Friedlander went to school in Vienna, Switzerland and Germany, only returned to live in Britain age seventeen.

[2] Her parents initially funded her pursuit of a pilot's license, but they ended support with that goal achieved.

[2] She wanted to train as a flying instructor and continued despite her parents objections by taking a job pulling aerial advertising banners.

[5] Friedland took the Air Transport Auxiliary test at Filton, Bristol having been written to because she had over 200 flying hours.

[2] Friedlander was one of the eight founding pilots in the women's section of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) and started working at Hatfield airfield on 7 January 1940.

Margaret Fairweather, Joan Hughes, Gabrielle Patterson, Rosemary Rees and Marion Wilberforce, they were known as the First Eight, all appointed by Commandant Pauline Gower.

[2] A bus company in Hatfield named its eight buses after the "first eight" of the Tiger Moth pilots in the ATA, including Friedlander.