Retired Big Bend Community College flight instructor John Swedburg holds up a portion of the shirt he wore when he flew his first solo flight in March 1971. Swedburg was honored on Saturday with the Federal Aviation Administration’s highest award for civilian pilots, the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, given to pilots with 50 or more years of flying.
February 3, 2023
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50 years of flying
Retired BBCC instructor reflects on a long career
MOSES LAKE — When John Swedburg made his first solo flight on March 24, 1971, he decided to keep a souvenir of the event. The tail from the shirt he wore that day, complete with the date, the plane he flew, and the aircraft’s tail number. “My wife asked me one day when I was going through my fireproof box early in the early years of our marriage,” Swedburg said last Saturday in front of a class of pilots at Big Bend Community College. “I had this shirttail there and some other aviation memorabilia in there. And she said, ‘where is our marriage license?’” ...