NATA Industry Excellence Award Recipients Continued from page 29 throughout the company and we’re proud of it. Every Solairus pilot—new guys and veterans alike—comes to the mothership for charm school once a year to get reacquainted with that culture. Relearn the “secret handshake” if you will. Our job, the way I see it, is to give them all the support they need and then some, so they can focus on operating safely from Point A to Point B, every time, and to remind them that we’re all in this together. No matter how much experience a pilot has, the training is always the same for everybody. I like to remind them: nobody wants to be that pilot with a great resume, who ends up crashing airplanes.” His own resume now includes lines like Certified Flight Instructor, Lead Flight Instructor at the Japan Airlines Flight Crew Training Center for 18 years, and Solairus Aviation Ground Instructor. He has over 16,000 hours of flight time in his logbook and 10,000 hours of dual instruc- tion given. He is now responsible for providing approxi- mately 32 weeks of formal instruction, including 120 days of hands-on instruction equating to 960 hours of classroom instruction, and for developing and maintaining a peer network of industry experts for mentoring and reference. “Due to his comprehensive understanding of pro- cedures and policies, Denis Arbeau continues to be instrumental in developing and implementing train- ing procedures, which increase efficiency and effec- tiveness,” stated Janene Thorn, Solairus Aviation Flight Administrator, on the nomination form for the award. “He is continuous improvement in motion.” Arbeau is quick to share responsibility for both the award and the accomplishments that preceded it. “When I accept this award, it will be on behalf of the whole Solairus family, because it’s really a team effort to support the safe operation of our pilots and I really think of this as an honor for the whole team,” Arbeau said. “It’s humbling to be recognized out here in my little corner of the world for doing my thing and helping pilots, but really I’m just proud to be out here making sure pilots are continually reminded about how important is to oper- ate safely and with common sense. With as much as we have at stake and as many stakeholders as we have, it’s just not worth it to take risks when it comes to safe opera- tion. I like to be part of getting that message across.” General Aviation Service Technician Award: Jerry Richard Marolt, Jr. Jerry Marolt, Senior Crew Chief at Flexjet, traces his fascination with building, repairing and fly- ing aircraft to one of his earliest memories. “We used to have a Five-and-Dime store in our little town and I’d always pester my mom to buy me those little rubber band-powered balsa wood airplanes,” Marolt remembered. “I’d come home and fly it until the wings broke off, then try to figure out how to fix it until I could convince her to take me to go get my next one. Later, when I was in high school, she took me to my first RC fly-in. I was there just totally wide-eyed, asking everybody thou- sands of questions, and one of the guys ended up giv- ing me a stick-build glider kit. There was nothing put together but it had blueprints and everything I needed, and he ended up sort of mentoring me through the build. That was the spark for what became a lifelong passion.” Marolt’s many career mentors were very much on his mind when he first learned he’d been nomi- nated for, and won, this year’s NATA General Aviation Service Award–sponsored for 30 years by Aircraft Technical Publishers (ATP). “I knew absolutely nothing about it until I got the voice- mail telling me I’d won, and my first thought was maybe it was some kind of prank call, like maybe somebody was 30 Aviation Business Journal | 2nd Quarter 2017
