By Tom Woodward, WBA/CTA Coordinator, EAA 371445
The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award is the most prestigious award given out by the FAA to pilots who have flown 50 or more years of safe flight operations without revocation of their certificate. The Charlie Taylor Master Mechanic Award similarly is given to the mechanic who has been working on aircraft for 50 years or more.
The FAA hands these awards out individually or occasionally to two or three recipients at a time. But never in the history of the award has the FAA handed out 31 Wright Brothers Master Pilot Awards (and one Charlie Taylor Master Mechanic Award) at the same time to one EAA chapter!
Thirty-two members of EAA Chapter 983 of Granbury, located in Pecan Plantation, Texas (0TX1), received the award at one ceremony, hosted by Joe Murphy and Darrell Hughes of the FAA’s North Texas FSDO office.
The previous largest award ceremony was with this same chapter in 2014 when 13 members were given the award. Of the now 69 members in the Granbury area, 65 of them are or were members of EAA Chapter 983!
Total flying time of these 32 members is in excess of 324,390 hours and a total of more than 1,691 years of flying! Individual flying time over those 50 years varied from 790 hours to more than 35,960 hours! Congratulations to all our recipients!
From L to R: Joe Murphy, (FAA), Steve Wilson (Charlie Taylor Award), John Bowen, Mike Brake, Ed Askins, Dave Cole, Jackie Vaughn, Tom Thibault, Bill Eslick, Rusty Strickler, Bob Funk, Les Staples, Don Gardner, Paul Siedschlag, Gerry Scheeler, Jerry Gazda, Paul Pickering, Doug Green, Bob Pastusek, Don Gumm, Bob Moreau, Pat Hockett, Dave Moore, Bob Horton, Kenny Miller, John Jaeckle, Carl Keil, Darrell Hughes (FAA), Richard Keyt. Not present: John McComas, Jerry Winfield.