Rippelmeyer retired in 2014, authored “Life Takes Wings” and is the founder of the nonprofit Roatan Support Effort, which provides aid to Honduras. She spoke to Community Impact about her flying career. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
When did you develop an interest in flying?
I was always interested in flying. I grew up on a farm [in Illinois], and I had a horse, and I loved pretending that we could take off. ... And just about 2 miles from the farm were limestone bluffs you could climb up and see what the world looked like from 300 feet. And I would just imagine what it would be like to soar.
When did you join the aviation industry?
A friend was going for an interview [as] a [Trans World Airlines] flight attendant and invited me to go along. We both got hired, and I became a flight attendant. The [Boeing] 747 had just come out, ... so as a new hire, that’s the airplane I was assigned, and as the youngest one, I was assigned to serve the cockpit. ... I learned a lot.
When did you officially become a pilot?
In 1977, there was a need for pilots again. It’s a very cyclical business, even now. I had another unique set of circumstances [that] led me to fly for a little commuter airline called Air Illinois. ... For TWA [Airlines], they wanted [pilots to have] jet time, so that was a way to be able to get [jet time]. So I took a leave of absence as a flight attendant and got hired by Air Illinois.
What was it like to be part of the first all-female crew to fly?
[Air Illinois] had another lady they already hired a couple of months earlier who was flying as a captain. Her name was Emilie Jones. ... The [owner of the airline] says, ‘OK. You’re hired, ... but of course, you’re not going to fly together. ... We have to have a man up there in case anything goes wrong, you know? And we don’t want to scare away our passengers, do we?’ So that was in September. So for three months, we knew of each other, but we didn’t fly together. ... But then Dec. 30, 1977, [there] was a big storm, and none of the other pilots could get to the airport. And Emilie was the captain, and I was the first officer that could get there. ...
The dispatcher calls and said, ‘OK, there’s 15 people that want to go to St. Louis. What do we tell them?’ And [the owner] says, ‘OK, let them take the airplane, but keep the door closed, and they don’t make any announcements. The passengers can’t know how this happened.’ So we did, and we just had a regular flight. We both just did our job; it was no big deal. ... And so [after that], they didn’t have that restriction [on no all-female crews] anymore.
How did you become the first woman to fly a Boeing 747?
That was probably the biggest [wow moment] just because I didn’t know if I could [fly such a big plane]. ... This other stuff, I knew I could. ... But no woman had ever flown a 747, and there’s nobody to call [for advice]. So many people told me that it couldn’t be done, that a woman just couldn’t handle that airplane. ... I didn’t want to prove them right and fail and set womankind back. ... But my chief pilot was so confident in me and such a good instructor that I ended up having to believe that he would not put me in a situation that was either dangerous or embarrassing. So if he thought I could do it, I could do it. And so I did.
