To say that Mike Poznansky became a passionate aviator in a short amount of time would be an understatement. Just as he had built a successful marketing business, Mike “built” himself as a pilot. But he didn’t do so in the mechanical sense of building; he did so with a real understanding of what it could do for him and for others.
He dedicated himself to the hard work it takes to make steady progress through earning pilot certificates and ratings, and his success in business made it possible for him to own several very different airplanes. Along his flying journey he had a Cessna 185 on floats, a Piper Super Cub, a Cirrus single and a Cirrus Vision Jet. Early on Mike realized that, as wonderful as it was, flying for himself wasn’t enough, so he charitably offered the use of his skills and planes to nonprofit organizations like Angel Flight and LightHawk.
Mike passed away suddenly in late 2023, and his passing meant the loss of his generous donation of time for a number of aviation organizations. In their grief, the Poznansky family began to plan how to preserve his legacy as a pilot who thrived on giving. They knew that they would find a way to help Angel Flight and LightHawk, and when Mike’s sister Julie came across the story of Able Flight, his mother Linda, father Randy and Julie reached out and an Able Flight scholarship was created in his name.
In April of this year, at the Chicago Executive Airport, the family announced the creation of Echo Mike: The Mike Poznansky Foundation. It was a day of celebration of Mike’s life with several hundred friends and family members attending in a hangar temporarily transformed into a comfortable room filled with memories of Mike’s life as a son, brother, uncle and as a pilot.
Along with representatives from Angel Flight and Lighthawk, attending and speaking for Able Flight were Executive Director Charles Stites and one of the newly licensed pilots from the Able Flight “Class of 2024”, Andrew Daigneau. With the Class of 2025 already in training, one member of the class will soon be honored as the first recipient of the Echo Mike Scholarship, a scholarship fully funded by the Mike Poznansky Foundation for three years beginning this year.
In thanking the Poznansky family for their support of Able Flight’s mission, Stites said, “Because of the work of his mother Linda and the Poznansky family, and the gifts
of his friends in his memory, Mike’s voice echos with those of each pilot who learns to fly because of this gift, each time they speak in flight. His passion for giving echos every time someone supports this wonderful foundation, and his passion for being a pilot echos with the freedom that a new Able Flight pilot feels every time they leave the earth in a machine they have mastered, no matter the challenges they have faced.”
To learn more about Mike and the work of the Mike Poznansky Foundation, visit Echo Mike.
