CFI Renewal

Flight Instructor's Biographies

Art Flior

Art is an active flight instructor specializing in turbine, multi-engine, and GPS transition training. He is a captain for a Washington, D.C., area charter operator flying Citation 560, King Air 200, and Hawker 800XP aircraft. Art is type rated in the Gulfstream G-IV SP and the Citation 560/550/500. He holds ATP, Gold Seal CFIAI, MEI, AGI, and IGI ratings. He has been an FAA Aviation Safety Counselor for the Baltimore FSDO since 1978. Art also provides consulting services to developers of computer-based aviation training software. He served as a NOAA Commissioned Officer for more than 26 years. Art was the Chief Pilot for the NOAA (NOS) Office of Aeronautical Charting and check pilot for the National Weather Service. Visit Art's Web site for links to useful aviation information.

Bill Gunn

Bill is the director for Systems and Training for the Texas Department of Transportation, Aviation Division. Bill is an ATP, CFII, MEI, and ACR authority. He has approximately 7,000 flying hours in a wide variety of military and civil business, corporate, and general aviation areas. Bill flew RF 4C aircraft in South East Asia, air shows in Great Britain, and represented the Air Safety Foundation in test CFI clinics in Australia. Bill is an aircraft owner and flies for work and pleasure.

Catherine Fish

Catherine has been an active flight instructor since 1974 and is a current mountain pilot. Her background includes diverse experiences including glider tow pilot, USDA contract pilot, and commuter airline captain. Catherine has taught this AOPA Air Safety Foundation course, as well as Pinch Hitter^® Courses and Safety Seminars since 1983. Formerly an Av Tech professor at Cochise College in Douglas, AZ, she is co-author of the book Speaking of Flying.

Gerry Fairbairn

Gerry holds a Ph.D. in business and is a professor at Daniel Webster College. He is an ATP, a flight instructor with airplane, glider, and instrument ratings; a ground instructor with advanced and instrument ratings, and holds a mechanics certificate with A&P ratings. He has accumulated over 6,500 flight hours with much of it in flight instruction.

Mark Grady

Mark has over 6,000 hours in a Cessna 152! He earned most of those hours during a decade as an award-winning traffic watch pilot/reporter in Raleigh, N.C. He is an aviation writer and member of the Aviation Speakers Bureau. In 1998 he was named North Carolina’s Aviation Safety Counselor of the Year.

Mike Mechsner

Mike is a retired USAF pilot and has been a CFI since 1970. He is enthusiastic about instructing and maintains a Web site for all CFIs to use. Mike has been teaching the Air Safety Foundation’s Flight Instructor Refresher Clinics for eleven years.

Pat Shaub

Pat is an experienced ATP, CFI-I, and an active FAA Safety Counselor with many years of experience flying and teaching pilots. Pat’s classes are interesting and fast paced, salted liberally with examples taken from his extensive real-world flying experience in the civil and military world, including his career flying as an air ambulance helicopter pilot.

Steven R. Raichelson

Steven holds an M.A. degree in psychotherapy and has 23 years of experience in aviation education at college level. He holds an ATP certificate for single- and multiengine land airplanes and commercial privileges in gliders. He is a certificated flight instructor (airplane/instrument and glider), as well as an advanced ground instructor. Approximately half of Steven's 8,000 flight hours have been logged as an instructor.

Tom Emanuel

Tom holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and is Associate Director and a pilot examiner at the University of Illinois Institute of Aviation. He has been a CFI for over 40 years and is rated in gliders and seaplanes, as well as SE & ME airplanes. He has been designated by the FAA as a National Accident Prevention Counselor.

Wayne Phillips

Wayne is an ATP and B-737 rated. He manages the Airline Training Orientation Program (ATOP), a two-day B-737 introductory course for aspiring airline pilots conducted at the Continental Airlines Pilot Training Center. He's a careers writer for AOPA Flight Training magazine; operates a Hot Air Balloon enterprise in Colorado, and is an FAA Pilot Examiner. He earned "CFI Of The Year-1999" in the FAA NW Region.

Updated Thursday, April 3, 2008