The event is scheduled for October 15-17 on the campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida.

“Last year’s summit was successful because of the strong technical program delivered by industry leaders and experts. This year will be the same,” said NAFI president Paul Preidecker. “But instead of addressing six themes as we did last year, this year we decided to bring more focus by supporting three very important ones: training the trainer, mentorship, and peer support, and pilot health and well-being.”

The event—which has the slogan, “Come to NAFI Summit, go home a better CFI”—is an opportunity for instructors of all levels and varying backgrounds to meet with their peers and discuss educational techniques, learner challenges, and opportunities to enhance their careers.

There will be 28 educational sessions during the two days. Among the topics to be discussed will be specific strategies instructors can use to “reach” their learners, as well as more technical topics such as the appropriate uses of autopilot during IFR and teaching emergency procedures in the most effective manner.

According to NAFI, there will be 21 exhibitors at the event, including Sporty’s Pilot Shop, King Schools, Avemco Insurance, and Redbird Flight Simulations. Several online training courses will be represented, as well as manufacturers of safety wearables, designed to enhance the educational experience.

Celebrity guests are also expected, and include keynote speakers Dr. Susan Northrup, FAA federal air surgeon, and Bruce Landsberg, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association senior safety adviser and recently retired National Transportation Safety Board vice chairman.

Northrup will be discussing the FAA’s rulemaking committee report. Instructors are tasked with knowing the rules and where to look them up and teaching this practice to their learners.

Landsberg will focus on how instructors can best teach fundamental aviation concepts to their learners.

On the evening of October 16, a dinner will be highlighted by aviation educators and instructors John and Martha King. The Kings have more than 50 years experience as aviation instructors. 

Registration for NAFI Summit is $350 for nonmembers and $300 for NAFI members. Further discounts exist for Master CFIs and DPEs, as well as active military attendees.

There is also reduced pricing for flight schools that sign up as a group and bring at least three instructors or a maximum of 10 to the event.

Additional information, including how to register, may be found here.

The post NAFI Unveils Focus of Upcoming Summit appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

We don’t have much violent weather in the Ohio River Valley, but we suffer through weeks of low, gray skies, rain/snow mix, and gusty surface winds. The surface winds at the moment are 240 degrees at 14 gusting to 22 knots with a light rain/snow mix. Ceiling is 1,300 feet overcast with rime ice reports up to 9,000 feet, plus a wind shear alert—winds at 2,000 feet are from 210 degrees at 50 knots. And that wicked witch, Mother Nature, plans even stronger surface winds with high temperatures in the single digits.

I go down to the airport, KLUK, and sit in the airplane, thinking maybe I ought to take it around the patch a few times, but the thought of pulling off the heavy winter cover, preflighting, and pulling it out of the hangar for a couple landings is too daunting.

So, I’ll regale you with a great story from Lunken Airport’s early days.

It’s a special place for me, but then who doesn’t feel that way about their home field? Lunken is older than most because in the early 1920s, when aviation was “getting off the ground,” the site was uniquely natural for an airport—a big, flat area within 5 miles of downtown Cincinnati. At the time the government was pressuring cities to build airports for the new and popular airmail service.

Called the Turkey Bottoms, this mostly farmland property was eventually purchased by my ex-husband’s grandfather, Eshelby F. Lunken (Lunkenheimer Valve Company), and deeded to the city as an airport for 99 years. Later a ditzy, civic-minded aunt assigned the lease permanently to the city. Bummer.

• READ MORE: There Was Just Something About Michael

In the early ’20s, the Cincinnati Polo Club used a portion, and its members didn’t appreciate a guy landing his “flivver” on their field between chukkers—7½-minute periods in polo.

It was John Paul Riddle, a talented, handsome (even when I knew him in his 80s), and fascinating barnstormer originally from Pikeville, Kentucky, who would play a very big part in creating what is now Cincinnati Municipal Airport-Lunken Field.

I came to know Riddle in the 1980s, when the airport was planning a 50th anniversary celebration, and I was asked to write a booklet for the affair.

“Damn,” I said to an old friend, J.R. Wedekind, “I wish that Riddle guy was still alive. There’s so much I’d like to ask him.”

“He is,” said Wedekind. “Lives in Coral Gables, Florida, and, at 80-something, still plays tennis every day. I’ll give you his telephone number. He lives in a two-family house…with his ex-wife upstairs.”

• READ MORE: Martha’s Return to IFR Skies

So, I called, wondering if he’d be annoyed at the intrusion, but Riddle was, well, charming. We would talk many times in the following weeks because, like so many of us, his memories from way back were sharp and clear.

A celebration was planned, so the city and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (with which there was a quasi-connection) brought him to Cincinnati in summer 1987. Riddle hadn’t been at Lunken Airport for more than 50 years, but he recognized the hangars the city had built for what became the Embry-Riddle Company.

We talked for hours, he rode in my Cub, and we enjoyed a memorable dinner one night with my ex, Ebby Lunken, at a restaurant downtown. The Maisonette was an elegant, five-star joint, and the maître d’ was clearly uncomfortable. Ebby and Riddle were both quite deaf and communicated by shouting across the elegantly laid table.

Afterward, I drove Riddle back to Lunken and, as we neared the airport on a little street over railroad tracks called Airport Road, he muttered, “Oh, yes, I remember—Davis Lane.” That had been its original name many years before. I opened the door of one of the three hangars where, in the 1920s, the company had operated its flying and mechanic schools and kept the WACOs and Fairchilds used on its airmail route to Chicago. Standing in that dark hangar with this man with the rain beating down and not a word said was a rare experience.

• READ MORE: Gear-Up Landings: There Are Pilots Who Have and Those Who May Have To

Riddle was the guy who had landed in the polo field with a passenger and then hopped riders in the afternoon before returning to Ravens Rock upriver. That field at Portsmouth was unlighted, so he would circle town until the local radio announcer heard the airplane and asked everybody with a car to line the runway with their lights on.

On one of his Turkey Bottoms trips to hop some rides, a local man named T. Higbee Embry approached him and asked how much a ride cost.

“How much do you have on you?” Riddle asked.

“Twenty dollars,” Higbee replied.

“That’s what it costs,” Riddle said.

Eventually, Riddle taught Embry to fly, and from that a partnership in a flying company was formed with Embry’s wealthy mother putting up money to buy two WACOs and Riddle running the operation. By 1927, the city had taken legal possession of the land and built three hangars for the new Embry-Riddle Company. It was a success, offering airplane sales, mechanic and flight training, and an airmail contract for daily flights from Cincinnati to Chicago (CAM 24) in WACOs.

He told me wonderful stories, and we pored over old photographs and newspapers the company published. By 1930, Sherman Fairchild brokered a deal for the company to be sold to the Aviation Corporation (which later became Avco), and one of its passenger/airmail companies moved into the hangars. American Airways—later American Airlines—started life at Lunken.

Embry headed to California and Riddle went to Florida, where he would become a big name in the airplane world. Ten years after selling the Embry-Riddle operation, he contracted with the government and trained more than 700 pilots and mechanics, filling big hotels in Miami for civilian pilot training programs. Then he moved to Brazil, where he ran an operation training pilots for its government and, after World War II, founded and operated a large freight carrier, Riddle International Airlines.

I stumbled on a charming story about Riddle’s early years in Pikeville, Kentucky. He graduated from Pikeville College, trained in the military as a pilot and mechanic, and came home to barnstorm. At a Fourth of July celebration in 1923, Riddle, to the huge delight of the townspeople, flew his Jenny under Pikeville’s Middle Bridge.

When I found the still-standing memorial and read it, I laughed but couldn’t help wondering, “What’s wrong with this picture?”

This column first appeared in the April 2024/Issue 947 of FLYING’s print edition.

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Davidson joined the charter sales team at Solairus, an aviation services company, at the age of 19 in 2014. Known for his drive talent and passion for aviation, he became an integral part of the Solairus team and was admired by coworkers, who affectionately called him “Super Chad.”

“Chad was a life force in the Solairus organization, not just because of his relationships and day-to-day influence on our business but because he represented what was possible for the future of our company and business aviation overall,” Solairus CEO Dan Drohan said. “At only 29 years old, he was already a symbol of promise for the next generation of leadership at Solairus and in our industry. He was, more importantly, a great human being.”

In addition to his work in business aviation, Davidson was an active volunteer, mentor, and member of his church community. He participated in charitable flights for PALS Airlift Services, which transports medical patients for treatment when they are unable to fly commercially.

The scholarship fund aims to support students pursuing bachelor of science degrees in aviation business administration at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. The fund will provide scholarships to individuals “who exhibit the same level of passion, dedication, and leadership that defined Davidson’s life and career,” Solairus said.

Added Drohan: “The creation of a scholarship fund to invest in young, promising people like Chad who can leave their own mark on business aviation seems like a fitting tribute to the memory of a great person who made such a positive impression on Solairus, our clients, and the industry.”

Dr. Alan Stolzer, dean for Embry-Riddle’s College of Aviation, said the school is honored to be a part of Davidson’s legacy in the aviation community.

“Embry-Riddle is honored to be…stewards of the Chad Davidson Business Aviation Leadership Scholarship Fund,” said Stolzer. “This fund will help support the next generation of aviation professionals who want to make a positive impact in their business aviation careers.”

Learn more and donate here.

The post Solairus Aviation Announces Chad Davidson Business Aviation Leadership Scholarship Fund appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

It adds to an existing partnership between GE Digital and Embry-Riddle initiated in 2020 when the university adopted GE Digital’s Safety Insight software to enhance flight safety operations through Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA).

FOQA technology offers data visualization with animation capabilities that encourages students to detect trends and precursors to aviation accidents and incidents. The software is used in Embry-Riddle’s aviation safety education courses at all of its campuses. 

“At GE, we come to work each day excited about inventing the future of flight,” Andrew Coleman, general manager of GE Digital’s Aviation Software business, said in a statement. “To make that a reality we must make our world better for future generations, and our aviation industry accessible to everyone from all walks of life. Critical to that is developing students who will lead this industry moving forward. 

“We are proud to launch this initiative with Embry-Riddle to prepare students to solve some of the toughest aviation challenges we’ve ever seen through the use of digital software solutions.”

The endowed scholarship will promote career pathways specific to safety and data analytics for students pursuing a degree at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach campus. Through the scholarship, Embry-Riddle hopes to continue to promote safe training environments while focusing on data and analytics.

“Our relationship with GE Digital continues to grow as we work together to promote aviation safety through data analytics and sustainability,” Alan Stolzer, dean of the College of Aviation, said in a statement. “We greatly appreciate GE Digital’s support of students who are pursuing careers that will rely on innovative software and analytics aimed at keeping our skies safe.”

The post GE Digital Establishes a New Scholarship at Embry-Riddle appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Holograms, used for decades in the entertainment industry, may soon become part of the aviation training environment thanks to a team of students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott.

The students are part of ERAU’s Simulation Science, Games and Animation program. Over the summer, the student team developed augmented-reality (AR) holograms, creating 3D models of the CRJ-700.

How it Works

Using HoloLens 2 goggles, the user steps through a series of training modules composed of interactive slides.

The AR aspect of the project allows the student to move around inside the aircraft systems, making learning akin to something out of “Fantastic Voyage,” a classic science-fiction movie where a submarine and its crew is shrunk to microscopic size to allow them venture into the body of an injured colleague to provide life-saving medical treatment.

It allows students to explore the CRJ-700 in a way they never could before.

“We encouraged the team to consider the reasons for using augmented reality rather than virtual reality on the project,” associate professor and SSGA program chair Derek Fisher explained. “They determined that while virtual reality might provide a more immersive alternate experience, AR provides opportunities to focus on interacting with the computer-generated jet while collaborating in the familiar environment of the classroom, with real-life colleagues.”

What’s to Come

Another type of hologram model in development could let the students look around the flight deck, manipulating the buttons, switches, and controls as they would in real life. The HoloLens 2 can even “see” their hands. This feature will be a benefit for tactile and kinetic learners, who need to see and touch something for optimum learning to take place.

The holographic slides contain informational labels. These labels can be manipulated by the user, making them larger or rotating them. The idea is that the users will become familiar with the controls of the aircraft and the system schematics, such as the radar danger zones and exhaust system.

The labels are removed when it is time for testing and the students can be asked to identify the parts and systems that they’ve been studying.

How Students are Learning

Evan LaBate, a senior SSGA major, notes he is gaining valuable experience as part of the developmental team, and envisions the simulations will not only enhance flight training on campus, but may also be used in other technical fields.

“Participating on this project has helped me decide that I want to do virtual or augmented reality simulations, either for military or police, as my career,” LaBate said. “I believe this technology can be used to help the military simulate live firefights, or even help with the Air Force, in giving pilots updated heads-up displays.”

“This project was a massive learning experience,” says Josh Snow, a SSGA senior. “Jobs in the field of interactive technology are plentiful but demanding, often working on large projects in small teams. The skills I have picked up from this research opportunity have better prepared me for all facets of working on and or managing a team in my career.”

The initial project was funded by an Undergraduate Research Institute grant. Now the team is focusing on improving the software to allow multiple users to interact with the same jet simulation simultaneously. After testing the new prototype, the group will seek funding to expand the program to a full-class experience.

“This is the first step down a very good road for us as a university, potentially toward an entire class in AR,” said Dr. Michelle Hight, assistant professor of aeronautical science and fixed wing program chair.

“Even if students had to attend class from home, this brings the jet to life. Every student who has a HoloLens 2 could join in 3D, standing or sitting in a virtual classroom, interacting with hologram learning tools rather than a flat screen. This is a timely pedagogical development for a world evolving and responding to a global pandemic.”

The Right Move

ERAU’s application of augmented reality is the next logical step in flight training, said Michael Puoci, a Seattle-area pilot and video game designer with more than 20 years of experience. Aviation games, especially those that involve vintage aircraft cockpits, are a passion for Puoci. During his student pilot days, he often used virtual-reality computer cockpits that he designed to practice real-world flights.

“Augmented reality will be what pushes aviation training devices to a new level,” Puoci said. “With VR, you have a mouse and screens. With AR, the person will put on the glasses and what used to be presented on screens will be a digital fabrication and full immersion and far better fidelity for simulation training for new pilots.”

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