Capt. Rafael Mira · Author, Pilot & Fear of Flying Coach
Memoir of flight, dreams and lessons learned.
A Spanish immigrant who could barely get through school ended up flying private jets around the world alongside major stars. His story is a reminder that taking off never depends on where you start, but on whether you decide to take control of your life.
“Life Flies By is, above all, a love letter to everyone who started from zero.”
The books
A memoir, a companion workbook, and a children's book on the way — all built around the same question: what are you willing to do to begin your own takeoff?
A memoir
La Vida Pasa Volando · English & Spanish editions
Memoir · Paperback & e-book · ~450 pages · April 2026
From the roads of Murcia to the cockpit of a private jet, by way of a century-old Miami bar, a Category 5 hurricane and the rescue of eighteen Cuban rafters. Written with humor, honesty and the precision of someone who has learned to stay calm under pressure — a love letter to everyone who started from zero.
Buy on Amazon
A companion workbook
Ahora Te Toca A Ti · English & Spanish editions
Companion workbook · Reflection, purpose and personal growth
The workbook that turns every chapter of the memoir into an invitation to look inward: reflect, define your purpose, grow every day. My story is already written. Now yours begins.
Buy on Amazon
El Sueño de Daniel · Bilingual children's book
A story about believing, learning and never giving up — the childhood dream of flying, told for the youngest readers in English and Spanish.
Buy on AmazonFear of flying
Long before the book, Rafael was leading fear of flying seminars and speaking about flight anxiety on the radio. Certified in aviation psychology and trained as a master speaker and life coach, he helps nervous flyers overcome their fear of flying — working on the mind, not just the mechanics of flying. Sessions in English or Spanish, in Miami or online.
Group sessions focused on helping people understand, face and move past flight anxiety.
An uncommon credential behind the calm: what actually happens in the cockpit, and in the passenger's head.
Formal training that turns three decades of flying into practical tools other people can use.
Private coaching with a real pilot before a flight you have been putting off — in person or online, in English or Spanish.
About the author
Rafael Mira spent part of his childhood hearing that he would never amount to anything. Today he pilots some of the most demanding jets in the world, at the request of some of the most recognizable names in music and business.
Born and raised in Spain, he emigrated to the United States with little more than an unshakeable stubbornness and a one-way ticket. Decades later he has logged more than thirteen thousand flight hours and is type-rated on several private jets, including the Global Express.
Before the cockpit there were hull-scrubbing days under the Miami sun, work as a waiter and cook at the legendary Tobacco Road, four years as a yacht captain across the Caribbean, hurricanes, reef collisions, and years translating in courts and hospitals in Philadelphia.
Every takeoff is still a little bit of that same letter he writes to who he once was: “we made it!”
Press & bookings
For interview requests, review copies, speaking engagements or podcast bookings, get in touch with my press contact below.
Press contact
Anabelle Alarcon · ALARCON PR LLC
Email press contact