Congrats Dr.! Well deserved and thanks for all you continue to do for our community!
I cannot think of a more deserving person. Nicely done, Jerry!
No one deserves it more than Jerry. Could someone please fix the title of this post?
I never noticed that. Done.
Bill:
Why werenât the other COPA member 50 year Wright Award members honored by COPA?
Seems very odd to me.
Gil
Well, first of all it was awarded right there at M15, and second, it was a perfect time to honor someone who has made so many contributions to COPA including years and years of CPPP teaching, BOD and committee participation, and innumerable helpful safety posts and who exemplifies the kind of pilot we all want to grow up to be. It wasnât just about the Wright Brothers award. I think that the two standing Oâs he received probably reflect that most, but apparently not all, attendees agreed with the sentiment.
Jerry is a dear friend, so I am biased, but I totally agree. As Matt eloquently described in another post, this recognition was for far more than the Wright Brothers Award alone.
Gordon and Jack:
Agree with both of you Jerry is a great guy and great volunteer and a friend of mine as well. **This is not about Jerry. **
There are a lot of great COPA volunteers and I believe some who have achieved the Wright Award, so I say again, it seems odd. Remember, the recognition was billed as the celebration of achieving the Wright Award.
It seems to me that now that COPA is a large organization we need to do things in a consistent thoughtful manner with an organization wide view. Hopefully we have grown past the small narrow boring cliquey type of organization that dooms some clubs.
Again, Jerry deserves lots of recognition and my comments are not about Jerry. In the next issue of the Cirrus Pilot there will be a section recognizing volunteers and you will see there are lots of contributors. I think you both missed the point.
Gil
As to the background of this Gil, I was approached by Jerry mid year last year and asked if we could somehow acknowledge his receipt of the award at Migration. I thought we should make a big deal of it and others on the Committee agreed. I wasnât aware that there were other COPA members in attendance whom had received the award. Peter Storer graciously offered to put the video together and Jerry wanted Matt to present.
You were on the Board at the time. You were in several meetings where the topic of recognizing Jerry was discussed as part of the program. In fact it was at a Board meeting that I requested assistance in putting a video together for the presentation and Peter graciously agreed. So I find it odd that you now bring this up when you simply could have asked the question at one of several Board Meetings when it was discussed.
Jerry,
Like others, Iâd like to offer my sincere congratulations on the award! And, on a related note, occasionally I make the mistake of thinking that my training and experience has any true significance. Then, I think about the kinds of things that Matt has said regarding your aviation background and am properly humbled ⌠at least for awhile. [;)] COPA and the GA community as a whole have benefited greatly from your presence and involvement. Thanks.
Tailwinds,
Craig
Gil, I agree with this statement. However, I really think Jerryâs recognition in Nashville was about much more than just his Master Pilot Award. He has contributed countless hours to COPA and the safety of our pilots. I think this was as much a part of his recognition as the award from the FAA. Perhaps we should have presented this as a âcomplete packageâ to the members who were in attendance in Nashville.
Scott:
I donât think the matter was discussed in detail just a video not a 30 minute plus program. I was not involved in the detail planning of the Migration Program and if you will recall we had more important issues on our plate regarding Migration at the time. I however will take my share of the blame, in my view it was a screw up not recognizing all who deserved to be recognized within the organization. As I said it seems odd, and worthy of contemplating the question of why we didnât think to check for others.
Gil
There is still time. I propose we compile a list of all the COPAns who have achieved this honor, and recognize them collectively at the next Migration. This has to be a very small, excluding club.
Maybe also a new badge.
Again, you seem to be missing the point that it was primarily to honor all of the other things Jerry has done over the past 16 years for COPA, and the presentation at M15 of the Wright Brothers award was the perfect time to do it.
Have any of the other Wright Brothers awardees who are COPA members done all the things Jerry has done for COPA? I donât know.
I have attended every single Migration for 15 years. Jerry received the most enthusiastic and lengthy ovation(s) from the crowd as anyone in our history, with the possible exception of when Mike Radomsky was awarded emeritus status.
I donât understand why this is rubbing you the wrong way. I would be very surprised if any of the other Wright Brothers awardees in attendance felt slighted.
Agreed. Perhaps this concern would have been mitigated if it had been called a lifetime achievement award. And, by the way, here is the Wright Brothers award too.
No Gil, it was discussed in detail as I wanted to make sure I got some help to do a proper tribute to Jerry during the Banquet Dinner. Doing it during Saturdayâs Banquet dinner was discussed and the strong (unanimous) consensus was that it was more than appropriate to present the Award at our Banquet dinner based on Jerryâs huge contributions to COPA. We discussed limiting everything else we normally do (silent auction/ etc.) so we could make time for Jerry, the video, etc.
I think your point could have been made via an email rather than hijacking a thread that had the very purposes of recognizing Jerry. Sheesh. Either you got up on the wrong side of the bed or your appropriateness meter is broken. I usually let this stuff slide but you are off base bringing this up in this thread.
Bill (and all the others who posted positively)
Thank you all for your comments. I truly appreciate them.
I sent a PM to Gil expressing my personal feelings about his posts and would prefer to keep them private and not discuss them further.
In fact, what I would like is for this thread to simply die a natural and immediate death.