Kendra Davis falls in love with flying as a college student, but as she pursues a career as a professional pilot she faces harassment from instructors and fellow pilots in a male-dominated profession
A dialogue with Randy Blume, author of CRAZY IN THE COCKPITQ. CRAZY IN THE COCKPIT is a novel about a woman pilot. How do you know so much about aviation?
A. Like Kendra Davis, my main character, I took my first flying lesson in college, fell in love with aviation, and went on to pursue a career as a pilot.
Q. Your title is intriguing. Why "crazy" in the cockpit?
A. Pilots often describe flying as ninety-nine percent boredom and one-percent sheer terror. But in Kendra's experience, flying is ninety-nine percent "craziness" and one-percent sheer terror.
Q. Can you give some examples?
A. The student pilot who wants to purchase Kendra for his harem, the grenade-carrying charter passengers, the chief pilot who plays footsie with Kendra during a job interview, the captain who wears a plastic elephant trunk on his nose, wild pigs on the runway, etc.
Q. Although the book is filled with laugh-aloud humor, Kendra also experiences discrimination and sexual harassment. How many actual airline pilots are women?
A. When I was flying, it was less than one percent. Now it is about five percent.
Q. How was it being one of so few women?
A. I often ate lunch alone.
Q. Are you Kendra?
A. I had many experiences similar to Kendra's, but Kendra and the other characters in the book are fictional.
Q. Including Kendra's mother?
A. Especially Kendra's mother.
Q. One of the funniest relationships in the book is between Kendra and her mother. How did your mother, best-selling author Judy Blume, feel about your flying?
A. My mother wanted me to do what made me happy, and she was proud of what I accomplished. But she, personally, is a fearful flyer and says that while I was flying she couldn't go to sleep at night until she'd watched the 11 o'clock news and ascertained that there hadn't been any plane crashes that day.
Q. How does your mother feel about you following in her footsteps as a writer?
A. She's my biggest fan and most enthusiastic publicist.
Q. What is your writing background?
A. I've always written--whether it was poetry, short stories, or letters to the editor. At Wesleyan I majored in English and was an editor on the college newspaper. I've kept journals since third grade.
Q. Do you still fly?
A. I left Continental Airlines when I decided to have a child because I wanted to be home every night. I do keep my license current, though, and I have taken my seven year-old son up in small planes a few times. I may do some flight instructing again, and, if I ever found a jet job without layovers, I would probably take it.
Q. Is your son impressed that his mom is a pilot?
A. He's more impressed that his mom can bake chocolate cake.
Q. Do you miss flyng?
A. It seems to be in my blood. Every time an airplane passes overhead, I long to be flying it. I'm never so confident as when I have one hand on the controls, the other on the throttles.
