A New Way of Flight Training… - American Bonanza Society

President’s Comments
Starting Strong
By Keith Kohout
www.bonanza.org
Happy New Year! 2012 is already off to a fantastic start
and should prove to be very exciting for the American
Bonanza Society. In an effort to continue building on our
world-class legacy, we have agreed to embark on a very ambitious
schedule this year. This will only be possible and will only come to fruition
because of the hard work of our many volunteers, staff members, and general
aviation friends of the American Bonanza Society. So this year, I would like to
dedicate the President’s Comments column to highlighting our progress,
experiences, and the hard work of those who make the American Bonanza
Society what we know today and what we desire it to be in the future.
Magnet High School
One of the missions of the Air Safety Foundation is promoting flight safety
and education. At the Las Vegas convention we had the privilege of listening
to a young man speak about his dreams of becoming an aerospace engineer,
Air Force pilot and scholar like his father.
Las Vegas Rancho Aviation/Medical Magnet
High School, where Joshua Emig attends, is one
of a few high schools in the country dedicated
to aeronautical science and flight. To our surprise,
Joshua showed a photograph of an early model Bonanza owned by the
school that is used as a famil iari zation model and maintenance trainer.
ABS Air Safety Foundation presented a $2500 grant to assist with the school’s
Bonanza. Although the airplane may not fly, by providing this grant we
hope to encourage this group of young aviators, mechanics, and engineers to
stay engaged in learn ing and to make future contributions
to general aviation. Because of our members’ continued
support, the ABS Air Safety Foundation is able to maintain
its leadership role by doing more for others.
(left to right): ABS technical advisors Bob
Andrews, Arky Foulk, Neil Pobanz and Bob
Ripley during the Tech Advisor panel at the
2011 ABS Convention.
Online Ground School and
BPPP Flight and
Instruction
Watch, in March of this year, for
our first online ground school and
flight training package. As we know,
accredited universities around the
country recognize the value of webbased
learning to accommodate their
students. ABS has embraced this concept
with an additional component:
four hours of flight instruction with a
BPPP-certified flight instructor – the
same flight experience provided at
live BPPP clinics. Our goal is to accommodate
more members by having
the highest quality flight instruction
available closer to home, and on your
schedule. This is being underwritten
by generous donations and by the
ABS Air Safety Foundation. Thank
you to Tom Turner and the instructors
of BPPP for making this happen.
2 AMERICAN BONANZA SOCIETY JANUARY 2012