About Us

A Pilot's Story - Will Hawkins & Rico Sharqawi

Along with Rico Sharqawi, Will Hawkins is the co-producer of "A Pilots Story," an inspirational film about the joy of being a pilot, which is scheduled for release in 2010. Having gone to school for photography and film, Hawkins landed a nice career in the high tech world. However, he always kept film and photography by his side as a hobby. Now some 12 years later, Hawkins finds himself creating high-quality films. According to Hawkins, "I have spent too many years watching videos, films and documentaries thinking I could have done that better. So watch no more, I now create. With "A Pilots Story," we want motivate individuals who dream of flying and introduce them to the unlimited possibilities which come with being a pilot."

Rico Sharqawi remembers sitting on his dad's shoulders during his first air show. He recalls, "I was watching a solo pilot perform an elegant dance in the sky maneuvering his Pitts magically! I also remember my first visit to an air museum where I got to sit behind the controls of a war bird of some sort. Those are some of the experiences which inspired me to become a pilot." According to Sharqawi, "Our goal with this film is to educate and inspire the next generation of pilots and astronauts. Those kids you see on their dad's shoulders at air shows and the kids who look up to pilots as if they were super heroes. We want motivate individuals who dream of flying and the unlimited possibilities which come with being a pilot. As a little kid, I was always fascinated with film and movies. My earliest memory of a film was "Jaws" at the age of 5. Not only has that film forever eliminated my participation in any future aquatic activities involving getting in the ocean, but it has left a lasting impression of the impact that a moving picture on the silver screen can have on an audience. We strive to create long lasting impressions in all the work we produce while capturing your vision on film and taking advantage of the latest advancements in filmmaking technology available."

Arty Trost

Arty Trost is a female ultralight* pilot in the United States who flies cross-country, multi-week flying adventures that cover thousands of miles. Arty has been flying her Maxair Drifter – an ultralight-type registered Experimental Light Sport Aircraft - for over 20 years. Her Drifter is often called “a lawn chair with wings and a chain saw engine.” It is a tiny, 320 lb. completely open aircraft made of aluminum tubing covered with Dacron fabric. Arty has flown ultralights throughout the United States as well as overseas - in South Korea, Israel, Italy and Puerto Rico. Stories about her long distance adventures have been published in several magazines and newspapers. She was featured on National Public Radio, where she was called "a modern day Amelia Earhart."

Arty describes herself as a “timid” pilot – a conservative flyer who avoids taking risks whenever possible. Yet this “timid” pilot accomplished a 10 year dream in the spring of 2009, when she flew her Drifter from her home in Sandy, Oregon to Sun ‘n Fun in Lakeland, Florida and back—a flight that covered 7100 miles and took seven weeks. Arty’s personal motto is based on a quote from the French author Emile Zola: “If you ask me what I came into this world to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.”

After her family, Arty has two passions: flying her Drifter, and challenging people to think boldly and live life with passion—to move out of their comfort zone and into their courage zone. As a 65-year-old woman, she has been told throughout her life that certain goals weren't possible, due to her gender—and later, due to her age. Arty shares the lessons she’s discovered while flying to encourage everyone to “live out loud” — to push their boundaries, and explore new possibilities both professionally and personally…how to soar even if they never leave the ground.

* Her Maxair Drifter looks like an ultralight, but is actually a registered Experiomental Light Sport Aircraft.

Bill Daniels

Bill Daniels is a retired business development executive living in Colorado. He has flown gliders and other GA aircraft all his adult life owning several of each along the way. He remembers his first experience with glider people as a 15 year old when a couple of guys showed up at his model airplane club in Alamogordo, NM with a 16mm movie projector. It turned out to be Larry Edgar and Wolfgang Klemperer with movies of the Sierra Wave Project - an early 1950's Air Force and Navy sponsored investigation into a then mysterious phenomena causing problems for aircraft flying across high mountain ranges. A particularly arresting story told that evening was that of Bob Symon climbing his P-38 fighter from 13,000 feet to 31,000 feet at 3000 feet per minute in the Sierra Wave - with both engines feathered. They had pictures to prove it. Bill had not considered becoming a pilot but the jaw dropping movies of sailplanes over the Sierra Nevada Mountains convinced him he would, someday.

Daniels went on to earn a glider CFI-G and a commercial airplane with instrument rating. "My glider time counted for most of the hours required for the Commercial Airplane Certificate so I basically just took the test", going straight for the Commercial Pilot Airplane Rating.

Bill used a light GA airplane to travel the whole country on behalf of his employers in the computer and software industry. He amassed thousands of flight hours that way. "It got to the point that I didn't need maps - I knew the whole country by sight", he explains. In his airplane flying career, he experienced no less than four forced landings with none resulting in damage to the aircraft or anything on the ground. He credits his glider skills for this. He relates that, "Nothing has happened while flying gliders to equal the drama of those forced landings in airplanes." Now, Daniels flies gliders from Boulder, Colorado as a member of the Soaring Society of Boulder.

Francois Dumas

Francois A "Navman" Dumas is a lifetime aviation "nut," born in Holland, Europe and living in both Holland and France with his lovely wife Nina. Their daughter Vivian has already left the nest and lives in that wonderful little city of Amsterdam!

Francois started being interested in aviation when his uncle gave him a small metal airplane model that he had made himself. That was the start of a collection of model planes, plastic kits, RC models and tons of books and magazines that continues to grow to this day, 50 years later! As flying was and still is forbiddingly expensive in his native country, Francois never got a chance to get even close to real aircraft, other than see the "Connies" take off from Amsterdam Schiphol, decennia later followed by the 747's. The Air Force didn't want anybody wearing glasses back in the 60's, so that was no option. Once he DID have money to be able to afford flying lessons, his career as an international IT executive had taken off and his work AND his family took up all his time.

When he then finally had more time to spare, the money was destined for other ventures! Such is life, but the story didn't end there. Francois found some worthy alternatives, like traveling by car, later as a frequent flying passenger, and today as an avid motorcycle rider and tour guide... but most importantly in "flightsimming." He stumbled upon one of the very first flight simulators, installed on one of the country's very first micro computers (what we'd call a PC today), and immediately fell in love. So much so that he entered the world of IT, leaving his job at the newspaper ads department where he worked at the time, just to get his hands on the new technology. Mind you, this was long before Microsoft even existed. Since then the world of PC's and flight simulators has changed tremendously and the stuff Microsoft puts on our PC's today is VERY close to the real thing and is actually being used by many a pilots to practice, learn and/or stay proficient! Francois always remained loyal to flight simulation and became one of the world's leading experts and writers on the subject. He is published in the Computer Pilot Magazine monthly, runs one of the world's foremost flight simulator news websites and forums at simFlight.com, founded his own flight simulator add-on publishing company and continues to be involved in a myriad of other activities in the industry, not least in helping test Microsoft every new version of their Flight Simulator.

Last but certainly not least he DID become a pilot, although not licensed, back in 1987, and has been flying in various countries and aircraft. His "home field" is a little mountain airport in France across the valley from their second home where only pilots with a special endorsement may land. He has been flying the taildragger Jodel's of the local flying club in summer and winter - on skies - over his beloved Alps.You can follow Francois' interests, stories, ramblings and adventures on his personal blog, which is aptly called Flyin' and Ridin'. From there you can also find his many other websites and contacts, both real-world aviation and simulation focused.

Lauren Haines

Lauren is a high school student learning to fly at a flight school on the Frederick Municipal Airport in Frederick, Maryland. She took her first flight with her family when she was just six weeks old and has been hooked on flying ever since. Her father owns a Beechcraft Bonanza. She, her parents, and sister fly their airplane for long weekends to places not possible to visit on a weekend in any other way than in an airplane. Lauren is learning to fly in a Cessna 172--describing the experience simply as, "Awesome!" When not flying, she's frequently thinking about flying, hanging out with her friends, chatting on Facebook, volunteering with her youth group at church, swimming on her high school team, or running track or cross-country.

Evan Krueger

Greetings! My name is Evan Krueger. I am a high school student in Northern Illinois and absolutely love aviation. Ask any of my friends or teachers; most will identify me as the airplane kid. I have no problem with that whatsoever. Aviation is my number one passion in life and most things I do revolve around it. Stacked on my shelves are all types of aviation related books that I use for the multitude of school projects about them. In addition to writing here, I also maintain TheFlyingToga.com, my personal blog I keep on my aviation related thoughts and adventures. Many people ask where the name came from, but as much as I wish I knew, I don’t have any idea. Anyways, my blog is very important to me, as it is my way of letting the world know all about aviation and its value to the community as well as its value to my life. When I began to learn to fly, it was difficult to grasp the whole experience of learning to fly. I started the blog to educate people who want to fly about how the lessons were: the difficulty, price, length, etc. As my blog progressed, I began to define tricky concepts and industry exclusive terms. This broadened the audience the blog appealed to. My interest for aviation started at a young age. I attended a local air show and had the opportunity to ride along with a Young Eagles pilot. Fate had chosen me to sit as copilot. When I was allowed to take control, the experience just clicked with me. I knew flying was what I wanted to do when I grew up. While I was too young, I did all the learning I could on the ground; I wanted to know everything there was about airplanes. For my fourteenth Christmas, I received a gift certificate for my first lesson. I finally got to take to the sky as a student on March 31st, 2007. After that, the effects of aviation hit hard. I always had my head in the clouds; I wanted to steer everything with my feet; I had an empty wallet. Until I had to take a break due to financial issues, I was able to log 6.3 hours. I hope I will be back up in the air in the summer of 2009. Flying is what defines me. Without it, I would be lost.

Todd McClamroch

Todd is a private pilot that realized his dream of becoming a pilot in 2004. Since then he continues to fly regularly, continually improving his skills and exploring new destinations. He enjoys flying throughout the Midwest, mainly flying Cessna products. Todd enjoys sharing his enthusiasm for aviation with others and shared his experiences learning to fly on his blog, myflightblog.com. Some of his favorite aviation experiences include: landing on any well maintained turf field he can find, experiencing a glacier landing in Alaska, and going for a ride in a B-17 Flying Fortress. Todd also is enjoying the opportunity to be an AOPA Project Pilot Mentor.

Jason Miller

Jason Miller is a Flight Instructor in the USA with more than 2500 hours of dual given. He is a member of the National Association of Flight Instructors. Jason's weekly aviation podcast, "The Finer Points" (www.thefinerpoints.net) blends tips with contemporary music. Charming and informative, these podcasts deliver all sorts of CFI wisdom as well as interviews, monthly safety sessions and more.

Brent Redpath

Brent Redpath has long dreamed of flying. From his experiences as a young boy traveling by air, he remembers the excitement of takeoff and landing and the thrill of watching planes from the window of the airport. Born deaf, Redpath could not hear the roar of the jet engines, but the motion of the airplanes inspired him to learn to fly. Now, at age 20, He is realizing his dream. Read the full story on AOPA.org>>

Jason Schappert

Jason Schappert is a full-time flight instructor and dedicated aviation enthusiast based in Ocala, Florida. He was named Top Collegiate Flight Instructor at NIFA 2008, an event sponsored by AOPA. Jason also is the author and editor of MzeroA.com. A flight training blog that has been helping student pilots excel in their flight training since 2007. Through video and audio lessons MzeroA makes even the tough subjects fun!

Jason also operates Schapp Aviation. A private flight training facility serving all of Central Florida.

A pilot since 16 years of age, Jason has the experience and qualifications to help you with any aspect of your flight training.

Andrew Schmertz

Andrew, a private pilot with land and sea ratings, has a strong background in communications, broadcasting and aviation. Andrew currently consults on the development of new programming for the flagship station of PBS, WNET-TV. He is also the president of a development stage air taxi company, Hopscotch Air, which plans to launch service from Long Island, New York next spring. He writes frequently about aviation on his blog, 2fly.com and has co-produced hours of aviation programs that have aired nationally on Comcast and Cablevision. Previously, Andrew was Chief Correspondent/Anchor for Business Week TV, the nationally syndicated television show of the magazine. In that role, he anchored business reports for WABC-TV and WLS-TV. Andrew is an attorney and is a member of the New York State Bar.

Paul Tocknell

Paul Tocknell is a certified flight instructor and corporate pilot from Dayton, Ohio. With over 4,000 hours, Paul has enjoyed seeing many different facets of commercial aviation while working as an airline pilot, aerial survey pilot and freight charter pilot. When not flying (or blogging about flying), Paul enjoys running, hiking and spending time with his wife and two kids. You can visit Paul's other blog at askacfi.com.

Steve Tupper

Steve Tupper is a private pilot, the host of the Airspeed podcast (www.airspeedonline.com), and a regular contributor at www.myTransponder.com. He holds airplane single-engine, multi-engine, airplane single-engine sea, and instrument ratings. Having completed the private certificate and instrument rating during his first six years of flying, he now on a mission to expand his aviation experience by pursuing new and different opportunities. Recent experiences have included adding a SIC type rating in the mighty DC-3 (the 1930s and 40s airliner), flying a Ford TriMotor, learning aerobatics in a Citabria, and tearing up the sky on a media flight with the USAF Thunderbirds in an F-16D. He’s a major in the US Civil Air Patrol (the civilian auxiliary of the US Air Force), which he serves as a pilot in the Oakland Composite Squadron and the assistant legal officer for CAP’s Michigan Wing. He’s also a multi-instrumental musician who has composed and recorded music for use on the event radio stations at Sun-N-Fun and AirVenture Oshkosh and he is currently scoring and recording music for the upcoming independent film, A Pilot’s Story (www.apilotsstory.com). For all of the great experiences that the podcast and blog (and, heck, flying!) have given him, he’s mostly an average joe with a great day job who constantly daydreams about sneaking away to the airport. He usually rents Cessna 172s from a local FBO. If he has a unique perspective, it’s that of the average guy who understands what the grandeur, challenge, and discipline of aviation can do. He takes every opportunity to encourage non-pilots to begin and continue flight training.When not in the cockpit, he is a technology and aviation lawyer with a large firm near Detroit.