Old dog, new trick

Sally was a 17-year-old, short-haired mutt with a reddish coat that turned closer to blonde, then white as she aged. She came to us as a vivacious young lady who had been living in an efficient but unpleasant lock-up at the Sheriff’s Department.

This abused dog with no home became a highlight of our family story.

By the end of last week the growth on her left side was readily noticeable. Her hips were gone, causing her to fall down often. She couldn’t make it up the three steps at the front of the house anymore.

Her time had come and on Friday my wife, daughter, and I accompanied her on her last trip to the veterinarian’s office. We were with her when the end came. And I cried.

That doesn’t have much of anything to do with aviation, but it has a lot to do with me. And today, we’re going to talk about me.

In December 2014 I took on the role of ambassador for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA). It was an exciting challenge since no aeronautical entity I was aware of had successfully taken on the task of growing the number of pilots in the United States since Franklin Delano Roosevelt did it back in 1942.

AOPA did, however. And it did it with intensity.

The program started thanks to the vision and support of two movers and shakers: Mark Baker, who had taken over the presidency of AOPA the year before, and Katie Pribyl, who got the notion to make me her first hire into the new You Can Fly initiative.

Our task was ambitious. Grow the number of pilots in the air, encourage and help folks start and run flying clubs, work with flight schools to improve their results, and make it clear that thousands of relatively inexpensive used aircraft are available in the marketplace that can be partially or fully refurbished to their owner’s liking.

My original territory was Florida. My happy place. My counterpart Kay Sundaram took southern California, and we went to town. In time, Pat Brown came on board as the ambassador in Texas. Later still Norm Isler joined our ranks handling New York and New England. Andy Miller covered the upper Midwest.

Incidentally, Andy and I have such a similar look that we were often mistaken for each other, even inside the big AOPA HQ building in Frederick, Maryland. My apologies to him for all the times people came up to him saying, “Good to see you, Jamie.” That’s got to be annoying. Andy is a really good guy. He deserves his own identity.

The ambassadors accomplished our goals. Every single one of them. The Rusty Pilot program alone has put something north of 12,000 pilots back into the left seat. By working with folks out in the field and looping in the great and powerful Steve Bateman and his trusty sidekick, Drew Myers, the You Can Fly team was able to help more than 220 flying clubs get up and running. Flight schools are thriving and aircraft have never been more sought after.

I couldn’t be more proud.

A couple years ago AOPA shifted the You Can Fly team over to the AOPA Foundation. The work You Can Fly does is supported entirely by benefactors who see the value in what we do. Membership dues go to AOPA itself to accomplish the core mission of protecting our freedom to fly. You Can Fly falls outside that, important as our efforts may be.

Somewhere along the line we took a slight change of direction — one that I applaud whole-heartedly and participate in enthusiastically. We got into high school STEM education. A gargantuan task kicked off in large part by the incredible talents of Cindy Hasselbring, a woman I truly believe can do anything she puts her mind to.

Thanks to Cindy and Katie the AOPA High School STEM Curriculum came into being. A full-fledged four-year high school curriculum that teaches STEM concepts by using aviation to illustrate the material. By the end of the course students would ideally be prepared to take their private pilot knowledge test or unmanned aerial vehicle test.

Oh, did I mention that You Can Fly provides this complete curriculum to schools for free?

This was big. I was psyched. This initiative has the potential to cause amazing positive change in aviation, educational institutions, communities across the country, and any individual kid who decides to jump in and give it a try. I still believe that. I’m all in.

Change can be good. It can be difficult, too. Success has its price. That’s just the way it is.

The price for the ambassador program was foreseeable and understandable. As the five ambassadors fulfilled the task we’d been given, the positions were culled.

We fell to three, then two when Pat Brown shifted into a part-time position supporting scholarship recipients to get the most out of their training. As a long-time CFI and a DPE Pat is an ideal choice for that work.

Last week, the You Can Fly Ambassador program came to an end entirely. I was the first in and now will be the last out. Our work is done. Our accomplishments are many. Our sense of pride is profound. On behalf of Kay, Pat, Andy, Norm, and myself let me offer sincere thanks to AOPA, the AOPA Foundation, and every single person or entity we ever interacted with for the part they played in the amazing success of the best professional experience of my life.

Onward and upward! That’s not just an expression. It’s an honest expectation of what I think is coming in the future.

My new role with the AOPA Foundation is once again something audacious, something that has never been done on a large scale. I now hold the title of High School Aero Club Liaison, which gives me the freedom to work with kids, parents, teachers, administrators, airport administrators, and community leaders from coast to coast to help them create aero clubs where kids can get into aviation in a meaningful way.

If that lights your fire as much as it does mine, drop me a note. I’m excited. I’m ready to make things happen.

And I’m forever grateful to Mark, Katie, Kay, Pat, Andy, Norm, Cindy, and so many others who have played a role in making general aviation bigger, better, more accessible, and a true joy for anyone who wants to dip a toe in the big wide world of GA.