Four veteran pilots from the Branson, Missouri, area will be honored March 28 with the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award.
The award is given by the FAA to pilots who have flown continuously for 50 years or more without an accident. The Branson quartet of Hank Haddock, Seth Caperton, Mark Trimble and Bill Lee have among them an accumulated 235 years of accident-free flying.
Haddock is a retired corporate pilot and former PBY instructor with 62 years of flying; Caperton, a retired Air Force officer, also has 62 years without an accident; Trimble, who has an impressive classic plane collection, has 58 years behind him; and Lee, a retired airline pilot, has flown 53 years. The four men are friends and members of the Missouri Pilots Association.
Officials from the FAA will travel to Branson to make the presentations.
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Look for a story on all four of these veteran aviators in an upcoming issue of General Aviation News.