RFT 368: First Female F-16 Pilot/Airline Pilot Sharon Preszler
Ready For Takeoff - Turn Your Aviation Passion Into A Career
English - February 10, 2020 07:01 - 34 minutes - 48.6 MB - ★★★★★ - 136 ratingsAviation Leisure Business Careers flightschool rft airforce airline aviation cargopilot commercialpilot fighterpilot flightsimulator flying Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Sharon “Betty” Preszler was hand-picked as one member of the initial cadre of women fighter pilots in the United Stated Air Force. She was the first woman to fly the F-16 (a single seat, single engine fighter), the first woman to fly combat missions and instruct in the F-16. Betty has over 1300 hours in the F-16, including over 50 combat hours in Iraq and one ejection, due to electrical failure. In her 20+ years of service in the US Air Force she was also a navigator, piloted a Lear Jet, and spent time in North American Aerospace Defense Command writing our homeland defense plans after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, plans that are still in use today.
After retiring from the Air Force, Betty went to work for Southwest Airlines, where she has flown over 8,000 hours in a Boeing-737. When she isn’t flying, Betty is traveling or scuba diving with her husband and son, volunteering at a local animal shelter, or hanging out at home with her two dogs.