Cliff Evert will receive the Aviation Entrepreneur Award and enter the Alaska Aviation Hall of Fame at an April 12 banquet at the Princess Riverside Lodge in Fairbanks. Evert is a familiar figure in the aviation community, a pilot whose experience reaches back through 35 years with Wien Airlines and Alaska Star Airlines, beginning in 1943.
As detailed in a Legends of Alaska Aviation profile published by Alaska Dispatch last year, Everts began operating Everts Air Fuel in the early 1980s after retiring from Wien. His large piston-engine aircraft are familiar across the state and provide bulk fuel deliveries to villages and mining operations across Alaska.
The late Jim and Dottie Magoffin will be also be honored at the banquet with the "Explorer and Pathway Award" for their work in promoting Interior Airways, which ultimately became Mark Air. Jim Magoffin's book, "Triumph Over Turbulence", details his lifelong aviation career. While out of print, the book is easily available in libraries throughout Alaska.
The Lifetime Achievement Award will go to Rex Bishopp of Anchorage, one of Alaska's first helicopter operators. Alaska Helicopters, which he ran with his wife Ruth, was acquired by ERA Helicopters in 1995.
Tickets to the banquet are $60 and available by calling the Alaska Aviation Museum in Anchorage.
Also, last month the 2013 National General Aviation Award recipients were announced and two Alaskans were on the list of the final four. Created in cooperation between the FAA and more than a dozen aviation industry organizations (listed below), the 50th General Aviation Award honors "aviation professionals for their contributions to flight instruction, aviation maintenance, avionics, and safety." The recipients will be honored at the Experimental Aviation Association's annual fly-in at Oshkosh, Wisc., in late July.
The two Alaskans to be recognized are Dean Eicholz and Mark Madden. Eicholz, a former Navy pilot and flight school owner, works as an independent flight instructor, designated pilot examiner, and an FAA check airman. He trains and conducts flight checks for Transmountain Aviation, Kenai Aviation Inc., and Talon Air Inc. Eichholz also is employed by Falcon Insurance Agency of Alaska as an aviation insurance broker and has more than 18,000 hours of flight time.
Madden is professor of aviation technology at the University of Alaska and is a Master Flight Instructor who holds multiple certificates, including CFI, CFII, MEI, AGI, and IGI, with tail-wheel endorsement. He is also an Air Transport Pilot and holds commercial privileges for single-engine aircraft in both land and sea. He is a member and officer on the board of directors for the Alaska Aviation Safety Foundation.
Both men are also active in the FAA Safety Team Safety Program (FAASTeam), which seeks to "improve the nation's aviation safety record by conveying safety principles and practices through training, outreach, and education." For the past three years, Eichholz has organized the Alaska Seaplane seminar each April in Anchorage. This year's event begins 8:30 a.m. April 20 at the Tom Wardleigh Hangar at Lake Hood.
Industry sponsors for the General Aviation Awards
Women in Aviation International, Snap-On Tools, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, The Society of Aviation and Flight Educators, The Ninety-Nines International, the National Business Aviation Association, the National Association of State Aviation Officials, National Aviation Safety Foundation, the National Air Transportation Association, Rod Machado, King Schools, Jeppesen – A Boeing Company, Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, Gleim Publications, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, Garmin International, FAASTeam Associates LLC, the Flight School Association of North America, the FAA, Duncan Aviation, David Clark Company, Cessna Aircraft Corporation, Bose Corporation, the Aircraft Maintenance Technology Society, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the Aeronautical Repair Station Association, Aviation Supplies & Academics, and anonymous donors.