Beth Niebuhr

Beth Niebuhr is the author of A Woman's Place Is In The Cockpit. As she describes it, the book is about her life in the sky. She tells about learning how to fly, being a flight instructor and starting and running her flight school for just under 20 years. It's way more entertaining than that sounds!

Although Beth's BA was in music and she taught elementary school for several years, she came into her real passion when a friend took her flying for the first time. She resolved to learn to fly when her younger child went to kindergarten.

She did that and never looked back. Next came a commercial certificate, instrument rating, multi-engine rating and flight instructor qualifications. Then she began teaching people how to fly and loved it. After serving as Chief Flight Instructor for a large aviation company, she started her own flight school. Beginning with one rented airplane and one instructor, her, she grew the school to a high of 13 airplanes, single and twin engines, and taught hundreds of students. Many of the flight instructors were trained by her.

The book contains lots of stories which vary from describing the joy of flying to trips to emergencies. No tragedies. Beth entered the aviation field when it was very much a man's world but she gained the respect and friendship of most pilots at the Santa Barbara Airport.

Beth lives in Prescott, Arizona with her husband Don, who was her high school sweetheart many years ago.