Amelia Reid
Amelia Reid (November 13, 1924 – March 3, 2001) was a pilot, flight instructor, businesswoman, airshow performer, and airport advocate.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Amelia_Reid_plaque.jpg/220px-Amelia_Reid_plaque.jpg)
In 1960 Reid founded , a flight school at Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose, California. She ran the business out of her 1959 Ford and later, two trailers. She mortgaged her home and constructed a permanent hangar and office building in 1967, from which she operated her flight school for the rest of her life.[1]
Reid logged over 55,000 flight hours and trained more than 4,000 pilots. She flew in countless airshows, her last at age 75 in a Cessna Aerobat. She won the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Lawrence P. Sharples Award and was inducted into the National Association of Flight Instructors Hall of Fame.[1][2][3]
Reid's students include noted airshow performer Sean D. Tucker, aviation author and speaker Rod Machado, aerospace engineer and author H. Paul Shuch (whose recurring fictional character Avalon Eden[4] is based in part on Reid), and Jason Dahl, the captain on United flight 93 on September 11, 2001.
References[]
- ^ a b Sweeney, Frank (March 5, 2001). "Top San Jose flight instructor Amelia Reid dies". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 2009-05-06.
- ^ "Aviation community mourns Amelia Reid, California's 'First Lady of General Aviation' and AOPA Sharples Award winner". Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Archived from the original on 7 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-06.
- ^ "Flight Instructors Hall of Fame Inductees". National Association of Flight Instructors. 2007. Retrieved 2009-05-06.
- ^ "The Avalon Eden Stories". AvSport of Lock Haven. Retrieved 2013-05-26.
External links[]
- AeroDynamic Aviation, formerly Amelia Reid Aviation
- 1924 births
- 2001 deaths
- Aerobatic pilots
- Businesspeople from California
- American women aviators
- American flight instructors
- American women flight instructors
- Aviators from California
- 20th-century American businesspeople
- 20th-century American women