Pilots

Though women in airline pilot uniforms are now a commonplace sight, it was only 30 years ago that the front office of an airliner was strictly a men's club. The elegant woman who changed all that took her first flight in January 1958.

Eighteen-year-old Emily Howell Warner flew on a Frontier Airlines DC-3 from Denver through Pueblo to Gunnison, Colorado, to attend a dance. On the trip back, the pilots allowed her to sit in the jump seat, as she was the only passenger on the flight.

After answering her endless questions following the flight, Warner recalls the copilot asking her, "Gee, if you want to fly, why don't you take flying lessons?"

That next Tuesday, she went to Clinton Aviation, based at Denver's now-closed Stapleton Airport. It's easy to imagine the stylish figure Warner must have cast when she showed up that first day, neatly dressed in a black suit and a fur cap. Though taxiing was all her lesson consisted of that day, the experience planted the seed.

Six months later she had a job as a receptionist for Clinton. After passing her private checkride, Warner logged flight time any way she could, ferrying parts and airplanes across the western plains. A radio station contracted with Clinton to provide an airplane for its aerial traffic reports, and eventually Warner assumed all the flights, building time flying circuits over the city's major intersections. This experience showed up on her commercial checkride; the examiner commented on how well she could fly in circles. She went on to obtain her flight instructor certificate, and she taught full-time at Clinton until 1967, when she became a designated pilot examiner.

It was as an examiner that she began exploring options outside of general aviation. The first incarnation of Frontier Airlines experienced rapid expansion during the mid- to late 1960s, and Warner couldn't help but notice fellow flight instructors and former students leaving the flight school for the Denver airline's Convair 580s and Boeing 727-100s. At the time she first applied, Warner had about 3,500 hours, and she was helping new hires from United Airlines complete their instrument ratings at the rate of two every three weeks. She spoke with John Myers, then chief pilot at Frontier, who told her she needed more multiengine time and her airline transport pilot certificate, but she recalls he was reluctant to encourage her because he didn't know if an airline would ever hire a woman.

She persisted, applying to United, Frontier, and Continental Airlines. "Continental never answered back, United sent form letters, and Frontier didn't reply either." She began storming the gates, going to Frontier and getting to know as many people as possible. By 1972, she was ready to give up. After all, she had a good job as the flight school manager for Clinton, which had moved to Arapahoe County Airport (now Centennial). She was a single mother, raising a son, and she felt "over the hill" at 32. She had 7,000 hours.

Then one day, while working with an instrument student shooting the ILS 35 approach into Arapahoe County, the tower controller asked her if it was true — the rumor he'd heard that she'd been hired by Frontier. She called a friend at Frontier, who said, "Your name came up, and they dropped it like a hot potato." Emboldened, she went in to see the head of flight operations and secured an interview. After the simulator ride, she was offered a job, but she remembers the chief pilot telling her to sleep on it — it was a "big responsibility."

Warner made her choice, and on January 29, 1973, made history. But leaving GA wasn't easy. "I'd been in GA for 15 years — it was like a family." She flew with Frontier for 15 years, making captain on the de Havilland Twin Otter in 1976 and on the Boeing 737-200 in 1984. When Frontier disbanded in 1986, she flew for United Parcel Service for three years, and then joined the FAA. Fifteen years later, Warner works with the Denver Flight Standards District Office as an aircrew program manager.

Warner's husband, Jay, is a private pilot as well — in fact, they met when he began taking lessons from her at Clinton. She'll be inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in October. Warner gives her experience as a flight instructor a lot of credit. "I figure I've had three careers — the first was GA. I think if I'd planned it, I couldn't have done better."