You Can Fly: Honoring flight schools and instructors

‘Flight Training’ Excellence Awards presented

January 1, 2017

A Florida flight training business that keeps its customers on course toward their goals and a Maryland flight instructor who has gone out on her own for the love of instructing have been voted winners of AOPA’s 2016 Flight Training Excellence Awards.

Winners of the Flight Training Excellence Awards were recognized at Redbird Migration in October.

Flight Training Professionals, based at Executive Airport in Orlando, Florida, and Brenda Tibbs, an experienced instructor who launched a new venture, Bravo Flight Training, in Frederick, Maryland, received their awards October 25, 2016, at the Redbird Migration Flight Training Conference in San Marcos, Texas.

Nine additional flight schools and 10 more flight instructors were judged to be outstanding by their students; 60 flight schools and 50 flight instructors also were recognized as being on the flight training honor roll. Winners and more information will be profiled in the February 2017 issue of Flight Training magazine.

The Student’s Choice Award was given to Paragon Flight of Fort Myers, Florida, as the flight school that received the highest number of positive nominations. This year’s President’s Choice Award winner was Take Flight Aviation of Montgomery, New York, selected by AOPA President Mark Baker for significant and innovative contributions to the flight training community.

The 2016 AOPA Flight Training Poll gave aviators the opportunity to provide feedback about their recent flight training experience, a way to “stand up and sound off for the future of flight training.” Voting took place between May 23 and August 22, 2016, with 11,356 ballots being cast. A total of 789 flight schools and 1,515 flight instructors received votes.

The Flight Training Excellence Awards, now in their fifth year, comprise one of the initiatives under You Can Fly, AOPA’s umbrella program to make flying more accessible and affordable by pursuing a range of targeted approaches to building the pilot community—from supporting flying clubs and encouraging best practices in flight training to getting rusty pilots back in the air and helping high school students discover the potential for careers in aviation.

The Flight Training Poll measured the performance of flight training providers based on educational quality, customer focus, community, and information sharing—factors that combine to create an optimal flight training experience, according to a study commissioned by AOPA in 2010.

A whole new world

High school symposium highlights aviation

By David Tulis

Meet Cindy Hasselbring, senior Director of AOPA’s High School Initiative

January Briefing Cindy Hasselbring is the senior director of AOPA’s High School Initiative. She comes to AOPA with a background in education and STEM. Hasselbring was a high school mathematics teacher in Michigan. She found her way to the Washington, D.C., area when she became an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow with the National Science Foundation where, among many other tasks, she was the teacher representative on the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy STEM education committee.

Hasselbring also worked at the Maryland State Department of Education’s Office of the State Superintendent of Schools, where she was the special assistant to the state superintendent.

She is a pilot currently working on her instrument rating.

Nearly 200 educators shared their passion for teaching students about aviation during the second annual AOPA High School Aviation STEM Symposium at Seattle’s Museum of Flight in November 2016. The aviation science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) symposium brought together educators, aviation pioneers, and business leaders, paving a path of study for future aviators, mechanics, engineers, and more.

NASA astronaut Nicole Stott said she became fascinated with aviation as a youth when she accompanied her father in a small airplane that “opened my eyes to a whole new world.” Stott reminded teachers that their passion could be contagious because, “in school, even if you are just one teacher in aviation or aeronautics, it can make a huge difference to some students.”

AOPA President Mark Baker said the future looks bright for students in elementary, middle, and high schools. “There are real careers and real opportunities for students,” Baker told the group, noting an expected shortage of pilots and mechanics expected to climb past 600,000 full-time positions in the next 20 years, according to a Boeing study.

Cindy Hasselbring, AOPA’s senior director of the high school initiative, said aviation is “perfect for math and communication skills” and that the educators should not feel like they are alone in trying to promote aviation-based studies. “We have 32 states and two countries represented here and you all have a passion for what’s right for your students.”

Museum of Flight President and CEO Doug King echoed Hasselbring’s advice as educators attended sessions on integrating aviation into classrooms, starting flying clubs, and partnering with school systems to fund and promote aviation classes. “We need parents and teachers like you to say [to students], ‘There’s a place for you in aviation.’ If we all work together, the sky is no limit for young people.”

The symposium concluded with a presentation by AOPA partner Purdue University, which is developing four pathways of curricula for high school STEM-based aviation programs.

Hasselbring said, “We see all of you as leaders, and we want to give you the proper tools” to make STEM-based aviation education a fun and viable future for generations of aviators.

Email [email protected]

Web: https://youcanfly.aopa.org/high-school

Flying Clubs

‘Winning formula’ works

New flying club the latest addition at thriving Florida airport

By Dan Namowitz

January Briefing A new flying club in Florida helped a rusty pilot return to active status on the club’s first flight when the group’s president completed a flight review in its leased Cessna 172.

The debut flight of the Aviation City Flying Club from Arcadia Municipal Airport, with President Don Morley (shown) in the left seat, was the latest in a series of developments putting the airport on the map as a general aviation destination and reinforcing the airport community’s reputation as strong GA advocates.

Visiting pilots are drawn to Arcadia Municipal’s one paved runway, one grass runway, open spaces, and mom-and-pop atmosphere. For more than a year, a nonprofit group, the Friends of Arcadia Airport, has been operating a one-of-a-kind, on-airport camping facility featuring a 20-by-30-foot pilot shelter set in an oak grove, available to visitors for a fee and by reservation. The group designed, funded, and built the “fly in, camp out” facility.

With the airport drawing visitors to Arcadia, population about 7,700, local businesses have begun to see GA’s local base as an economic-development asset for the city, said George Chase, president of the Friends of Arcadia Airport group and AOPA’s Airport Support Network volunteer for the airport.

Now those visitors also can network with members of the new flying club, who are eager to share their story with others who might want to start a club of their own, said Morley. Friends of Arcadia Airport hosts monthly pancake breakfasts, with donations accepted from guests who can fly in, park their aircraft, and talk about starting a flying club.

The Aviation City Flying Club got its start with help from You Can Fly, AOPA’s project to support flying clubs, flight schools, and others who work to make flying accessible and affordable.