Published in Midwest Flyer Magazine December 2023 Digital Issue
LAS VEGAS – National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) President and CEO Ed Bolen presented longtime AOPA media leader, Tom Haines, with the David W. Ewald Platinum Wing Award for his lifetime achievement in journalism. Ewald created Flight Training magazine.
“Tom Haines is a remarkable individual and a remarkable human being,” said Bolen. “At 16, he got his pilot’s license and for the rest of his career, he has been able to share with us his passion and his joy for aviation.”
The award was presented October 17, 2023, during the NBAA Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition, which Haines was assigned to cover for AOPA. The honor was kept a secret from Haines until the presentation.
In accepting the award, Haines said that Dave Ewald was someone he knew when he started at Professional Pilot magazine, “was one of the ones who welcomed me into the industry,” Haines said. “I’ve gotten to fly general aviation airplanes all over the world. And hopefully told a few stories and maybe helped some people along the way to being a little bit safer and maybe to inspire them a little bit to go out and fly an airplane a little bit more. But, really, for me it’s been a thrill and I’ve been inspired by so many people in this room and in other parts of aviation.”
Haines earned a degree in journalism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and was a broadcaster at a local television station, there.
He was first hired by AOPA in 1988 as an associate editor of AOPA Pilot magazine, then editor in chief, and then senior vice president of publications and media. Haines was key to establishing and widening AOPA’s digital coverage, including AOPA ePilot and Flight Training digital weekly newsletters aimed at both AOPA’s core audience and those subscribing to AOPA Pilot’s sister publication, Flight Training. He was key to expanding AOPA Pilot’s Turbine Pilot section into a monthly special edition, and initiated a program of video coverage to accompany stories that appeared in print and established a weekly online webcast – AOPA Live This Week – with Melissa Rudinger and more recently Alyssa Cobb. Haines retired from AOPA in early 2022, and now does special assignments as needed.
Congratulations Tom!
