Four Ag Pilots Honored with The Wright Brother Master Pilot Awards at Missouri AAA Convention - National Agricultural Aviation Association

Pictured left to right: Travis Schwien (FAA), Mike Lee, Ginger Lee, Linda Hall, Danny Hall, Randy Darter (accepting on behalf of his father, Lloyd Darter), Stan Hunter & Randall Ottinger (FAA).

Four agricultural aviation pilots were honored with The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on January 11 at the Missouri Agricultural Aviation Association’s annual meeting. The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, considered the FAA’s highest honor for pilots certified under the Code of Federal Regulations, is bestowed upon individuals who have 50 or more years of civil and military piloting experience or 50 or more years combined in both piloting and aircraft operations.

Recipients of the award were Mike Lee of Earl’s Flying Service in Steele, MO; Danny Hall of Kewanee Ag Service in Kewanee, MO; Lloyd Darter of L & P Aviation in Mountain Grove, MO; and Stan Hunter of Mid-Continent Aircraft Corp. in Hayti, MO.

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.