Avionics News January 2013 - 63

What aircraft do you fly?

When people ask me what I ﬂy, I usually answer, “Whatever I can get my hands on.” I don’t think there are many pilots that would turn down a chance to get up in the air. Right now, I am a member of several ﬂying clubs that I instruct for or rent from. The majority of my time is in an A-36 Bonanza — I am deﬁnitely a Beechcraft guy.
What is your favorite aircraft to fly?

allowed me to be a part of all aspects of Mid-Continent Instruments and Avionics, from troubleshooting customer issues to providing feedback, answering questions and ﬂight testing for new product development. In fact, Mid-Continent Instruments and Avionics owns a Beechcraft Staggerwing and Beechcraft Sundowner. The Staggerwing is used for customer visits, sales and marketing. I feel lucky as it is a “bucket list” aircraft for a lot of pilots. The Sundowner is currently used for research and development. It is the only experimental Sundowner I know of.
What are your current ratings?

I have had the opportunity to do some aerobatic and upset recovery training in an Extra 300. I would say that is my favorite ﬂying so far. I have aspirations to own a Pitts Special someday. There’s something about a high-performance, aerobatic, taildragger that really makes me smile.
When did you know you wanted to become a pilot?

When I was very young, I had dreams of being an astronaut and being able to ﬂy. My father would tell me stories of when he had a current pilot license, and I always thought having a pilot’s license was quite an accomplishment. One inspiration for me to become a ﬂight instructor was my father. I could hear the excitement in his voice every time I got a new license or rating. He was living vicariously through my ﬂying, but that wasn’t enough for me; I had a goal of getting my father back in the air. When that day ﬁnally came, I sat in the right seat and reintroduced my father’s love for ﬂight back into his life. Back on the ground, I signed his logbook 32 years almost to the day of his last logged ﬂight. I was very proud, and he enjoys bragging to people that he is now my student as he learns what’s new and becomes proﬁcient again.
How does being a pilot impact your job?

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Commercial, Single Engine Land: Instrument, Airplane Commercial, Multi Engine Land: Instrument, Airplane Certiﬁed Flight Instructor Certiﬁed Flight Instructor Instrument Advanced Ground Instructor

As a pilot, what are your thoughts on new technologies (iPads in the cockpit)?

As an outside sales manager for Mid-Continent Instruments and Avionics, I am able to live my passion for aviation every day. Flying is a major part of my job. It is not only a means of transportation to visit with customers around the country, but there is a common language that pilots and people in the aviation industry share. Being a pilot has

The hassle of carrying approach plates and charts for cross countries has been taken away with the invention of electronic ﬂight bags, mostly unaﬀordable to the everyday general aviation pilot. Thanks to tablets and iPads, we now have a safe, aﬀordable and convenient way to have the most recent information while on cross country ﬂights. I use an iPad in ﬂight mainly for the purpose of storing my approach plates and charts. By using a Bluetooth GPS and XM receiver, I easily have the situational awareness of some ADS-B-compliant aircraft. From a ﬂight instructor’s perspective, it has allowed me to increase my eﬀectiveness while instructing students. However, I remind and caution people when using their iPads to not rely on them for navigation. It is easy to become ﬁxated on all our fun new tools. Never stop ﬂying the airplane. 
Would you like to be featured in AEAviators? Contact Jenna Kramer at jennak@aea.net or 816-347-8400 to ﬁnd out how.
AVIONICS NEWS

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JANUARY

2013

Avionics News January 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News January 2013