Sandra Clifford:Corporate Pilot

Sandra Clifford:Corporate Pilot
by Betsy Jordan Donovan, Careers Committee

Sandra Clifford, a corporate pilot in the Santa Clara Valley Chapter, began her flying career at 19 when her father introduced her to flying at the Petaluma Airport. That was all it took for her to determine her career path. After graduating from San Jose State University's aviation program in 1995, Sandra stayed close to home, teaching aviation classes at San Jose State, getting all her ratings in a year and a half, managing American Flyers, instructing at Tradewinds Aviation, ferrying airplanes, and flying a Citation jet. Sandra's most recent position, chief pilot for the San Francisco biotechnology firm Clinimetrics, has her flying clinical research associates and corporate management all over the southwestern United States.

In addition, she remains an active flight instructor. Sandra recounts a recent flight with two of her students who had just received their private pilot certificates by saying, "To sit in the back and watch those two women in the front was out of this world. We're always striving to move up to the left seat, however on this flight, my back seat position was just as rewarding."