The Flipside

Former Thunderbird Lead Solo Michelle "MACE" Curran provides a blueprint for converting your fear into a strength based on the hard-earned lessons she learned in the cockpit and beyond. Michelle Curran can fly an F-16 fighter jet upside down, but she’s afraid of spiders. And tight spaces. During high altitude chamber training, she wondered if her fellow airmen—and they were all men—could tell she was panicking under her oxygen mask. Yet she flew sorties in Afghanistan and served as Lead Solo for the Thunderbirds, performing in aerial showcases nationwide—often upside down. All this, while grappling with what was, to her, an even bigger opponent: imposter syndrome. In time, she learned how to turn fear into strength and self-doubt into confidence. Most of all, she learned how to make uncomfortable choices by flipping her perspective, like her jet, upside down. In The Flipside, Michelle “MACE” Curran addresses how fear tends to force us back into our comfort zones and onto autopilot. She shares lessons she learned from high-stakes missions and life-defining moments, helping readers unlock their resilience to face life’s challenges with courage—and ultimately, rise above.