Master Pilots
15 Pine Mountain Lake aviators earn top civilian distinction
Pine Mountain Lake Aviation Association has 15 prestigious pilots who received the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, the highest honor a civil aviator can receive, for 50 or more consecutive years of safe flight operations.
The PMLAA recipients of the award are Buck Buchanan, Alan Buchner, Dick Collier, Ira Chapman, Allen Craig, Jim Goodrich, Ed Gregory, Marle Hewett, Bob Hornauer, Larry Jobe, Steve Martin, Ken Orloff, Norm Peebles, Dennis Smith and Bill Thomas.
Instituted by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, on Oct. 11, 2003, the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award — named in honor of aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright — includes the issuance of a distinctive certificate and lapel pin after application review and eligibility requirements have been met.
On Dec. 17, 1903, the Wright Brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft, named the ‘Wright Flyer,” at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The brothers are also credited with being the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible, according to the FAA website.
“Through my long flying career (I started flying when I was 18), I’ve known several
pilots who received the Master Pilot award,” said Goodrich, via email from Crossville, Tennessee, where he moved in September 2020 from Pine Mountain Lake. “I had tremendous admiration for them as pilots and figured I’d probably never enter that lofty realm that they occupied as Master Pilots.”
Goodrich’s sentiment for the honor was summed up succinctly by Craig.
“Fifty years doing something you love to do… how lucky am I?” he said.
Craig’s fellow flyers feel the same gratitude he does regarding the recognition and the longevity they have experienced as aviators.
“The fascination and enjoyment of flying has run deep in how I have looked at life. I think as a pilot you have to have an optimistic attitude and a strong belief in your own ability. This award is yet another validation of both optimism and ability,” Thomas said.
Thomas said he became enamored with flying after his uncle gave him a ride in a rented Piper Tri-pacer in the 1950s, when he was 9. Thomas and his wife, Pat, who is also a pilot, live in Camarillo, and have been flying up to Pine Mountain Lake since 1998.
According to Thomas, the award for him and some of the other pilots would not have come to fruition without Janet Gregory, of Pine Mountain Lake.
“Janet has worked long and hard in herding us old pilots to complete the Master Pilot Award paperwork,” he said.
Gregory, an aviator herself, learned to fly at the Pine Mountain Lake Airport and earned her pilot’s license in 2012. The man who taught her how to fly is none other than Jobe, who along with Gregory’s husband, Ed, are both Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award recipients.
Of the 15 Groveland master pilots, Gregory assisted 12 of them in the application process, which consisted of a Wright Brothers Master Pilot Application Nomination Form; submitting the pilot’s flying history and three letters of recommendation from holders of FAA pilot certificates, who could attest to the nominees’ 50 years, or more, of piloting experience.
One of the pilots Gregory guided through the award process was Jobe, a retired United Airlines captain who is still teaching people to fly. His wife, Nina, is also a pilot.
“It is an honor to receive such recognition,” Jobe said. “I learned to fly in 1965 in Van Nuys. I have been flying for 56 years.”
Hornauer, of Twain Harte, is also a certified flight instructor and has been for the past 49 years. He lived in PML from 1992 to 2015, when he moved up the hill to live with his girlfriend, Susan Schlindwein.
“The master pilot award is recognition of the contribution to the aviation industry without having incident, accident or violation,“Hornauer, an A&P certified airplane mechanic who learned to fly at a small airport in Louisiana in 1969, said. “I always wanted to fly.”
A love of flying and all things aviation-related is the common language all 15 of the PMLAA pilots speak.
“Everyone here is a pilot. We are all pilots,” said Orloff,a private forensic consultant who specializes in aviation accident reconstruction and moved to PML in 1986. “It’s all about aviation.”
Orloff, who has been flying since 1964, is a certified flight instructor. His wife, Lynne, is also a pilot and certified flight instructor.
In regard to the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, Orloff said it “signifies 50 years of continuous safe flying.” For a man in his line of work, that says a lot.
The effective start date for the 50 years is the date of the nominee’s first solo flight or military equivalent. For former flight instructor and PML resident Collier, the 50 years of flying was not up for debate.
“I have more than 50 years, of course,” he said.
Collier’s flying experience, which began at age 12 when his father let him take off alone, or solo, in a little fabric airplane from the Santa Monica Airport, was the beginning of what would become a lifelong passion. Judy, his wife of 33 years, was one of many students he taught to fly.
“Give a 12-year-old an airplane and let him fly around and he’s invincible,” he said.
Buchner, of PML, was just 14 years old when he started working at the Bakersfield Airport polishing the tail of a B-1B, a supersonic heavy bomber owned by his father.
At 18, Buchner learned to fly in a 1936 Rearwin Sportster, an American two-seat, high-winged, cabin monoplane. He still has the plane.
“Flying is all I’ve done all my life, “he said. “It’s an honor to get the award.”
Buchner, who closed his Fresno airplane maintenance shop two years ago, has 10 airplanes, “some are together, some are apart,” and enjoys working on them with his wife, Connie, who helps him in the hangar. In the 1970s, he taught Connie how to fly. The couple have been married since 1969.
In addition to the distinctive certificate and lapel pin that are part of the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, they also are inducted into a Roll of Honor, where the nominee’s name, city and state of residence, plus the month and year of the Master Pilot Award presentation,= is available to view online at the FAA website.
Just being a part of the Roll of Honor is significant for Smith, of PML.
“I feel very honored to be among those who have gotten this award,” he said. “I am humbled to have this award.”
Smith, who was in the U.S. Air Force for 38 years, 9 months and 11 days (as of Tuesday), joined the service at 18 years old. He learned to fly in the military, but his passion for aviation started much earlier at age 4 or 5, he said.
“I was very small when I fell in love with flying,” he said.
Buchanan wasn’t much older than Smith when he became intrigued by flying.
A recreational pilot, hang glider and skydiver, with over 162 drops, Buchanan, of PML, was 11 when he drew up his first plans for a simple glider.
By 17, Buchanan was learning to fly and earned his wings two years later in 1954. His wife, Jo, is also a pilot.
For Buchanan, the award is a “culmination of all those years spent flying,” he said.
Like some of his fellow Groveland pilots, Ed Gregory learned to fly while serving in the military. He attended Air Force flight school in 1967 and flew reconnaissance missions during the Vietnam War.
“We’d fly around 1,500 above the ground to identify targets within 10 meters,” Ed Gregory said. “I spent 700 plus hours doing this. We never got dinged. We were never hit. I am grateful for that.”
After spending seven years in the military, Ed Gregory spent the next 32 as a private corporate pilot. His whole life has been centered around planes and flying, he said as he sat in his airplane hangar located close to the PML airport.
The Gregorys bought their PML property in 2006, built their house and moved to Groveland fulltime in 2010.
“Look how far my plane has come since the Wright brothers,” Ed Gregory said as he turned and looked admiringly at his Beechcraft B35 Bonanza airplane. “It was built in 1950. It’s 72 years old.”
The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award is a lifetime acknowledgement for Ed Gregory and for his fellow PMLAA pilots.
“The FAA award is an award we appreciate being recognized for,” he said. “We are all the people that built and supported the aviation industry. I am grateful for the recognition.”