Meet three Michigan women airline pilots

Lisa Mrozek, Saline, age 52

Job: Captain, Delta Air Lines

Based at: Detroit Metro Airport

Flies: Boeing 757 and 767 domestically and to Europe and South America

Career influence: Her uncle and neighbor were both pilots.

Education: University of North Dakota, double major in aviation and business

Learned to fly: At University of North Dakota

Built up flying hours: Worked as a flight instructor and flew an air ambulance, weather plane and more.

Career: Hired by Northwest Airlines 30 years ago. She was the 20th woman pilot hired. Northwest merged with Delta in 2009. Of Delta's 12,000 pilots she is one of 61 female captains.

Personal: Married with 3 children. Her daughter, 18, is learning to fly and just flew solo.

Advice: "It's a really fun job. If you want to become a pilot, do that. Then decide what kind of pilot you want to be."

Karen Guadagni, St. Joseph, Mich., age 49

Job: Captain, ExpressJet, which flies regional flights for United, Delta and American

Based at: O'Hare Airport, Chicago

Flies: Embraer 145 domestically and to Mexico

Career influence: While working as a flight attendant, she realized she wanted to fly planes instead.

Education: Michigan State University. She got into law school but decided to become a flight attendant, then a pilot.

Learned to fly: While stationed as a flight attendant in Honolulu in 1997 she started flying and soon was flying twice a day. Got advanced training at flight school in Florida.

Built up flying hours: As a flight instructor.

Career: Joined ExpressJet in 2001, chose to stay at the regional carrier for its flexibility and her seniority

Personal: 2 sons ages 15 and 16; divorced, ex-husband also a pilot for the airlines

Advice: "In this profession, you don't get a job because you are a woman. You get a job because you have proven over and over again that you can do it."

Annmarie Savitski, Ann Arbor, age 45

Job: First Officer Delta Air Lines and a flight operations manager at Detroit Metro

Based at: Detroit Metro Airport

Flies: Airbus A320 domestically and to Canada and Mexico

Career Influence: Father. When she said she wanted to be a flight attendant, he told her she could be a pilot.

Education: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; did a three-year pilot-aviation mechanic curriculum as part of her bachelor's degree in geography-cartography.

Learned to fly: At U of I

Built up flying hours: Worked as flight instructor in Illinois and Washington state

Career: Briefly worked at Microsoft as a programmer on aviation simulators; became a pilot for regional Mesaba Airlines in 1998 then hired by Northwest in 2007, which was absorbed by Delta in 2009

Personal: Husband Mike is a graphics designer.

Advice: "The same thing as my dad said: As long as you have the education for it, you can do anything you want to do."