Genesah Duffy: Icon A5 instructor

A native Floridian, Duffy has delved deeply into photography and graphic design, and she served four years in the U.S. Navy. Six years ago, at age 25, she discovered flying and leapt into it.

“I stopped at St. Pete-Clearwater Airport one day and took a discovery flight,” she said. “We flew over Clearwater Beach and Tampa Bay in a Cessna 172, and that was it. I knew right then I wanted to be a pilot, even though I didn’t know any pilots and no one in my family flew.”

She enrolled in the aviation program at Broward College (and later Polk State College) and tore through private, commercial, instrument, and flight instructor ratings in a single year. Later, she added helicopter and seaplane ratings. “I was working at the Winter Haven Airport—and Jack Brown’s Seaplane Base is there, too,” she said. “I walked across the street and got a seaplane rating. I had no idea what I was going to do with it—but I knew that, somehow, I’d find a way to use that rating.”

Duffy joined Icon Aircraft in 2016 and began teaching in the sleek, two-seat A5 amphibian at the company’s facility at Peter O. Knight Airport in Tampa. Since then, she’s flown A5s from Florida to Maine and the Bahamas, flew with Jay Leno in California for an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage, and was promoted to manager of flight operations.

Icon has delivered about 120 airplanes, and Duffy said owners are connecting online to share information and flying adventures. “It’s becoming a real community,” she said. “Our owners and airplanes are spread all over the country, but they’re increasingly connected.”

Duffy said she likes working with her hands and intends to pursue an airframe and powerplant certificate. Rudimentary operational knowledge of aircraft isn’t satisfactory to her, she said. She wants a deeper understanding.

“Basic knowledge isn’t enough,” she said. “I want to learn as much about aviation as I possibly can.”