 Welcome to Sun and Fun and welcome to today's program. Sandy and Joanne Hill have been involved in aviation education for many years. And the Association, the National Association of Flight Instructors, has been in existence for nearly 40 years. What we have in aviation is a very interesting system where we bring young people up, they teach other people and people go on to airlines and do other things. What happens to get lost sometimes is the importance of the professionalism that comes with quality flight instruction. Sandy Hill and Joanne Hill have dedicated many, many years of their lives to bringing the profession, the important profession of flight instruction to the awareness of the people who are actually doing it and the customers who are actually part of that flight instruction routine and quality. Rusty Sacks, the Executive Director of the National Association of Flight Instructors, is one of the first master CFIs and he hails from Vermont. We have three very special people here today to talk about professional CFI for the 21st century. Please welcome Joanne Hill, Sandy Hill and Rusty Sacks. Thank you Kathleen. Good morning everybody and thank you very much for having us today. I'm Sandy Hill, she's Joanne Hill and I'm Rusty Sacks. Can you hear us in the back? She will answer to Sandy, I will not answer to Joanne. And then Rusty Sacks, he answers to all kinds of things. Call me anything you'd like but not late for dinner. Okay we're here this morning or this afternoon to talk to you a little bit about our thoughts as they relate to flight instructor professionalism, particularly in the 21st century. Things have changed a lot and it's an ongoing process, they continue to change. We got to keep up with it as flight instructors, got to keep up with those changes, got to keep up with the new knowledge. So we hope to touch upon some things that you will find interesting, useful and perhaps even humorous from time to time. So we've already been introduced, we can forego that part of the program. A professional CFI, we're going to submit to you some of our thoughts. What constitutes a professional flight instructor? And here is perhaps a profile. The first element of professionalism in instruction is that one must be a good teacher, must have pedagogical skills, must be able to encourage students to learn. We can't ever cram knowledge into a student. All we can do is create a favorable environment for learning. In order to do that one must be able to communicate. Apparently my voice doesn't carry it, I'm sorry for that. One must be able to communicate which means you must speak grammatically, you must speak in complete sentences and you must make sense with what you're saying. And you must speak into the microphone. You must also be a proficient pilot. One of the things that Joanne and I work with a lot, actually the bulk of our responsibility is working with flight instructors to help them become better teachers. We will assume rightly or wrongly that anyone who holds a flight instructor certificate at some point has demonstrated the necessary flying skills to do the job of a flight instructor. But because that individual holds a flight instructor certificate does not necessarily mean that he or she is an educator, a teacher. So we work with flight instructors to help them become better teachers by various and sundry means. So maintain your skills as a pilot, be a proficient pilot, but also keep in mind that that's only half of the problem, half of the program. All right, and another very important aspect of being a good flight instructor is to be a safety advocate. All of us realize that safety should be our number one priority and we need to make more safe pilots when we are training our students and always be a good role model, a good example in whatever behavior we're doing even when we're not instructing, we're just out flying on our own and doing whatever we do. We don't want to ever, ever do something as unsafe because to see if I can do it, so can I. Right, we are the role model. We must also be an ethical service provider, don't you agree? I agree completely and one of the, in addition to subscribing to a code of ethics, being an ethical service provider means treating every other person you deal with in a humane, in a compassionate, and in a friendly fashion. We set the example for other pilots. If you set aside for a moment the academic flight schools, the colleges, the Embry Riddles, the Daniel Websters, the Middle Tennessee's, and set aside the large 141 schools, most flight instruction takes place at small airports where there's one or two CFIs per airport throughout the country and those few people are looked on as the font of all knowledge. These are the people that every pilot around goes to with a question or a problem and must conduct themselves in a way that will inspire people to feel confident that they can ask this instructor anything. You have to be a continuous learner. When you get the flight instructor certificate and the ink is dry, that's not the end of your learning. That really is, I know it's cliche-ish, but that really is the beginning. You never learn anything as well as those things you teach. So you're going to be on this continuous cycle of picking up new knowledge, imparting new knowledge, but you have to be a continuous learner, which requires you to stay current. All right, here's what I've already touched upon, being a mentor and a role model. And this is not only for other pilots, but for other flight instructors. If you're the more experienced flight instructor, you should be willing to take that young guy or gal aside who maybe is struggling with getting a student past a plateau and make yourself available so that you can be a resource to those people with less experience than you have. I think that's a real responsibility of any professional in any field, and especially in flight instruction. And you're always the role model for all pilots, but for flight instructors also, you should be a role model and a mentor. We'll talk about the master instructor program here in a few minutes, but one of the building blocks, the foundation, literally, of the master instructor program is this mentoring and being a role model. We'll touch upon that a little bit more later on. In the 21st century, as a flight instructor, you've got choices, choices, choices, probably more choices than have ever been available in the world of aviation. Where are you going to instruct? Who are you going to instruct? What are you going to instruct in? Got lots of different choices there, too. And what kind of equipment are you going to use? Well, let's continue with this profile of a flight instructor in the 21st century, but we're going to factor in some of the stuff that is more relevant today than it may have been 10, 12, 15, 20 years ago. Okay, you are, first and foremost, a resource on all the issues that are likely to come up in conversation at the airport. You have to know, as the responsible flight instructor, current state of federal aviation regulations, current state of proposed alterations to federal aviation regulations, you have to know TSA rules. In the last three years, the Transportation Security Administration has been involved in aviation sometimes to the astonishment of the FAA. You're responsible for knowing that, you're responsible for being appropriately trained, not only for security issues at your airport, but for training alien students who may come to you because they wish to enhance their skills and take them back home. An advocate for general aviation, that's probably one of the more important things that a flight instructor can do because we as flight instructors carry the general aviation banner. We've got to be out there waving the flag, letting the community, and I'm not talking about the aviation community here, I'm talking about the community in which you live, waving the flag for general aviation, convincing people that the airport is more than just a noisy place, that there is a reason to have that airport there, good economic reasons to have the airport there. Okay, and then you need to maintain your proficiency in aviation technology. That was easier to do back even 10 years ago. However, now with the advance of all the technology, it seems like a daily basis, you need to be proficient with the new stuff that's out there, because guess what? The people who are going to come and ask you for flight reviews and IPCs and wings sign off, so they're going to be people with this new technology in their airplanes. Also, flight schools are buying the new stuff, so you need to know how to fly the new stuff, and you don't want to just go take off with your hangar neighbor who just bought a Cirrus, because oh, I always wanted to fly a Cirrus. But first, your responsibility would be to get that check out and get Cirrus certified before you start teaching someone. Teach yourself and be proficient. Yes, utilizing new methods and materials. In this information age, all kinds of research is being done on virtually a daily basis that give to us, provide to us as aviation educators, new methods and materials. Well, you need to be able to embrace those as a flight instructor, take them, try them, tweak them so that they work for you, and then go out and use them. In order to do that, you have to be aware of where to find materials. You have to be aware of who the suppliers are, of what quality of materials and what materials relate to what sort of technology that you may be exposed to. You also have to be able to market yourself, marketing skills, preparation of things just as simple as your business card, something that will help set your best foot forward as a flight instructor. If you're a flight instructor at a local airport that has one paved and one grass runway in the middle of out in the bush, Kansas, it doesn't help to broadcast yourself as a flight instructor with a picture of a multi-engine jet on your card saying that you're big and too important to deal with the pilots around there. Market yourself so that you will put your foot forward and show your best side to the people most likely to have contact with you. Go ahead. And you got to be computer literate. This is sort of, in 2007, saying you must be computer literate is sort of like saying in 1880, well, if you're going to drive that buggy, you really need a buggy whip. That if you're not computer literate now, you better get a computer, this is not easy to say, toy boat, toy boat, toy boat. You'd better get computer literate real quickly because our generation out there that is under 40, not that any of us here, of course, we do have a couple of people under 40, these people communicate in a completely different way than how we grew up communicating. We used to write letters with a thing called a pen on paper, we would use stamps to translate them. People don't do that now. They email, they text message, they use YouTube and MySpace and they have a completely different environment for communicating from what we're used to. And if we're going to reach those people, we have to go where they read. We have to use their techniques or else we're going to be considered a bunch of old buddy dutties. Yeah, a story that I like to tell, very brief one. One of the flight instructors with whom we worked several years ago, we had a long discussion with this gentleman, happened to be a Floridian. He was probably 70 years old at the time. And I said, Jack, you really do need to learn about computers and get computer literate. You need to get an email address. You need to have internet access. He says, what do I need that for? I got a fax machine. Okay. All right. Some of the things that we need to be proficient with, with regard to the internet and computers and so forth. Yeah, have an email address. Does that mean that you need to get yourself overwhelmed with email? Well, that just kind of seems to happen whether we want it or not. But no, you don't. You just need to have access to the internet and access to an email address. Are you aware of the number of online safety courses that are available out there? We were fortunate yesterday. Joanne and I sat through a presentation by Jim Piles, who is the father of FAA Safety.gov. He is putting together a whole series of internet courses available to pilots in general, not just flight instructors, to help keep us current. So you need to know about those things so that we can then share that information with our students. You need to know what a CD is and what a DVD is, and you need to know the difference. Believe me, there are people out there who don't know the difference. One of them is for rental movies, and the other one is at the bank, right? Right. Aviation websites. I think everybody now has an aviation website. Even individual flight instructors have aviation websites. But know what they are, and more importantly, know how to coach your students so that they can use these websites effectively. Probably the most important from a safety point of view, from a flight instructor's perspective, is FAA Safety.gov. There is a wealth of information that is available there that's yours for the taking. It doesn't cost a dime, but we need to be able to teach our students that this stuff is available. This is how you use it. This is how you access it. I'd like to mention that if anyone is not already registered on FAA Safety.gov, all you have to do is go through that door or go around the building and right out front there they will get you registered and help you go through that process if you haven't done it yet. Yeah, let us digress just a moment. I'll follow up on something that she said. We are at the point now where with regard to aviation safety as it relates to the FAA, you all remember, most of the folks in this audience are old enough to remember receiving the little postcard in the mail telling you that there is going to be a safety seminar at XYZ Hotel in two weeks. Were you all aware, by the way, that those cards were prepared and mailed by a bunch of inmates at a prison in Oklahoma City? That's the truth. I'm not making that up. That is the truth. Well, they don't operate that way anymore. Virtually all of that notification is now done via the internet and it's done to those people who are registered on spans and Joanne's advice is very important. If you're not already registered on spans, go outside, gather up with the safety.gov people out there and get yourself registered. It's no big deal and you will receive those kinds of notices as we go along. All right, let's talk a little bit. Or just sign up with them, go on the website, FAAsafety.gov, click on enlist or join or whatever the appropriate box is and just do it online. The virtue of this is that you don't have to do things with pencil and paper. You don't have to have a face interview. You can do it electronically. Right. Let's talk a little bit about Nathie's mission and we'll discuss how the National Association of Flight Instructors as a professional association supports the things that we have just talked about with regard to making a flight instructor a professional aviation educator. All right, Nathie's mission is share them your thoughts on the Nathie mission. Nathie was founded almost 40 years ago by a forward-looking group of flight instructors in the heartland of the United States who realized that flight instructors were neither demonstrating nor treated as, that wasn't grammatical, neither demonstrating professionalism nor treated by the aviation world as professionals. They established Nathie in order to change that. A flight instructor is every vet a professional. A flight instructor is entrusted with people's lives and entrusted with two generations of protecting people's lives. It's very important that they be recognized in such. They be compensated as such and that they relate to the world with professional responsibility. We're going to take a look at a portion of Nathie's mission statement and see how these specific items relate to some of the things that we've talked about to establish and promote a high level of professionalism. We're going to provide the tools. Okay, one of those tools is master instructor accreditation, which we will touch upon again a little bit later, but it is a professional standards program that promotes high standards and recognizes people who meet those high standards. Another one is our website, www.NathieNet.org, which provides a lot of information and is a place to post information, to share and network with other flight instructors across the nation. And that's what it looks like. That's you. Okay. We have a new website that has been added as a service to flight instructors involved with Nathie. The master instructor program that Joanne mentioned a moment ago has a website called NathieMasters.org. We encourage any of you who would like more information about what a master instructor is, what he or she has to do to earn the designation, you know, some of the perks that are associated with it and so forth. Go to www.NathieMasters.org and take a look there. It's a fun website. I went a little too far or a little too fast. That's what that looks like. And you'll see pictures of about 200 people. And I'm sure that everyone in this room would know some of the 200 people who are pictured on there. The National Association of Flight Instructors has a monthly magazine for its members. Nathie Mentor. Mentor is a magazine devoted strictly to aviation educators. It's not for the general public. It's not for general aviation. It's stuff that I shouldn't call it stuff, really should I. Nathie Mentor presents articles and news on subjects that would probably make many private pilots blink like lizards. It just does not oriented toward them. It's oriented toward the educator. E-Mentor is a bi-weekly electronic magazine with generally three or four short articles, teaching tips, and information of interests to the members. We also have on the website a section called Ask the Masters. This is a portion of the website that people can use, flight instructors can use, when you've got a question, a concern, a problem, something that you need help with, something you would like advice about, just kind of a sounding board and you can contact the master instructors. They are all registered on there in various areas of expertise and they have all agreed to mentor any other flight instructor who chooses to go on the website and ask a question. Nathie also provides seminars and training. Some of those would be like this today and we have seminars at Sun and Fun and Air Venture and other places around the country, but you can always count on Sun and Fun and Air Venture. Some of the training we've provided has been some sport pilot when that first started. Rusty was very involved with providing training for new well, DPEs and people wanting to be CFIs or CFIs wanting to transition into the lights forward area. Nathie members are also eligible for professional liability insurance covering them as flight instructors and the insurance policy that we offer our members actually is about the only insurance policy that protects flight instructors for liability that's incurred even if the instructor is not in the aircraft at the time the incident generating liability occurs. Example, if you as a flight instructor sign someone off with a tail dragger endorsement and that person later is involved in an incident, the aircraft is damaged, it's very likely the instructor will be named as a defendant in a claim for damages. Most insurance policies will not cover the instructor in those circumstances because the instructor was not on board the aircraft at the time. Another benefit is that many aviation suppliers see the value of having flight instructors use their products because there's a multiplier effect. The instructor uses a product and many many students see the instructor using that product. Therefore, they offer very favorable discounts to Nathie members for using their products. Yet another Benny? Yes, we're going to talk a little bit about the opportunities that are available to flight instructors primarily through Nathie. We tend and are very proud of the relationship that we are developing with the FAA and with the aviation industry. The partnerships there are growing and growing and growing. We encourage all of our members and flight instructors in general to be involved in these partnerships to help establish these relationships and to go out and share the wealth, the knowledge and so forth with the flying public. Nathie was very involved with the sport pilot initiative. Nathie works closely together with EAA. Nathie is not a part of EAA. Nathie and EAA are partners affiliated by contract but have many similar goals. The sport pilot initiative was instigated and championed by EAA as an organization and Nathie was very helpful in an advisory capacity to EAA. We were involved in consulting with the FAA on the preparation of the questions for the knowledge tests, on defining the elements to be tested in the practical test standards and the like. Nathie tries to consult in a brotherly basis with the FAA because you get more answer with honey than you do with vinegar. Most of you are probably aware of the FITS. This lady here is our resident FITS expert. All right, if you all will notice their FITS stands for FAA Industry Training Standards. FITS has been around for a couple of years but it's an attempt to upgrade the flight training standards and PTSs. FITS is scenario based training as opposed to maneuvers based training. A lot of flight instructors already have incorporated that into their their regimen but this is kind of opening the door to everyone to take part in scenario based training. It's a government FAA plus an industry group who meets together. They have approved several TCOs and training programs now throughout the country at different flight schools and different manufacturers especially with TAA aircraft that have come out. We need a different style of training especially for those since there's so much more to jam into the package and they also are now presently working on redoing syllabus, syllabi and PTSs for all private through CFI practical tests and they will be scenario based and so it's a it's a new concept and a new way of doing things but I think most people would agree it's a good thing, it's a very good thing and we don't have to wait to go through the NPRM process. We're just going to all agree to do this and that's why it's a it's an FAA industry group program. Yeah we encourage involvement in the National Safety Program mentioned that a little earlier but there are many benefits associated with the involvement in the National Safety Program not the least of which is an attempt and we hope a positive attempt to decrease the number of general aviation accidents that's really the foundation of the safety program and its reason for being. We've been spending a lot of time here at Sun and Fun working with the people who are trying to put together the new wings program just as a very brief update for those of you who do not know the new wings program their their projected launch date is the 1st of June. One of the questions that comes up frequently well I am presently involved in the old wings program does that mean that all of that is for not no that is not true even if the program is launched on the 1st of June those of you still involved in the current wings program will have until the end of this calendar year until the last day of December to wrap up any things that you've been doing in the wings program and then you will have until the last day of January of 2008 to get your next wings phase flight training materials. And since that since the old wings program is tapering down there's rumor that that will now be referred to as the winglet program. Flight training what do you want to say about flight training materials? Well actually that sounds like a Walt Shambles joke. Well I think that we've been working with different groups who are producing flight training materials as consulting you know and a lot of master instructors now are producing new materials with the door that's opened with TAA and glass cockpits and things like that. And to provide for the common defense and provide recognition for the contributions to aviation safety education and training of flight instructors. Right one of the goals of NAFI is to recognize flight instructors for the things that they are out there in the field doing. We all know the the ongoing discussion about flight instructor pay and you know all of the issues that are associated with that. But one of the things that a professional association can do and we feel is a large part of professionalism is recognizing the people who are really going above and beyond who are making a difference and so forth. So we're going to touch upon a few of the things few of NAFI's involvements in in those sorts of things. Master instructor accreditation all right give them some of the details. Okay it is a professional standards program which outlines activities that we have defined as defining the master level of professionalism for us for a flight instructor. It includes being an educator that's the biggest chunk but then we also think you should have some pro bono or service type activities that you provide for the aviation community at no charge and things like young eagles and CAP and angel flight things like that. There's another component that deals with media because as a professional educator and teacher you should be putting together materials to use with your students and to share with other instructors. So it those kinds of activities can be nothing more than a new pre solo exam or a new checklist for an airplane that you think is better than the one that was provided all the way up to writing books and articles and newsletters and textbooks and anything like that. The fourth component is being a participant or a student yourself because as we said earlier you should be continually learning and increasing your knowledge base and your skill level yourself. So all of those activities together are defined as meeting professional standards. If you meet those standards it's a renewable two-year program you would earn the master instructor accreditation. There are some perks that go along with that. It might make sense to back up a little bit. You're all probably aware that a flight instructor certificate is valid for two years. You go to FERC or you show some activity you get your certificate renewed it's valid for another two years. NAFI thought and the Hills were very instrumental in doing this and they're too modest to say it themselves that if a flight instructor is a professional the flight instructor should be treated the same way that a doctor or a lawyer or an architect is treated and should be required to continue education during those two years. Since the FAA doesn't require that NAFI created a program that would recognize that and just as a doctor has to do so many hours of continuing medical education every year or two years or three years a lawyer has to do continuing legal education. The master instructor program was was created to recognize those instructors who do continue learning and teaching and writing about it and participating in making themselves better instructors. Of the 90,000 flight instructors in the United States there are currently 400 and something master instructors. These are the creme de la creme of flight instruction he said modestly. He is one. The perks that go along with it. Well we'll address that in a minute yeah. The National CFI Hall of Fame have any of you ever heard of the National CFI Hall of Fame? It's relatively new. Last 10 years I think we've had a flight instructor hall of fame and some of the most notable of aviation notables have been inducted into the flight instructor hall of fame. I could mention a couple of names I'm sure everyone in this room has probably heard of and many of you may know the late Bill Kirschner Barry Schiff Barry Schiff Evelyn Brian Johnson you're right Evelyn Brian Johnson quite a lady. Well these these folks have been inducted into the National Flight Instructor Hall of Fame. That Hall of Fame is housed in the museum at Air Venture or at EAA in in Oshkosh. There are really some notable people in there and if you folks have ideas of people worthy of induction into the Hall of Fame I would suggest that you go to the NAFFI website take a look at that. There's a you know nomination information and so forth that that's contained there. How about the Jack Akespieler Award? Okay we have a slide that explains it. Well oh that's right we do. Okay so let's then just go to those. Right. All right some of the perks that are associated with master instructor accreditation you may now renew your flight instructor certificate by earning the master instructor designation. If you were to go through the process submit a portfolio it would be evaluated reviewed and so forth and then when you earn the designation you will receive a telephone call actually from us and a part of that telephone call will include the opportunity the option of renewing your CFI just based on on earning the master instructor designation. One relatively new or newer development with the master instructor program most of you in here I'm sure are aware of a gold seal flight instructor certificate. You're probably also aware that at least until recently there was really only one way to earn a gold seal flight instructor certificate and that was to jump through some hoops as either a flight instructor or a DPE. Recently the FAA has added a second option to the gold seal or a second way to earn the gold seal flight instructor certificate. If you hold either an advanced or an instrument ground instructor certificate and you earn the master instructor designation we can then get you a gold seal. That was launched by the FAA about a year ago and we're very happy and pleased with that. We're very proud of that particularly because the the FAA order that governs all certificate issuance and renewals 87.3 alpha bravo something or other. Echo. We're up to echo I think. Names specifically NAFI master instructor program which is the only industry-based program recognized by the FAA in this fashion. So we feel like ground breakers there. One other interesting development is any of you who are involved in a part 141 school as opposed to a part 61 flight school. The 141 schools have chief flight instructors and assistant chief flight instructors. If you're involved in 141 you know that the chiefs and the assistant chiefs have to renew their credentials every year. We have to do it every two years but those involved in 141 on the chief and assistant chief level have to renew their credentials every year. The master instructor designation counts for that renewal. So if you were to earn the designation we would then give you a graduation certificate that would count toward your renewal or count as your renewal as a part 141 chief flight instructor or assistant chief flight instructor. Some of the neat things that go along with the master instructor program you probably well most of you probably recognize the lady on the left some of you may recognize the lady on the right. We have a gathering both at AirVenture and here at Sun and Fun called the Meet the Master's Breakfast. That thing has grown beyond my wildest dreams. At AirVenture for the last four years Marion Blakey the FAA administrator the lady on the left there has joined us for breakfast at the Meet the Master's Breakfast at AirVenture. The lady on the right is Susan Parson who works at AFS 800 that is the general aviation and commercial division of the FAA. Susan is one of the few people who hold both a master CFI accreditation and a master ground instructor accreditation and Marion is presenting Susan with her credentials as a master ground instructor in that picture. Okay Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is in Oshkosh Wisconsin as we mentioned to recognize people who have made significant contributions to aviation education. We mentioned before some of the absolute immortals the Barry Shifts and the and the who else were we mentioning Bill Kirchner Bill Kirchner's of aviation education. There are others who have nonetheless made significant contributions and we encourage you to check our website read the criteria and nominate a person you think would be appropriate nominations close in May. Check it out as soon as you get home. Right and remember that this is a way of recognizing flight instructors who are making a huge contribution a significant contribution to aviation education. So you know use the tool that is available there through the Flight Instructor Hall of Fame. The trophy that you see there on the right is the Flight Instructor Hall of Fame trophy and that particular individual I believe is Jack Eggspeeler who is named on that one. Right which leads us to the Jack J. Eggspeeler award. This is in recognition of ongoing commitment to Flight Instructor Professionalism and Quality Aviation Education. We NAVY created this award to recognize industry people, flight instructors, just people who have gone out of their way to to do good things to promote professional flight instruction. This was the 2005 Eggspeeler award winner. He is Nick Frisch and he's a master CFI. He works at Galvin Flying Services on Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington. And Nick had mentored, there's that word again, mentored 18. 19 now. 19 pardon CFI's through the master instructor program and has a top notch you know flight school at Galvin there if you ever have an opportunity to stop by because it's just the way a flight school ought to be run. Yeah and this picture was also taken at a Meet the Masters Breakfast at Air Venture in 2005. Administrator Blakey is presenting Nick Frisch with the Jack J. Eggspeeler award plaque. And then we have the Robert E. Wright Spirit of Instruction award. Presented to aviation educators of every ilk for exceptionally meritorious or heroic aviation actions. Example, last few years there was an incident in some place in the Midwest where in Ohio I think where two flight instructors were out doing approaches maintaining their own proficiency and heard a broadcast on the radio of a young pilot who was clearly depressed, who was threatening suicide, who was going to crash the plane in order to kill himself. One of the instructors in this other aircraft took over the flying responsibility and the other took over the responsibility to communicate. They spoke with this young man, they got him talking, they talked him out of it, they talked him back to the airport where he landed safely and he was greeted and and a life was saved. It was a remarkable exhibition of flight instructors behaving in extraordinary circumstances to do something valuable. A year or so before or after that there was a flight instructor who was also an air traffic controller at Boston Center I think. And a young lady who had a couple of hours of flight instruction was going someplace with her parents. They took off from a field in New Hampshire and her father who was in the captain's seat of a Cherokee or Comanche collapsed and this very low-time, very inexperienced pilot took over the controls, broadcast on the frequency that had happened to be set on and happened to be talking to a CFI who talked to her around, gave her a little bit of instruction, gave her encouragement and got her to land safely the first time she ever landed an airplane. When they landed the airplane and taxied in, her father in the command seat and her mother in the back seat were both deceased. It was an extraordinary act of instruction. That's the Spirit of Flight Instruction Award. This is the individual who received the award for the story that Rusty just told. Ken Hopp, a controller at Boston Center. Actually, we're looking for nominees all the time and if you have some people in mind, if you know of an instance, please let us know. We'd like to recognize those people. Don't hesitate to contact us. Give them a pat on the back. Flight Specialists of the Year award is something that is very near and dear to our three hearts anyway. We work in flight structure headquarters both here at Sun and Fun and at Air Venture, but I would be remiss if I did not say that we couldn't operate that place as successfully as it is operated without the help that we receive from Flight Specialists. Other NAFI members who come in and volunteer their time to work with the flying community. We have a constant stream of people in the flight instructor headquarters with questions. Questions as simple as how do I learn to fly? Questions as complex as how do I become a flight instructor or how do I teach X, Y and Z? These flight specialists come in, spend a lot of their, actually they spend their time and their money working with other aviation educators and aspiring pilots in flight instructor headquarters. Here is a recent recipient of the Flight Specialist of the Year award. Master CFI and he's one of the few individuals who holds both the Master CFI and the Master Ground designation. Ron Galbraith from Longmont, Colorado. Ron is receiving his plaque from me in that picture. On that same subject I'd like to add that this year at Air Venture we're going to have a learn to fly center where we need help from instructors to come run that in the membership village area and we also have my first log book which is a simulator lesson and a real live authentic endorsement in a log book from a flight instructor for the kids at Kid Venture. General Aviation Awards. Joanne is the chairman of the National General Aviation Awards program a cooperative effort of the FAA and 12 industry organizations. Tell them a little bit about that. Okay every year we recognize the national winners at Air Venture in Oshkosh in July where the administrator comes and presents them with their awards but the process begins down at the local level and actually is it 40 years? What are the awards given for Joanne? Oh I'm sorry okay CFI Flight Instructor of the Year CFI. AMT is Aviation Maintenance Technician. Avionics Technician and it used to be aviation safety counselor now called fast team representative of the year. So these four people are given a national award at Air Venture but the process starts down at your local area in your fizz-dose and the fizz-dose select their four awardees hopefully and then they move on to the regional and they're in I think eight now eight regions of the country that all the fizz-dose are part of so then we have regional winners and actually tonight the southern region general aviation award winners are going to receive their awards tonight at banquet here at Sun and Fun and it's going to be a first time first annual regional award banquet or you know some gathering but after the regional winners are announced they go on to a national judging of their peers or by their peers and when the national winners are announced in March then all kinds of hopefully good things happen for them they get recognized at several different venues but the big one is in Air Venture in July. Now the administrator comes to that and presents the awards to the four national winners at Air Venture in a very nice setting it's called theater in the woods for those of you who have been to Air Venture and are familiar with that area they are brought up on the stage we put together a little video vignette of their lives in an aviation and the administrator presents them with their plaque and we play this little video vignette which is kind of fun this is this year's national CFI of the year gentlemen by the name of Mike Gaffney who is with the St. Louis well he works with the St. Louis fizz-dough and has a flight school in the St. Louis area okay well at this point let's open it up for a couple of questions and then I just got two more slides I need to share with you anybody have any questions yes sir yes one of the other okay hi all right I would like to ask a question about what you think the FAA's posturing is for the flight instructors at this point with the way the fast team reps are being set up the new program now for wings how much more involvement are the flight instructors asked being asked to step up for here sounds like we're going to be judging people on practical test standards and getting us back into maybe another realm of this whole thing just curious about your comments one might look on the new wings program as the flight instructors relief act of 2007 in that it is going to provide a great deal more time for paid instruction by rated pilots and the flight instructors will be judging experienced pilots on practical test standards rather than merely judging students seeking ratings on practical test standards there's nothing new that's being demanded the of the instructor there's no new skill there's no new talent there's no new new system of screening that's being presented to flight instructors there are new opportunities for instruction that are out there right does that answer your question okay anybody else well thank you very much yes and I I don't want you to forget that next Wednesday is take your kid to work day so don't forget about that that would be the 25th of April right thank you very much for joining us today hope you got a little bit out of it I also have activity completion forms they're called to document that you attended the seminar today if you wish to use them for working towards a master cfi or master ground instructor accreditation yes this is your documentation that you were here today right so thank you very much yes thank you