Avfuel Corporation has named Eric Lucas of Wilbraham, Mass., and Allison Hoyt of Fort Worth, Texas, as the winner and runner up of the 2011 Avtrip Scholarship.
Lucas will receive $2,000 and Hoyt will receive $500 (both will also receive a $500 U.S. Savings Bond) to apply toward furthering their aviation educations.
Lucas, a charter/corporate pilot, plans to use the funds to pursue his Certified Flight Instructor certificate. “My peers have all seemingly come up through the ranks as pilots by starting as flight instructors,” said Lucas, “but that wasn’t how it worked out for me. I find it almost comical that my Airline Transport Pilot certificate allows me to instruct pilots in my airplane – a complicated turbojet-powered contraption – but I can’t take my daughters out for lessons in a Piper Cub.”
Lucas hopes to impress the “wonderful and bold” world of flying and aviation upon aspiring aviators. “If lessons are nothing more than boilerplate “do this, do that” information, it reduces something magical and sublime to something that is uncomfortably close to work,” Lucas said. “What I really long to do is inspire.”
Hoyt, a flight safety intern currently working toward her A&P certificate, plans to use her scholarship to pursue more time in the air. “I plan to become a missionary pilot,” explained Hoyt, “which is not the most lucrative field. The less debt I can incur along the way, the sooner I can follow my heart to the furthest corners of the earth.”
Hoyt has actively sought after any type of aviation work available, often working as an intern or volunteer when paid or permanent employment wasn’t available. Working, interning and attending classes doesn’t allow Hoyt much free time, but she’s hoping 2012 will be the year she takes to the skies once more. “The advice I receive in this industry time and time again is to get out there and build time. Fly, fly, fly — as often as you can,” she said. “This scholarship will help me do that. It will get me pretty far — far enough to feel that I can keep going.”
“Avfuel was very impressed with the desires of these two candidates to further their own aviation educations in ways that would allow others to experience the joys and benefits of general aviation,” said Avfuel Director of Marketing Marci Ammerman. “We’re thrilled to contribute to that end.”
The Avfuel AVTRIP Scholarship is awarded yearly to aviators pursuing continued aviation education. Winners are chosen based on eligibility requirements and a written essay. Applicants must be current AVTRIP rewards members. To register for AVTRIP rewards, go to Avfuel.com
