (I haven’t read this as of yet but have heard good things and will definitely try and bump it up my TBR list.) so was expecting all the insider gossip, drama and HR violations galore.
This book is written in the 80s/90s when less than 2% of pilots were female. Shirley was young, petite and female. When you think about what direction this book will take, you’d be fair in assuming sexual harassment was rife, but that’s wasn’t the main theme for this book. She was belittled, second guessed, told she had to prove herself and that she represented all future female hires. She dealt with cowboys (literally) not one but two engine failures, the guilt of a previous student dying and how she eventually found the courage, agency and power to stand up for self in her career, her and her daughter’s medical treatment and how she hopes better for the aviation industry.
It was an interesting read and reminded me a lot of Karina Molloys “A Woman in Defence”. I did hope for a little snippet of the aviation industry in modern day and if they’ve overcome some of these issues, but that’s the HR girl in me (and the one that still remembers her worst interview ever with Ryanair)
How Not to Fly a Plane is out on May 20th. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Apprentice House for this early release copy.
This book is written in the 80s/90s when less than 2% of pilots were female. Shirley was young, petite and female. When you think about what direction this book will take, you’d be fair in assuming sexual harassment was rife, but that’s wasn’t the main theme for this book. She was belittled, second guessed, told she had to prove herself and that she represented all future female hires. She dealt with cowboys (literally) not one but two engine failures, the guilt of a previous student dying and how she eventually found the courage, agency and power to stand up for self in her career, her and her daughter’s medical treatment and how she hopes better for the aviation industry.
It was an interesting read and reminded me a lot of Karina Molloys “A Woman in Defence”. I did hope for a little snippet of the aviation industry in modern day and if they’ve overcome some of these issues, but that’s the HR girl in me (and the one that still remembers her worst interview ever with Ryanair)
How Not to Fly a Plane is out on May 20th. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Apprentice House for this early release copy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 3, 2025
I received this book as an ARC via NetGalley - thank you to the author and publisher for this!
The title alone made me want to read this book and I was not disappointed!
Shirley M. Phillips gives us a good look into the airline industry in the US from a female pilot's point of view and it was very interesting to read each chapter, that contains a different story.
I am an airliner myself (although ground staff), but this book is not just for people like me, involved in the aviation industry, but for everyone who is interested in this topic and wants to know more about this topic and about some things they don't tell you as a passenger.
The title alone made me want to read this book and I was not disappointed!
Shirley M. Phillips gives us a good look into the airline industry in the US from a female pilot's point of view and it was very interesting to read each chapter, that contains a different story.
I am an airliner myself (although ground staff), but this book is not just for people like me, involved in the aviation industry, but for everyone who is interested in this topic and wants to know more about this topic and about some things they don't tell you as a passenger.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews