Laurel Lippert began flying at age 40. With “the speed of a Piper Cub,” she earned her instrument and multi-engine ratings, and her commercial and flight instructor certificates. Her writing career existed before she fell in love with flying. Laurel wrote feature articles for SKI and Snow Country magazines, and video scripts for medical and technical companies. In 1996, she wrote her first aviation article on her home airport of Truckee, Calif., for Mountain Pilot magazine. Since then, she has been a regular contributor to Pilot Getaways magazine and an online aviation columnist for ipilot.com.

With co-author Greg Brown, Laurel wrote You Can Fly!, a colorful and inspiring guidebook to understanding and appreciating the process of learning to fly. Since the book’s debut, Laurel has spoken at EAA’s AirVenture in Oshkosh on learning to fly after 40, a talk she calls, “Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks.”

Tom Lippert

Laurel taught her husband, photographer Tom Lippert, to fly. Until flying and aviation photography became his passion, Tom illustrated nine books on skiing, published his work in dozens of magazines, photographed the first invasive robotic surgery in the U.S., and directed photography for the ComputerWorld Smithsonian Awards program.

Tom illustrated ASA’s You Can Fly! and Takeoffs & Landings by Leighton Collins. Tom and Laurel fly a 1948 Cessna 170 from their home base in Truckee, Calif., near Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada.