Leif Isaacson Honored with Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award
NAAA 2014 President, Leif Isaacson, was honored with the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award. The award is FAA’s highest honor for pilots certified under the Code of Federal Regulations, which recognizes individuals with 50 or more years of safe piloting experience.
A lifelong aviator whose passion began in childhood, Isaacson soloed at 16, earned his private pilot’s license at 17, and went on to build an extensive list of ratings spanning airplanes, helicopters, seaplanes, gyroplanes, aerobatic aircraft, and flight instruction. After launching his agricultural aviation career in the 1970s, he founded Desert Air Ag in Terreton, Idaho, growing it from a single biplane operation into one of southeastern Idaho’s largest aerial application businesses.
Isaacson has also been a respected industry leader through his work with the Idaho Agricultural Aviation Association and NAAA, serving as NAAA president in 2014 and advocating for pilot safety, including efforts to reduce collisions with towers and drones. In addition to presenting for the PAASS safety program, contributing to Operation S.A.F.E.’s Compaass Rose mentoring initiative, and serving on the NAAREF board, he has shown an equally strong dedication to community engagement and inspiring future aviators. Even in retirement, he continues to fly and mentor others, embodying the spirit and professionalism the Master Pilot Award celebrates.
The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award is named in honor of Orville and Wilbur Wright, two American aviation pioneers credited with inventing, building, and flying the world’s first successful motor-operated airplane. The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft with the Wright Flyer on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, NC. The brothers were also the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible. For more information on the award, click here.