A flight instructor from Oregon and an aviation maintenance technician from Ohio are among the individuals who have been recognized for their contributions to general aviation.
Mary A. Schu of Tualatin, Oregon, was named 2015 Certificated Flight Instructor of the Year. Donald D. Streitenberger Jr. of Cincinnati was named Aviation Maintenance Technician of the Year.
Additionally, Ricky D. Hestilow of Arlington, Texas, was named Avionics Technician of the Year, and Christopher J. Hope of Kansas City, Missouri, was named FAA Safety Team (FAASTeam) Representative of the Year.
The FAA announced the honorees on March 13. They will receive plaques during EAA AirVenture 2015 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The General Aviation Awards Program is a partnership between the agency and more than three dozen sponsoring organizations from the aviation industry.
Schu is a freelance flight instructor and designated pilot examiner in the Portland area. A CFI since 1977, she has more than 20,000 hours of flight time, including more than 14,000 hours of dual instruction. She holds airline transport pilot and flight instructor certificates for airplane single- and multiengine land and instruments, and is type rated in the Cessna Citation 500. Schu is a volunteer crewmember for the B-25 Mitchell Killer Bee, based in Titusville, Florida.
Additionally, Schu is a FAASTeam lead representative for the Portland-Hillsboro Flight Standards District Office. She was one of three designated pilot examiners to serve on the FAA’s Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee Airman Certification System Working Group, which is assisting the agency in developing new airman certification standards expected to replace the practical test standards by the end of 2015.
Streitenberger is chief inspector for The Kroger Co. at Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport, where he is responsible for directing inspections of the company’s fleet of business jets. He holds FAA certificates as a repairman and a mechanic with airframe and powerplant ratings and inspection authorization. He joined Kroger nearly 30 years ago as a line mechanic.
Hestilow, the National Avionics Technician of the Year, has spent the past decade focused on achieving professional recognition and certification of aircraft electronic technicians. He is the program director, director of standards and certification, and director of accreditation for the National Center for Aerospace & Transportation Technologies. He helped to develop industry standards for avionics technicians, developed an education and training curriculum for avionics and aircraft electronics technicians, and created a testing program for certification of aircraft electronic technicians. Most recently he has been working on developing certification standards for technicians who work on unmanned aircraft systems.
Hope, the 2015 National FAASTeam Representative of the Year, holds ATP, CFI, and ground instructor certificates. He is the chief flight instructor of the Kansas City Flying Club. He has been involved as a safety team representative for more than 10 years, volunteering first as an FAA aviation safety counselor and then as a FAASTeam representative when the program became the FAA Safety Team in 2009. He conducted 11 safety seminars in 2014 and founded a local chapter of the IMC Club in Kansas City.
