It was indeed an honor and privilege to end the 2019 year with being presented the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for 50 consecutive years of accident, incident, and violation free flight operations by the US Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration.
The Pilot Award was dated 09 September 2019 which was 50 years to the day of my first solo, on my 16th birthday, at the Scranton Municipal Airport in a brand-new Piper Cherokee PA28 140 aircraft.
Beginning from that flight to the present day, I have had the opportunity to share a cockpit with many airmen (far more knowledgeable and experienced than myself) to whom I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude that I can never repay.
To those many mentors who have shared their cockpits with me and tolerated my frequent missteps, to my family who have supported me during the early lean and difficult years of building a career, to my GHS colleagues who have believed with me in our vision “For anyone in the world to travel anywhere in the world…safely”, and to the women and men of the US Federal Aviation Administration who have made our industry the safest mode of transportation in the world, a very humble and appreciative, “Thank you.”