AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2016 - 8

PRESIDENT'S POSITION

Recognizing excellence,
rewarding commitment

BY MARK BAKER
AOPA President and CEO

AOPA honors training providers, awards scholarship

AOPA President
MARK BAKER

learned to fly in a
Cessna 150.

8 | AOPA PILOT January 2016

AT AOPA, we give a lot of attention to big issues that
affect the way our members fly. I'm sure many of you
could recite a litany of things we're working on today:
issues such as FAA reauthorization, certification reform,
unleaded fuels, drones, and more.
But there's a lot happening quietly behind the scenes
that deserves our attention, too. We don't hear much
about the great flight schools and CFIs who train students and create the next generation of pilots. Nor do we
often hear about the young people who are committed
to learning to fly and one day having aviation careers.
They, too, deserve the attention of the pilot community. That's why I want to tell you about a couple of
things we're doing at AOPA to recognize some of the
nation's best flight schools and instructors, and to help
some committed students achieve their aviation dreams.
Each year, we ask students from around the country
to tell us about their training experiences-the good and
the not so good. Based on what they tell us, we identify
some of the very best schools and instructors, and honor
them with Flight Training Excellence Awards. The
awards were designed to celebrate flight training professionals who not only help students get through training,
but who also help those students really become part of
the aviation community. We know that having a sense
of community makes all the difference when it comes
to keeping people flying after they earn the certificate.
The awards serve another purpose, too: spotlighting
best practices and encouraging schools to share their
experiences with what really works.
In 2015 we received more than 7,100 responses
to our Flight Training Poll. Based on the poll results,
we selected Aeroventure Institute of Southbridge,
Massachusetts, as the 2015 Best Flight School and Todd
Shellnutt of Atlanta as the 2015 Best Flight Instructor.
Another 10 schools and 10 instructors were recognized
as Outstanding. And yet another 23 flight schools and
45 instructors made it to our Honor Roll.
Not every great school or instructor can be identified by poll numbers alone, so each year I select a
school for the President's Choice Award. For 2015 it
went to Paragon Flight, in Fort Myers, Florida, for the
school's innovative contributions to the flight training
community. Each year we also recognize the school
that receives the most positive nominations from its

students. For the fourth year in a row, that distinction
went to Aviation Adventures in Manassas, Virginia.
It makes me proud to see schools and CFIs working so hard-and so successfully-to create capable new
pilots and bring them into the community of aviators.
Exceptional students also deserve our acknowledgement. One way we do that is through our scholarship
programs, which in 2015 awarded more than $135,000
to help individuals pursue their aviation dreams. In
October 2015, Flight Training magazine announced 24
scholarship winners who received amounts of $2,500
to $12,000 each to use toward primary and advanced
training. The winners included 10 female aviators, three
helicopter pilots-in-training, 11 high-school and collegeage student pilots, and one recipient in her sixties.
The scholarships were made possible by the AOPA
Foundation, the Breitling Aviation Scholarship Fund, and
generous donations from individuals and organizations.
Most recently, we awarded four AV8RS scholarships
worth more than $22,000 to teenagers who love to fly and
want to make aviation part of their lives. These young
scholarship winners have already shown impressive
commitment and a strong drive to achieve their goals.
Allison Adams of Kentucky, who spends Saturday
mornings volunteering on maintenance projects at
Capital City Airport, will use her scholarship to help
pay tuition at Eastern Kentucky University, where she
is earning an aviation/pro flight degree. Jason Preston,
a junior at Avon Grove High School in Pennsylvania-
where he founded an aviation club-will use his
scholarship money to complete primary flight training.
Dylan Kuchan, a high school senior in the aviation program at Arizona's East Valley Institute of Technology,
will use his scholarship to complete primary training on
the way to becoming an airline pilot. Nicholas Remele,
a Civil Air Patrol cadet and a sophomore studying aerospace engineering at Arizona State University, will use
his scholarship money to help pay for tuition.
I find it inspiring to know that young people like
these will be the aviation leaders of tomorrow, and I'm
honored that-along with the great instructors and
schools that shape their aviation experiences-AOPA
can be there to help them on their way.
AOPA
EMAIL mark@aopa.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2016