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Aero Club of Washington Awards

Aero Club of Washington Honors Phil Boyer
with Engen Trophy

A Tribute to Phil Boyer on the occasion of his receipt of the 2008 Donald D. Engen Aero Club Trophy for Aviation Excellence Remarks by Henry Odrodzinski, October 27, 2008

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen…and thanks to all of you for participating in this important event…

It is important because our club is nearly 100 years old…and our founders set a number of goals for us including: “ arranging for lectures”…”offering medals and trophies” and …”extending honors to eminent airmen”... things that we are doing today.

The Aero Club Trophy was established to honor a person who, through his own efforts and achievements, reaffirms the Wright Brother's standards of excellence. After his tragic death, our board decided to rename the trophy after our dear friend…Don Engen. I know that many of you fondly remember Admiral Engen. He was a distinguished and highly decorated naval aviator…FAA Administrator…Director of the National Air and Space Museum …NTSB Board Member and President of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation. He was an integral part of our family…and he and his wife Mary frequently joined us here at lunch, often graced this head table…and occasionally presided over this podium. He was, himself, an “eminent airman”.

The “Donald D. Engen Aero Club Trophy for Aviation Excellence” has been presented to some of the giants of our time… among them are the Metropolitan Washington Airports' Jim Wilding, The Honorable Najeeb Halaby, Senator Wendell Ford, Ambassador Ed Stimpson, Secretary Norm Mineta and the legendary Scott Crossfield.

Today, we present the trophy to another giant of our community, Phil Boyer. Many of us know Phil, because of his outstanding work at AOPA. But, Phil began promoting and defending General Aviation much earlier! He got hooked on aviation at the age of 4 – when his grandfather took him to the airport to watch airplanes. And when his own broadcasting career took off, Phil volunteered to fly news crews to breaking stories…and scooping the competition…and he made sure that the TV station's airplane was seen at promotional events throughout the area. He recognized and used General Aviation as a powerful business tool and his personal time machine. While still in his 20's, he organized a local Aviation Explorer Post…and became president of the Sacramento Valley Pilots Association…where he organized fly-outs and, characteristically , boosted membership.

By the late 1970's, Phil was flying a Bonanza and running The ABC affiliate station in Chicago …where he used on-air editorials to defend that city's iconic lake front airport - - Meigs Field. I'll bet most of you don't know that Phil received a commendation from FAA…for personally finding a student pilot who was lost above the cloud deck …and guiding him to a safe landing.

I first met Phil in the 80's in Oshkosh … where he and an ABC TV crew were on hand to document the arrival of the Concorde at Experimental Aircraft Association's annual convention. Talk about promoting General Aviation! It was Phil who conceived of “ABC's Wide World of Flying” and he hosted every episode himself. In one of my favorite editions of the program, Phil and his wife Lois flew their Cessna 340 across the Atlantic …and engaged in a European flying adventure

Of course, for the last 18 years he has been leading and growing the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. His accomplishments there are extraordinary and far-reaching, as the following video will demonstrate… and I believe that he has already had a profoundly positive influence on General Aviation for decades to come.

Ladies and gentlemen, after an Aero Club lunch in 1909, much like this one, our predecessors escorted their guests, a couple of fellows from Dayton , over to the White House…where President Taft presented the first Aero Club Medal to the Wright Brothers. Today's Aero Club of Washington is honored to follow in their wake – and present the Donald D. Engen Aero Club Trophy to another eminent airman – Mr. Phil Boyer!

Past Recipients