This piece originally ran in the February 2022 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
Stephen Leonard, EAA Lifetime 286293, joined the EAA Aeromedical Advisory Council (AAC) in the 1980s and has been assisting EAA members and pilots, as well as the organization, with medical-related issues ever since. As part of the council, he’s been an active participant in shaping aviation medical policy as well as personally assisting fellow members.
“[The Aeromedical Advisory Council] was initially formed to provide aviation medical advice to Paul Poberezny so he could take informed positions when working with the FAA to help shape regulations,” Stephen explained. “That role has expanded, and because the FAA medical team regularly attends AirVenture, the council members have had the chance to develop mutually productive, personal relationships with them. They trust us, and we are able to provide important input into their policy decisions. The greatly expanded special issuance program — and the development of criteria for AMEs [aviation medical examiners] to verify qualifications and issue certificates on the spot for a number of conditions that previously required deferrals — are direct results of ideas and input from our council. Finally, we are available as a resource to EAA members to guide them toward resolution of certification problems that they have had.”
In addition to his volunteer work with the AAC, Stephen is part of the government host team during the week of AirVenture.
“Just as with so many of the other chairmen of various volunteer groups, they asked me to participate in the government host team, which if to the extent that there are FAA physicians around, they tend to pair them up with me, but we also serve as hosts as the title indicates to government officials from here and around the world,” Stephen said. “I was escorting Lt. Gov. Kleefisch around for a couple of years when she was in office and spent an afternoon with Sen. Johnson one time and the Dominican Republic’s aviation authority medical people one year. I mean people obviously come to AirVenture from all over the world, and they need people who are knowledgeable about EAA and understand what’s going on to serve as their hosts, hosts and guides, and that’s what I do as a member of that team. I’m not in any leadership role. I just go to the meeting every morning and get my marching orders.”
Stephen said one of the many reasons he started volunteering during AirVenture, and continues to do so, is because he gets to share the excitement for aviation with friends.
“EAA has certainly been a major part of my life for 30-plus years, as has aviation,” Stephen said. “That first time I came up there and I flew, I was a medium-time pilot. I’d been flying for about nine years at the time and flew up in a rented Beech Debonair, I think. As I was touching down on Runway 36, the controller said, ‘Blue Beechcraft make an immediate left turn on the grass. You got a flight of four F-15s overtaking you.’ I got the wheels on the ground and pulled off into the grass, and these four beautiful Eagles came screaming by as they landed … and that started the excitement, and it’s been there ever since. Like so many of the million or so people who show up every year, it’s simply a refresher to my soul to be there, and it’s a chance to reconnect with friends that I only ever see there every summer.”
In 2021, Stephen was named a winner of the Brown Arch Brick Award, and he said it was a huge honor.
“EAA is the grassroots and has provided an opportunity to help other pilots and to really get to know the system well, and to feel like I have some input into how the FAA operates,” he said. “It’s always nice to be recognized. Like every other EAA volunteer, I don’t do it for recognition. I do it because I love aviation and I love helping pilots, but if EAA wants to turn around and say thank you, that feels good.”
Volunteers make EAA AirVenture Oshkosh — and just about everything else EAA does — possible. This space in EAA Sport Aviation is dedicated to thanking and shining the spotlight on volunteers from the community. Sadly, it cannot capture all of the thousands of volunteers who give so much to the community every year. So, next time you see a volunteer at AirVenture or elsewhere, however they are pitching in to make EAA better, be sure to thank them for it. It’s the least we can do. Do you know a volunteer you’d like to nominate for Volunteer Spotlight? Visit EAA.org/Submissions.