For our newly graduated pilots, it is a special day each year when they are brought onstage at Able Flight’s Wings Pinning Ceremony at EAA AirVenture. They are VIPS as family, friends and Able Flight sponsors gather to celebrate their success.
This year’s class of six finished their training at Purdue in early July and just over three weeks later they traveled to Oshkosh for the ceremony. New Able Flight pilots Ryan Chen, Stephanie Cibello, Nathaniel Miller, Chris Murad, and Chance Field were on hand, and also honored was Andy Burnett who couldn’t make it to the ceremony.
Special guests included Purdue instructors Kaito Richmond, Amalia Yoanides and Cameron Sansone, along with Patty Wagstaff, Able Flight pilot Jessica Cox, and former Thunderbirds lead pilot and Vice President of the Air Safety Foundation Richard “Spad” McSpadden.
Wagstaff presented our Flight Instructor Of The Year award to Kaito Richmond, and McSpadden presented the Able Flight Volunteer Of The Year award named for Bob Seidel to Zack Reising. Reising created a highly successful fundraiser in late 2021/early 2022 that has funded the Blue 7 Scholarship. Zack pinned wings on Stephanie Cibello, the first recipient of the Blue 7 Scholarship.
Also on hand were John Herman and Mike Allen of Tempest to pin pilot wings on Chris Murad, the recipient of the 2022 Tempest Aero Group Scholarship. Pinning wings on Ryan Chen as the recipient of the ForeFlight Scholarship was Corbin Fanning. Steve Thompson of Muncie Aviation pinned Nathaniel Miller as the recipient of the Muncie Aviation Scholarship, while Chance Field was honored as the first recipient of the Mark Hogan Memorial Scholarship funded by Mark’s friend Mike Bell. Pinning Chance’s wings was the Executive Director of TBMOPA, Misty Stanistreet.