What an honor!

 

Not for me - a special recognition for my brother-in-law, John Langer.  John was recently inducted into the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame!  A deserved honor, as flying has been his life-long passion and his life's work.  When John retired, he was the Director of Flight Operations for General Dynamics; the pinnacle of corporate flight operations.

Here is info from the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame: "John F. Langer was born at Denison in 1936 and graduated from Denison High School, he studied as an aviation mechanic apprentice before graduating in 1954. At age 17, he earned his private pilot’s license. After serving in the United States Air Force, he worked as a pilot for Gregory Aviation in Omaha, Western Contracting Corporation, and Ling-Temco-Vought Corporation. In 1977, he began working for General Dynamics Corporation. In March 1980, he captained the first corporate flight in the modern era between Egypt (Heca) and Israel (LLGB). In 1996, he became Director of Corporate Flight Operations. remaining in this position until retirement in 2002. He received an award from the National Business Aircraft Association (NBAA) Flying Safety Awards program in recognition of 3,849,366 miles as pilot in command in 1983 and another NBAA Safety Award for 19,000 hours as pilot in command in 2001. He holds numerous aeronautical licenses and ratings, has logged more than 24,000 hours of accident and violation-free flight time and piloted 111 individual aircraft types. He currently resides in Denison."

One of the more fun things I did while an active pilot was taking John to the Oshkosh Fly-In, where we camped under the wing of the Baron I had at the time.  Even though he was flying some of the finest corporate aircraft, he was excited to see what all was happening in the world of general aviation aircraft.

Those who have flown with him know he is an outstanding pilot; those of us who know him know he is a good man.  He certainly deserves this recognition.

Here is a photo from 2017, the last time John and I flew together...

That is in his Piper Cub, similar to the plane in which he gave me those lessons when I was 16.  John is my brother-in-law, more like a true brother, and a father-figure to me in my formative years.

Congratulations, John!