Application Packets Due At Local FSDOs By September 30th
The deadline for applications for the 2012 General Aviation
Awards Program (GAAP) is September 30, 2011. Begun in 1963, the GA
Awards program has evolved into a joint program between the
aviation industry and the FAA to recognize excellence in four
categories: Certificated Flight Instructor of the Year, Aviation
Maintenance Technician of the Year, FAASTeam Representative of the
Year, and Avionics Technician of the Year. Applicants are evaluated
against at least four required metrics: professional involvement,
pro bono service to the aviation community, continuing education,
and the strength of three letters of recommendation.
The annual awards process begins at local Flight Standards
District Offices (FSDOs), where applications are collected and
local FAA personnel select their FSDO winners. FSDO winners are
forwarded to FAA Regional offices where FAA personnel then select
their Regional winners. Regional winners are then forwarded to the
GAAP committee, which passes that information on to four panels of
judges (one panel for each awards category). These industry
judges—themselves previous National GAAP winners—then
select the year’s National winners, whose names will be
announced on March 1, 2012.
Those wishing to nominate deserving individuals in any of the
four awards categories must ensure that application packets are
received by their local FSDOs no later than September 30, 2011.
Nearly four decades after it began, GAAP was in serious trouble.
A memorandum issued to all interested parties pinpointed the major
issues and offered solutions that not only would keep the program
alive, but would also allow it to thrive. Subsequently, JoAnn Hill
was appointed GAAP Committee Chair and the program underwent
significant restructuring. Finding a consistent home for the awards
program was a key concern; consequently, National winners since
2003 have received an all-expenses-paid trip to Oshkosh, WI, for
the week of AirVenture. Among other wonderful perks, the week at
AirVenture has included an evening awards ceremony during which the
FAA Administrator presents plaques to the winners, and a luncheon
during which past and present awards recipients gather and the
current National winners receive gifts donated by numerous industry
sponsors. The GAAP perpetual plaque was created in 2008 and has
been housed at the EAA Museum in Oshkosh ever since.
By 2009, eighty-nine percent of the sponsoring organizations not
only reaffirmed continued support of GAAP, but 78 percent also
supported opening the program up to additional sponsors. And
sixty-two percent reported being happy with how the program was now
being run. JoAnn Hill was reappointed Committee Chair, and FAA
National Safety Program Manager Kevin Clover was appointed to the
committee. A dedicated website was deployed in 2010, hosted by the
Professional Aviation Maintenance Association (PAMA). Future plans
include the establishment of a standalone legal entity that allows
for a board of directors, a succession plan, and a separate bank
account to receive and disburse GAAP-related funds. The legacy of
volunteerism associated with running GAAP, however, will remain
unchanged.
It should come as no surprise that those who participate in the
Master Instructor Continuing Education Program (MICEP) have
distinguished themselves particularly in the Certificated Flight
Instructor of the Year category. During the period 1999–2011
for example, 43 of the 93 Regional CFIs of the Year—all
chosen by FAA personnel—were Master Instructors. And a Master
Instructor has gone on to earn the National CFI of the Year honor
each of those years.
Consider that Master Instructors represent less than half of one
per cent of all certificated flight instructors. Yet this small
group is remarkably overrepresented in terms of its impact on
flight training and aviation safety. For example, Masters
responding to a survey had provided 200,000 hours of flight and at
least 120,000 hours of ground/simulator instruction. They had
administered 6,700 check rides/stage checks and mentored 4,900
other aviation educators. Respondents also reported:
- 4,300 safety seminars given
- 2,800 articles/white papers authored or edited
- 1,700 books, newsletters, etc. authored or edited
- 670 audio-visual programs hosted, scripted, or produced
- 60 aviation-related products, services, and processes
developed
- 43 “saves” of other pilots, where the successful
outcomes of emergencies were attributed, at least in part, to these
instructors
It is important to note that FAA personnel choose all of the
FSDO- and Regional-level CFIs of the Year. A panel of volunteer
judges representing the aviation industry is then tasked with
selecting the National winner from the pool of Regional winners
supplied by the FAA. Though neither a requirement nor a judging
criterion in and of itself, participation in MICEP has served as a
de facto mentoring program for the GA Awards Program, fostering
well-rounded bodies of work that have translated into national
caliber awards applications. Even so, it is important for those of
us in the aviation community to nominate all instructors who
deserve recognition as CFIs of the Year; the same goes for the
other three awards categories as well.
Rich Stowell, MCFI-A and 2006 National CFI of the
Year, contributed to this report.