Pilot honored for 50-year safety record in aviation

A 78-year-old Castle Shannon man who once held the Guinness World Record for the youngest person to fly solo now holds a top honor awarded by the Federal Aviation Administration to pilots with an exemplary 50-year safety record.

Alfred Bennett Jr. received the FAA’s Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award on Feb. 17 during the Pittsburgh Soaring Association’s annual banquet in Bridgeville.

Mr. Bennett also was recognized as the Most Active Soaring Instructor in the region, as well as the third-most active in the United States.

“It is the most prestigious award the FAA gives to pilots,” said Wendy Grimm, manager of FAA’s Allegheny Flight Standards District Office in Pittsburgh, who presented the award to Mr. Bennett. “It’s such an honor to do this and to celebrate the history that goes along with it.”

Mark Wilson, a fellow member of the Pittsburgh Soaring Association, said Mr. Bennett deserved the recognition.

“I’ve flown with Al for about 10 years. I have known him to be the epitome of a good aviator, and outstanding flight instructor. Above all, he stresses safety,” Mr. Wilson said.

You could say flying is in Mr. Wilson’s blood. Both of his parents were pilots. His father’s love for aviation began with a conversation in 1928, at the University of Pennsylvania, with the aviator Amelia Earhart.

“My grandfather didn’t support my dad’s desire to fly, so my dad invited her to speak to his fraternity. She suggested he join the Air Corps to learn to fly for free. He did,” Mr. Bennett said.

meet Mr. Wright. I was thrilled. After all, I heard abouthim all of my life.” Wrightdied a year later. Two years after that meeting, Mr. Bennett would make history of his own. His father came up with the idea for 11year-old Alfred’s 1951 recordsetting flight. But they would have to go to Mexico to do it, because it wasn’t permitted inAmerica.

“We flew in a two-seater and arrived at a fishing camp alongthe Gulf called La Pesca in Mexico — I remember sitting in that little airplane looking out over the water and thinking, ‘Boy, this is something!’ It was a terrifying thing to do, but once I got in the air, it was such a satisfying experience that it set the tone for adventure from thenon.”

His record stood for one year. His sister Betty broke the record in Cuba. She held the title for 30 years until Mr. Bennett’s son broke her record.

“Guinness doesn’t have that record any longer. I think that is good,” Mr. Bennett said. “I had the courage to fly because I wanted to please my father, but I wasn’t really equipped to make decisions.”

Mr. Bennett lived in five places before his parents settled in Beaver County in 1952, when he was 12. By the time he turned 18, he was a certified pilot.

He graduated with a degree in political science from Northwestern University and traveled to Hawaii for graduate school. While there, he purchased his first airplane, a Cessna, from Pacific Flight Service. He leased it back to them and piloted charter flights around the islands to pay for it.

As a doctoral candidate in anthropology, he obtained a grantfrom the Office of Naval Research, exploring management in the Philippines and the study of change. Although he did not complete his thesis, he published papers to justify funding. He spent another year in the region, sailing around the Philippines in an oceangoing sloop.

Mr. Bennett returned to Beaver County in 1973 and worked with local library systems to launch volunteer literacy programs. In 1978, he earned his FAA Flight Instructor certificate. In 1983, he moved to the West Coast to work for the State of CaliforniaLibrary system.

“I’d fly to urban areas to work with libraries,” said Mr. Bennett, who was the director ofthe Adult Literacy Project.

He retired in 2001, returningto the Pittsburgh area.

“My wife is from Pittsburgh. When you marry a woman from Pittsburgh, you can be guaranteed you will be retiring in Pittsburgh,” he said.

Mr. Bennett still works as an instructor for the Pittsburgh Soaring Association located in Glyde, near EightyFour,Pa.

For more information on soaring and sailplanes, go to www.PGHsoar.org.