Upmarket Commercial/Women’s Fiction
Date Published: January 3, 2019
Publisher: Acorn Publishing LLC
Let pilot Tris Miles lift you up, and fly you to new heights with her inspiring story of love, ambition and the meaning of success.
R. D. Kardon's debut novel puts you in the cockpit with Tris Miles as she navigates the challenges of integrating an all-male corporate flight department in 1997. Tris encounters harassment, marginalization, and backstabbing on her journey to becoming a jet captain.
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It’s 1997. Women stand beside men in combat and fly fighter jets. Pilot Tris Miles is not content with her job as a First Officer for tiny Clear Sky Airlines. She wants to be a Captain—the only way she knows to prove her worth as a pilot and atone for a deadly mistake.
To further her career, Tris accepts a prestigious job with Tetrix, Inc. But her dream of becoming pilot-in-command twists into a nightmare.
As the company’s first woman pilot, she encounters resistance, marginalization, and harassment on a daily basis. Fortunately, Tris has one thing her co-workers can’t deny—skill.
When Tris finds herself in a crippled airplane thousands of miles from home she must prove she can lead. With her career on the line, can Tris earn the respect she’s been craving? And if this is the end, can she find the strength to forgive herself?
Flygirl by R.D. Kardon
Book
Excerpt II
A
Passion Ignited
Tris watched a 747 on final approach above
her, its four engines hanging off of the wings, massive gear assembly down. It
probably moved at 160 knots, but it appeared to float toward the runway. The
majesty of this enormous jet had awed Tris ever since she was a little
girl.
Grandpa Ed had introduced her to flying. On
Sundays, he would come over early and have breakfast with Tris and her parents.
Her mother would make blueberry pancakes that had a secret ingredient Tris
still didn't know.
"Let's go, Princess Patricia. Let's
see the miracle of flight," he'd say as he wiped his mouth and drained his
cup of black coffee. She'd jump up from the table, kiss her parents goodbye,
and run out to Grandpa's truck.
They'd make the two-hour drive from the tiny
town of Pittston to the big-city airport. Tris would watch the cornfields roll
by, as Grandpa's old pickup bounced along with his hands locked in the
ten-and-two position on the steering wheel.
When the terminal doors opened, she would
run to the plate glass window looking out over the ramp, pressing her nose up
against the glass and trying to rub it against the bulls-eye tip of a 747
parked at the gate. White with a red stripe, the letters "TWA"
painted on the side.
"Grandpa, it's so big. How can it
fly?"
He'd smile down at his only grandchild.
"That's the miracle, princess."
Now, whenever Tris saw a 747 in flight, she
could almost feel the calloused warmth of Grandpa's hand on hers. Those days at
the airport, with her hand in his while she stood nose-to-nose with the
gigantic jet, were the moments she treasured from a childhood that always
seemed too short.
Tris's dad died when she was eight. Her
mother was adrift after that, sometimes forgetting to cook or clean. From time
to time when Tris walked in the door after school, her mother stared at her
like she was an unexpected visitor.
Grandpa died just a few years after her
father. Tris felt more alone than ever after the two most important men in her
life floated away like helium balloons.
The train passed, the barriers rose, and
Tris moved on. She'd flown into Exeter many times at Clear Sky and knew the
alignment of its crossing runways like the lines in the palm of her own
hands. In her mind, she held a full-color picture of how they looked from the
air, like a postage stamp glued to the middle of the city.
Her mouth went dry. She swallowed twice and
shimmied her seat to loosen the grip of the shoulder strap that locked against
her chest. As she checked the street signs for her next turn, Tris daydreamed
about flying the Astral for Tetrix all over the world.
"Look where I am, Grandpa," she'd
say from ramps in Europe, Asia, maybe even Africa! Well-paid coverage crews
slept in five-star hotels with lengthly sits in high-end vacation destinations
at the ready in case the executives they flew changed their plans. And this job
promised the most important benefit: the chance to become a captain without
having to wait for her seniority number to come up.
About the Author
Robin "R.D." Kardon was a litigation attorney before beginning a twelve-year flying career as a corporate and airline pilot. She holds an Airline Transport Pilot certificate and three Captain qualifications. Her travels took her all over the world in every type of airplane from small single-engine Cessnas to the Boeing 737. Robin earned her B.A. in Journalism and Sociology from NYU and J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law. A native New Yorker, Robin now lives in San Diego, California with her beloved rescue pets. , a work of fiction inspired by her own aviation experience, is her first novel.
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