by Craig L. Fuller
President & CEO
Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association
If you’re a pilot, you owe a debt of gratitude to at least one flight instructor. For some of us, the list of instructors and mentors is long. But whether your flying experience includes one instructor or dozens, you know that you could not have learned to fly without some expert guidance.
But for all our personal gratitude for the flight instructors and schools who coach us from tentative beginner to confident pilot, there is very little public recognition for these hardworking professionals.
We’re changing that. At AOPA’s Aviation Summit a few weeks back, I had the chance to recognize some exceptional flight schools and CFIs, the winners of the very first AOPA Flight Training Excellence Awards.
We received nearly 2,500 nominations for the awards. And the stories that emerged from the nomination process were impressive and inspirational. Among our winners are instructors who use social media to keep their students engaged; schools that take students on international fly-outs; and training programs that use simulators to save students time and money. At some schools, students can fly both the newest technically advanced aircraft and open-cockpit planes from a bygone era.
There’s no easy way to choose winners, but our awards committee did manage to narrow it down. Ultimately, we selected seven flight schools and three flight instructors as our first award winners. It’s our hope that the winners will serve as models and offer inspiration to other training programs and CFIs.
I know there are many more schools and instructors that are creating great training environments for students. And we want to hear about them. Soon we’ll begin accepting nominations for the 2013 Flight Training Excellence Awards at flighttraining.aopa.org/awards. I hope you’ll nominate a CFI or flight school that has made a difference in your aviation journey.
2012 AOPA Flight Training Excellence Award Winners
Flight School Awards
– Aviation Adventures, Leesburg, Virginia
– East Hill Flying Club, Ithaca, New York
– Rochester Aviation, Rochester, New Hampshire
– Summit Aviation, Belgrade, Montana
– The Flight School, Cypress, Texas
Flight Instructor Awards
– Kevin Bradford, Dubuque, Iowa
– Timothy Miller, West Jordan, Utah
– Devan Shepherd, Shoreview, Minnesota
Student’s Choice Award
– Aviation Adventures, Leesburg, Virginia
President’s Awards
– Redbird Skyport, San Marcos, Texas
– Tailwheels, Etc., Lakeland, Florida
