Former private flight attendant turns jet setting with the rich and famous into novel
COURTESY IMAGE – It’s Ann Menke’s ‘Exposure to a Billionaire,’ a work of nonfiction based on her life as a corporate flight attendant.
Imagine soaring high above the clouds in a luxury Gulfstream 550 at 50,000 feet, so high that you could gaze at the Earth’s curvature.
Views like these and jet-setting adventure are de rigueur for private flight attendants, the ones who accompany the rich and famous around the globe on privately owned jets, offering up champagne, cashmere blankets and gourmet tidbits so unlike those pretzel snacks the rest of us enjoy.
Trips can last months or hours, depending on what the plane’s “primary passenger,” i.e. the boss, wants. Not only are the planes plush, but once they touch down, corporate flight attendants stay in the world’s most glamorous hotels and travel to exotic places around the world.
Such was the career of Ann Menke of Beaverton, who has turned her high-flying career as a private flight attendant into a novel called “Exposure to a Billionaire” ($17.95, Morgan James Fiction, www.ann-menke.com).
Menke says there really were no downsides to the job, except for a grueling schedule. A four-day trip, for example, could suddenly turn into a three-week trip. The upside is that when mom is a flight attendant, the family Christmas vacation could be in Hawaii and Thanksgiving might be in Cabo San Lucas.
“I knew early on that I wanted to fly for Pan Am,” says Menke, the daughter of an Air Force pilot.
“We were based in Andrews Air Force Base (Maryland) and then Panama,” she recalls of her childhood. She moved to Oregon in 1972.
Her career took off when a beloved mentor steered her into a specialized area: working as a private flight attendant. Her first flight was with Nike founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny. Subsequently, she flew with Casey Powell, founder of Sequent Computers Inc. She flew a two-week trip with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos when he was still sending packages from his garage. There were trips with Paul Allen, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, too.
The encounters became the composite for the character Stuart Manning, the “Billionaire” of the book’s title. Some of the author’s real-life experiences play out in the book’s heroine, the fictional Anna St. James.
“I still remember the first corporate airplane I ever stepped on,” Menke says. “It was an aha moment, much like Anna St. James boarding Stuart Manning’s new G550. Even the smell of the jet fuel!”
Like Anna, Menke vowed to never take her good fortune for granted. Later in her career, Menke flew all over with Jeld-Wen Founders Rod and Carol Wendt, with whom she became very close and considers extended family.
“I’ve been fortunate to fly on all kinds of planes: Gulfstreams, Boeings, Global Express, Challengers, Falcons, BAC 111s (during old Trail Blazer days). I love all airplanes, but the Gulfstreams are my all-time favorite,” she says.
She loves to fly. “You can launch a Gulfstream in L.A. and go anywhere. Usually you’re up at 50,000 feet. It’s super cool and you can see the curvature of the Earth.”
Though a difficult field to break into, Menke says the Middle East carriers are “hiring (private flight attendants) like crazy. I get asked every other week to do a three-month flight. They always want a photo, so they’re like we used to be in that respect,” she says, referring to the industry’s past blatant emphasis on good looks.
A flight attendant’s earnings are regulated by the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), and salary depends on whether a flight attendant is flying on a contract, full-time or retainer, Menke says.
“It can be up to $1,000 a day, plus being paid for expenses, preparation time and travel days,” she explains. “I’m current to fly, and I get asked weekly, but I’m pretty happy on the ground these days.”
The author chose to write her book as fiction rather than as a memoir to protect the privacy of the people she worked with.
“Over the years I got to go to amazing places with all these people, and you feel protective towards them. I knew I couldn’t write it as a memoir. Fiction allowed me to open up and really write about the journey,” she says.
Favorite flights and destinations? Menke has a few:
“I would say my real first flight to Le Mans and Mauritius will go down in the books as amazing. I loved flying with the Trail Blazers — it gave me a set schedule. I also have loved the many trips in the Cote d’Azur. I love Chateau Eze, New Zealand, British Virgin Islands, Australia, any Hawaiian island, St. Lucia, Mexico, Central and South America, Croatia, Italy, Phuket, Bora Bora, Samoa, Marshall Islands, Guam … it is hard to pick one! Scotland, Iceland, the British island called Jersey …”
For each location there’s a story; some are very extravagant.
“I got a call from the wife of the gentleman I worked for once asking me to fly that afternoon to where they lived and help her with Christmas shopping,” Menke says. “We ended up with over 30 cashmere socks and a brand new Aston Martin paid for in cash! She called for her airplane and had her pilots fly me home late that evening. Who does this kind of stuff?”
The demanding schedule is hard on families but “my husband has been my biggest supporter,” says Menke, “and my family has been able to travel many times.”
Menke cherishes the deep connections she has made over 25 years in the field and her opportunities to mentor people entering the field.
“I created lifelong friendships with many of the families I flew with. My aviation family has been one of my strongest support groups,” she says.
That custom Boeing 757 plane presidential hopeful Donald Trump flies in with the 24-carat gold seat buckles? He bought it from Paul Allen about three years ago, Menke says. Allen purchased it from a prior owner. It has heated floors and two bedrooms and seats 43, but when Menke flew in it the plane seated 28.
“Trump calls it his ‘brand new’ plane, but he’s the third owner,” Menke says, laughing.
Art imitates life in the book, and both share a charity aspect.
“I wanted the character of Stuart Manning to get involved with saving children,” Menke says, “and to show the extremes of the worlds of luxury and poverty.”
The fictional “Manning Foundation” mirrors the Oregon charity Hear the Cry (www.hearthecry.org), which is dedicated to aiding the world’s poorest people.
Proceeds from sales of “Exposure to a Billionaire” book will go to the charity.
“My husband will travel soon to Uganda with Hear the Cry, and I was able to see the work they do in Haiti,” Menke says.
Sequent’s Powell speaks highly of Menke and the book.
“Many people come and go as part of our lives, and Ann was one of those who came and stayed,” he says, in a news release about the book. “The book is incredibly accurate for the way things happen, and the many destinations are accurately represented.”
Adds Sara Culver-Truby, fellow corporate flight attendant: “Ann has brought to the story some amazing adventures and the lifestyle of what it’s actually like in the world of corporate aviation and the ultra rich. Each chapter brought back so many amazing memories from my own flying experiences over the last 20 years. I couldn’t put the book down.”
2 comments
That is a beautiful photo with very good light -) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIJzPyBZiQA
Thank you…I have a great photographer!