SVI Media’s Dan Dockstader with local pilot John Koelher regarding Koehler’s recent recognition with the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award.

(0:00) SVI now in a conversation with John Koehler. He just recently received the Wright Brothers (0:04) Master’s Pilot Award for years of service in aviation. How about 50 years or more? John, (0:12) how do you feel about that award? Your thoughts on that? I feel incredibly honored.

It’s not (0:18) something so much that I earn, but that my students can put up with me. They keep coming back to me. (0:25) So you’re not just flying airplanes, you’re teaching people to be pilots.

Yes, sir. Tell (0:31) us about that. And you’ve taught in so many states the other night when you received that honor, (0:36) multiple states.

Your thoughts on teaching others how to fly? (0:41) I love to fly and I love to help others enjoy that too. And there are many people that (0:50) want to learn to fly as just a hobby. And I love teaching them that.

There are some that want to (0:57) fly as a business and become airline pilots. Well, that’s great. I love to teach them that too.

(1:01) But there’s so much beauty of the earth that you see from flying and so much freedom. And (1:08) you get an idea of how incredibly beautiful this world is. I just love to fly.

I like the bird’s (1:14) eye view. Now we brought you to Star Valley and flying here where you’ve done this in so many (1:20) different states. How are we fortunate enough to have a master pilot in Star Valley? (1:26) How we got here was only by an act of God.

I was working in Pueblo, Colorado as a contractor for (1:39) teaching Air Force pilots to fly. And my wife, we were looking ahead to retirement and our house, (1:48) someone wanted to buy it, so we sold it. And then where were we going to live to retire? (1:54) And we’ve lived in many different places and we love the mountains.

And we actually bought (2:03) property down around Copeville, but had a difficult time getting the house built. (2:08) And we were up here one day and loved the valley, really felt this is where we needed to be. So we (2:15) bought a house up here.

And now you’ve settled in and you’re a major part of the Afton Airport (2:20) operations. Tell us what you do now as you help people in various capacities fly their planes, (2:26) you fly your own. Tell us about your life now as a pilot here in Star Valley.

(2:29) I am just a flight instructor. I still love to teach people how to fly their own airplanes. (2:36) I’ve been here for 13 years now and I’ve taught a few people.

And every two years a pilot needs to (2:43) have what’s called a flight review. And so they come back to me every two years if they’ve already (2:48) had their license for a while. So I’m teaching new pilots along with teaching other pilots that (2:54) I’ve trained before.

And then people that buy different airplanes, the insurance requires (2:59) them to be checked out in the aircraft and I do a lot of that. Okay. The other night at the (3:04) dinner area of the program where you were honored as the master pilot, Tristan Smith presented to (3:10) you that important honor.

Your thoughts on that? Tristan Smith is my hero. He is a guy that I (3:18) tremendously admire. We were in an accident and we both got a lot of facial damage but he lost (3:29) his eyesight.

And I am so incredibly impressed with how he has handled that challenge to his life (3:39) with a great positive attitude, hard work, and of course his wife has supported him greatly in this (3:46) and he is just an incredible human being. And I just love him and respect him and he’s my hero. (3:57) Now that you’re here and you’ve settled in teaching the, I might say, the next generation (4:03) of fly as well because I understand you’ve been involved in the Star Valley High School (4:07) scholarship program and teaching youth and so forth.

Where do you see your somewhat retired (4:13) life go from here? I love how things are going right now. I am retired but I get to instruct (4:22) about any time the weather is halfway decent. And there’s, I don’t have, flying is not a job for me, (4:33) it’s a passion.

And so teaching, I love to teach and so I’ll just keep doing this till I’m six (4:40) foot under. All right, closing thoughts on receiving the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award (4:47) at that program in Star Valley this past week? The Master Pilot Award is really quite an achievement. (4:54) You have to have at least 50 years of solid aviation wherein you do not violate any FAA (5:05) regulations or get yourself into trouble or just do anything stupid.

And so to survive 50 years, (5:12) especially in the student training business, is quite a blessing. And you’ve blessed other (5:18) people’s lives all along the way. I hope so.

Yes, you have. John Koehler, recipient of the (5:25) Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, Dandox and SVI Media at the Afton Airport.