Michael Brown, a 23-year-old instrument and seaplane rated pilot from Tennessee, is the winner of the third annual Richard L. Collins Writing Prize for Young Pilots. His article, “The Wrong Stuff,” was selected as the entry that best answered this year’s writing prompt: “My most memorable or important flying lesson (with or without a flight instructor).”
Michael’s article recounts the lesson he learned trying to impress a girl in a Legend Cub on floats.
When she asked if they could land on the water, Michael let his ego make the decision. As he admits, “I didn’t want her to think I didn’t have the confidence or the right stuff enough to do what the plane was designed to do.”
After landing he quickly realized safely taking back off was going to be an issue. The winning article can be read in full at AirFactsJournal.com.
Air Facts Editor John Zimmerman awarded Michael the $2,500 prize to encourage his aviation and writing pursuits, and the winning article was published in Air Facts.
Michael is a private pilot with 280 hours total time and an instrument and seaplane rating. He comes from a family of aviation. His grandfather worked for Delta Airlines for 37 years and his father is a pilot. Michael graduated from Texas Christian University last May with a double major in Business and Communications. He is currently a first-year law student at Tulane University, where he hopes to become a transportation attorney. When he is not flying or studying, Michael enjoys biking and cheering on his Atlanta Braves.
The Richard L. Collins Writing Prize for Young Pilots is funded through the royalties from Collins’s book sales and is augmented by contributions from his children, Richard, Jr. (who was also one of the judges), Sarah, and Charlotte.
Air Facts began publication in 1938, edited by Richard’s father, Leighton Collins, and was the magazine starting point for such authors as Wolfgang Langewiesche, Bob Buck, Bill Mauldin, and Richard Bach. Sporty’s relaunched Air Facts as an online magazine in 2011.
I only post this to illustrate that any amount of money is appreciated when trying to reach your goals. I realize that flying was cheaper in 1996, but my parents scraped together $1,200 and gave it to me to do whatever I wanted to do with it towards education, etc. Putting that in a flying fund account and leveraging it with my limited income allowed me to finally start working on my Private, completing it in May of 1997. Without that seed money, it would never have been possible on my meager income.Thanks, Mom and Dad!
A fine young man and worthy of being a true pilot. But let’s get real (and sorry to sound a negative note) … How far is 2500 bucks going to take him toward a piloting career? We all know how expensive even flying a Cub has become, so all us entitled folks should do more than throw pocket change at these aspiring individuals.
Entitled? Really? And, what ever happened to being grateful for what amounts to a handout, no matter how small? I’d don’t (yet) have the ratings he already does, am notably older, and have a family depending on me. So I, for one, would be utterly tickled if someone essentially gave me $2500 that I could (with little to no guilt) devote towards my flying goals.
Meanwhile, let’s observe a few nuggets here: First, he’s from an “aviation family”. So, it’s a safe bet that flying is probably a bit more accessible, if not outright cheaper, for him than for most people these days. (It’s also a safe bet he isn’t exactly a pauper.) Second, the article clearly states that he isn’t interested in a “piloting career”. From the academic credentials he already has, the fact that he is currently in law school, and the statement that he wishes to be a “transportation attorney”, he is at best hoping to be aviation-adjacent in his vocation.
Basically, my take is this: Good for him. He saved himself $2500. I hope he has the grace and bearing to be appropriately grateful for it. And, if I’m honest, I hope he has the self-awareness to one day pay it forward with some of the significant fortune his career in litigation will probably afford him, particularly since at least some portion of that success may (regrettably) come at the indirect cost of making aviation still more expensive for all of us!
I don’t intend to pass judgement here, nor do I disagree on the issue of entitlement that seems evident in the younger set. All I meant to say is that we all know the cost of flight training borders on exorbitant, and at least in my opinion these scholarship awards aren’t keeping pace.