Uber flyer

The dream of becoming a professional airplane pilot nearly ended at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for Kristin Incrocci.

That was in the 1980s, when Incrocci was the rare female student at Embry-Riddle, one of the top aviation colleges in the country. A third-generation flyer who says her best memories of childhood were in a plane, usually by her dad's side, Incrocci knows her way around a cockpit. But the hardcore training at Embry-Riddle, in Daytona Beach, brought Incrocci to tears and kept her up at night. “It was like the military,” says Incrocci. “The stress was unbelievable.”

Incrocci survived, and later thrived, at school. It was the start of a 25-year-plus career in a plane, from training students to flying people for a host of companies. That career has now taken Incrocci to a new business geared toward the busy business executive: Sarasota-based Lift Air.