AvBrief Contributors

Smart Aviator’s Larry Anglisano is a freelance writer who is an active land, sea and glider pilot with over 25 years experience as an avionics specialist.

Steve Ashby is a retired/recovering attorney and now full time recreational aviator. While finishing up his instrument rating in a Cessna Skyhawk, he is also making a final push to get his Vans RV-8A project into the air. Steve has short bursts of time in everything from a B-17 to a Blanik glider and even over 80 hours in helicopters. His favorite is always the last one he flew. His idea of heaven is camping the whole week at Sun-N-Fun. His only near death experience was taking a bird strike from a Frigate bird the size of Nebraska over the bayou near New Orleans. Unlike the bird, Steve is still flying.

Chris Atwood is a corporate pilot and flight instructor with experience in 101 makes and models of aircraft and has been a pilot since 2001.

Paul Berge is a CFII, former air traffic controller (much to FAA relief), and writer who lives and flies an Aeronca Champ in Iowa, USA. None of his novels have won the Nobel Prize.

Paul Bertorelli led the Aviation Division at Belvoir Media Group for decades and is the former editor of Aviation Consumer Magazine. He retired as AVweb’s Editor-at-Large in 2023.

Jason Blair is an active single and multiengine instructor and an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner with over 6,000 hours total time, over 3,500 hours of instruction given, and more than 3500 hours in aircraft as a DPE.

Julie Boatman is an independent aviation journalist with decades of general aviation industry reporting experience, an active flight instructor, and founder of JulietBravoFox Media.

Frank Bowlin is a FAASTeam member, instructor specializing in Cessna 340s, retired airline pilot, and the last editor of IFR Magazine before it was shut down.

Matt Burch is an engineer, commercial pilot, flight instructor, and serial hobby-acquirer. He is dual-rated in airplanes and helicopters, and some say he owns too many tools.

Jeb Burnside is an airline transport pilot, a recipient of the FAA’s Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award and owner of a Beechcraft C33A Debonair.

Cory spent over 15 years in the avionics industry and is very proud of the products he helped develop there. He has worked at a medical device company for the last 10 years and is very proud of the products he helped develop there as well. He hopes that all of the readers get an opportunity to fly behind the things he helped develop in the first half of his career and sincerely hopes none of the readers ever need the products he helped develop in the second half.

Zach has been mixing resin and vacuum-forming fiberglass structures since Orville and Wilbur first felt the rush of air over the Wright Flyer's wings—or thereabout. He's known as the fiberglass guru among builders of composite airplanes and operates Fibertech Composites in Knoxville, Tennessee. When he's not making composite layups, Zach can be found in the Glasair Aircraft Owners forum helping builders.

Ty Connell grew up in the shadow of Naval Air Station Oceana on the East Coast and has been fascinated with aircraft since his youth. Still a student pilot, he is currently working on a Van’s RV-14A.

LeRoy Cook is an airline transport pilot, instructor, and an experienced aviation journalist.

As the founder of HomebuiltHELP.com, Jon Croke has produced instructional videos for Experimental aircraft builders spanning 20 years. He has built (and helped others build) over a dozen kit aircraft of all makes and models. Jon is a private pilot and has held a ham radio license for over 50 years.

Robbie Culver is an instrument-rated private pilot and serves as the Chairman of EAA’s Type Club Coalition. He is also Vice President of EAA Chapter 972 in Frankston, Texas.

Rick is an aviation attorney, an active CFII and holds an ATP with type ratings in the Douglas DC-3 and Cessna Citation. He is the author of The Thinking Pilot’s Flight Manual or, How to Survive Flying Little Airplanes and Have a Ball Doing It, Vols. 1 - 3.

Paul Dye retired as a Lead Flight Director for NASA’s Human Space Flight program, with 50 years of aerospace experience on everything from Cubs to the Space Shuttle. An avid homebuilder, he began flying and working on airplanes as a teen and has experience with a wide range of construction techniques and materials. He flies an RV-8 and SubSonex jet that he built, an RV-3 that he built with his pilot wife, as well as a Dream Tundra and an electric Xenos motorglider they completed. Currently, they are building an F1 Rocket. A commercially licensed pilot, he has logged over 6000 hours in many different types of aircraft and is an A&P, FAA DAR, EAA Tech Counselor and Flight Advisor; he was formerly a member of the Homebuilder’s Council and is now on the EAA Safety Committee. He is also a member of SETP and consults on flight testing projects.

A pilot since 1995, Omar is a GlaStar builder in Portland, Oregon and the president and janitor of the Glasair Aircraft Owners Association.

Brian Foley is principal of aviation consulting firms Brian Foley Associates and AvStrategies.

Kerry Fores built an award-winning Sonex he polished and affectionately named “Metal Illness.” Fores, a freelance writer whose Building Time column appeared for seven years in KITPLANES magazine, is retired from a 20-year career supporting Sonex builders. He is establishing an online presence at kerryfores.substack.com

Kevin Garrison is a retired 767 captain with more than 22,000 accident-free hours flown. He has been a flight instructor for more than 45 years and holds an airline transport pilot certificate, along with a commercial certificate with land and seaplane ratings, and a flight instructor certificate. He has been an airline pilot examiner and is rated on the Boeing 727, 757, 767, 777, DC-9, and MD-88. Kevin has over 5,000 general aviation hours that include everything from banner towing to flying night cargo in Twin Beeches.

Larry “Elby” Gray, a retired mechanical engineer, earned more than 300 US patents primarily for innovations in the medical equipment field. He is an instrument rated private pilot. He is both the builder and pilot of a Van’s RV-14A and has written the book “ Building a Kit Airplane: Everything I Wish I Knew Before I Started.”

Bob Hadley holds a Sport Pilot and an LSRM certificate. He’s retired and living the life of Riley at the famous Dayton Valley Airpark (A34) in northern Nevada. He’s been contributing Home Shop Machinist’s tips to the homebuilt community for more than 10 years.

Dana soloed at 16 and has been messing around with the low and slow side of aviation ever since. An aerospace engineer by education and mechanical engineer by trade, he’s been taking things apart almost since birth and usually manages to put them back together again, though not always the same way. He’s owned and tinkered with a variety of homebuilts over the years and currently flies a homebuilt Rose Parrakeet.

Dan Horton has been crazy about airplanes since dope was a good thing. When not in the shop or researching some subject of interest, he can be found in his RV-8. Dan has been flying more than 40 years, and building things more than 60.

Louise Hose is an instrument-rated, commercial pilot who regularly flies her RV-6 as well as the RV-3B and Dream Tundra that she built with her husband. She is currently building an RV-15. She was also a pilot and principal in the RV-1 restoration project.

Kenneth P. Katz is a retired aerospace engineer and active commercially-certificated general aviation pilot. He is the author of three books about military aviation and a podcast host.

Elaine Kauh is a CFI-I, author, and professional pilot who discovered her flying addiction as a country airport kid. She's thrilled to be based at a year-round grass strip in rural Wisconsin, and actually likes winter. With experience in dozens of makes and models from gliders to bizjets, she enjoys helping pilots sharpen their skills and expand their envelopes, whether in a new glass cockpit or an old taildragger.

Steve Kessinger has retired from the airlines with just under 10,000 hours in the 787 among other airplanes, and is getting back to flying airplanes that require him to use his feet. His Progressive Aerodyne SeaRey, OspRey, is still on schedule to fly on Wednesday.

Jeremy flies jets, to fly light aircraft, to share stories about flying airplanes.

Larry is a Van’s RV-7A builder and a private pilot. His goal is helping others with their projects.

Ron Levy is an instructor for a national instrument flight training company. He’s been the director of a university aviation program, a lead aircraft survivability engineer and an instructor for an international simulator training company. He's also a Lead FAA Safety Team Representative and the Safety Director Emeritus of the Grumman Owners and Pilots Association. A 14,000-hour ATP/CFI, Ron's 56 years of flying experience includes over 6000 hours as a flight instructor, and 2000 hours as a WSO in tactical jets. He holds a bachelor’s in engineering and a master’s in aviation management. He’s written hundreds of aviation safety articles and more than seventy technical publications. He lives with his wife, Fran (a 1000-hour Private/Instrument pilot) in Newark DE, and bases his Grumman Tiger at N57.

Daniel Lodge finished high school wanting to be a pilot, but was rejected from military aviation for wearing glasses - so he became a computer engineer and designed telecommunications equipment until the dotcom bubble burst, then went to medical school. Daniel is currently a cardiac surgeon at a well-known public university, and flies a Glasair Sportsman he built from a kit.

Karen Lund is the Business and Advertising Manager at AvBrief.com. She has been in aviation media for 20 years, working in many facets of the publication process, including operations—both print and digital—accounting, management, sales, and, most recently, as a special events journalist. She lives in northern Arizona with her trusty canine copilot, Penny.

Rob Mark is an ATP-rated business jet pilot, award-winning journalist, and Hall of Fame inductee. A former FAA air traffic controller and magazine editor, he currently co-hosts the NTSB News Talk podcast. Rob has authored four aviation books and created the award-winning Jetwhine.com aviation news site.

Jay Mee is a Dehli-based aviation journalist who contributes stories from Asia to AvBrief.   

Russ Niles is Editor-in-Chief of AvBrief.com. He has been a pilot for 30 years and an aviation journalist since 2003. He and his wife Marni live in southern British Columbia where they also operate a small winery.

Mark is an instrument rated private pilot and former owner of a Grumman American AA1B and a V-tail Bonanza.

Smart Aviator's Sy Pinkert is a freelance writer who works as a captain on the Boeing 737 and flies his Cessna Turbo 310R in his off time.

Bob Reed is an active CFII and Grumman Tiger owner and expert based in Pennsylvania.

As a pilot and the most sought-after air show announcer in the US, Rob Reider brings his skills to the world of audiobooks. His extensive knowledge of aviation and the military has attracted the attention of authors who need that experience to bring their works to life. Rob’s acting career began in high school, continued in musical theater roles at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music and won him 5 Regional Emmys during a 13-year Midwest television career. He’s also an accomplished guitarist and lover of acoustic music. Rob has worked with several audiobook coaches, including Hillary Huber and P.J. Ochlan, to hone his craft and focus on thrillers, mysteries, and non-fiction titles.

Bill Repucci earned his Private Pilot certificate back in the days when the written exam was completed with a No. 2 pencil. Told at the time that he now held a “license to learn,” Bill took that advice to heart—discovering along the way that aviation is full of lessons.

Jay Selman’s passion for aviation dates back to the late 1950s His passion eventually led him to four years in the US Air Force. In early 1981, Jay began a 44-year (and counting) career as an aviation photojournalist, beginning with Professional Pilot. Also in 1981, Jay was hired by Piedmont Airlines as a station agent at DCA. He enjoyed a 35-year career that spanned a total of five “home” airports, two company bankruptcies, three mergers, and a world of opportunities. In 2005-2006, he was the Managing Editor of Airliners magazine. After he retired from the airline industry in 2016, Jay became a regular contributor to several of the warbird magazines, and has served as the editor for Red Alert, the quarterly publication of the Redstar Pilots Association, and is now the editor of Mentor Monitor, the quarterly publication of the T-34 Association This, in turn, has led to regular writing assignments with several notable aviation publications.

Raf Sierra is a Vietnam veteran and longtime CFI/CFII with more than 10,000 hours of flight and ground instruction. He has taught both basic and advanced flying at SoCal's Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport. He continues to support aviation safety and student scholarships through community flight programs.

Graeme J.W. Smith (born a Scot) is a keen amateur historian. With 2,500 hours and 47 types in his logbook he hung up his wings in 2023 before he did something silly while flying gentleman’s acro. He retains a keen interest in aviation and bike rides and paints in the next phase of his adventures.

Eric Stewart is designing and building the SR-1, a speed plane for setting records in the FAI c-1a/0 category. Read more at facebook.com/TheSR1Project.

Vic Syracuse brings 48+ years of aviation experience, from U.S. Air Force avionics tech to award-winning aircraft builder, pilot, and DAR. A long-time columnist, he’s built 12 aircraft, made dozens of first flights, and logged 11,000+ hours in 75 types of aircraft. He founded Base Leg Aviation in Locust Grove, Georgia.

Max is the 2008 National CFI of the Year, host of AviationNewsTalk.com podcast, Cirrus Platinum CSIP, author - G1000 Glass Cockpit Handbook, glass cockpit expert, and he is actively teaching flying.

Jeff Van West is PilotWorkshops’ Creative Director with the primary responsibility for managing the development and creation of the company’s pilot proficiency training programs, including its flagship IFR and VFR Mastery programs. For 19 years, Jeff ran many noteworthy aviation media projects with his own firm, Van West Communications, including magazines, books, videos and live seminars. He’s an experienced CFII/MEI with ratings for single- and multi-engine airplanes, seaplanes, and gliders. Jeff was the creator of the first pilot transition program for new Cirrus aircraft.

Barnaby serves as a Technical Fellow within Northrop Grumman’s Advanced Design organization. A licensed private pilot with both single-engine and glider ratings, he has contributed to the creation of numerous unconventional aircraft—canards, joined wings, flying wings, and even designs so unusual they defy any familiar category.

Ron Wanttaja is a retired space systems engineer. During a 40-year career, he helped design, build, test, launch, and operate 18 spacecraft, including the International Space Station. On the aviation side, he has owned a Bowers Fly Baby since 1996 and flew the original prototype for seven years before acquiring his own. He lives just outside of Portland, Oregon, with his wife, romance novelist Lisa McAllister.

Jen Whitley, AvBrief’s copy editor, has been a freelance editor specializing in general aviation since 1998. She’s an instrument-rated private pilot, former aircraft owner, and longtime aviation advocate.

Amy Wilkins discovered flying at the age of 6 and has been hooked ever since. She is a U.S. Coast Guard veteran, a captain and line check airman at her regional airline, and a licensed A&P mechanic. She owns a GlaStar named "Woodstock" with her husband, Eric , and they enjoy sharing their cross-country adventures and camping trips from their home base in Denver, Colorado.

Tom got into aviation at the end of a gas hose in 1973 but wandered off to racing cars and motorcycles. A career in motor journalism meant engines, racing and dyno cells—plus cameras and word processors. Today he still scribbles stories out of habit and flies for fun.

Troy is an engineer and machinist based in Silicon Valley with passion for building, restoration, and flying his Quickie Q-2. Troy is currently wrapping up his second build, a RANS S-21 with a personalized O-320.