» By Ian J. Twombly PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS ROSE RIGHT STUFF LOOKING FOR THE INTRODUCING THE AOPA FLIGHT TRAINING EXCELLENCE AWARDS magine you’re a retired rocket scientist. You helped put some of America’s most important scientific initiatives into space. Learning to fly should be a walk in the park compared to understanding astronautics, and you would never expect to spend $28,000 earning a private pilot certificate. But that’s exactly what happened to John Davis. I 30 / FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORGhttp://FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG