Evelyn Schmidt Van Dyck was born in Berlin in 1949, as the Berlin Airlift was winding down, and came to America at four. At seven, a Pan Am crew invited her into the cockpit, and she was hooked.

She became a pilot and flight instructor, taught people to fly in Florida for twenty years, and served as an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner. In Arizona she taught high school chemistry for another twenty years. Her husband, a retired airline captain, was once her instrument student.

Now retired, she writes the Vogel Sisters spy thrillers with an aviation twist, beginning with Doppelgänger, and the Wings Series of pilot-training books, from Private Pilot (Cleared for Takeoff) to Airline Transport Pilot (Cleared for Heavy Metal).