For 50 years of flying, Dave Freeman, of Leesburg, received The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award Wednesday evening from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The award was presented during a dinner and ceremony to Freeman at Image Air Charter at the Warsaw Municipal Airport by Thomas Kozura, FAASTeam program manager.
“The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award is a very special award given out by the FAA for a pilot who has 50 years of flying service and no issues or problems,” Kozura said. The award is named in honor of Orville and Wilbur Wright. The Wright brothers were “two American aviation pioneers credited with inventing, building and flying the world’s first successful motor-operated airplane,” he said, in part.
The award nominees must meet the following criteria: hold a U.S. Civil Aviation Authority or FAA pilot certificate; have 50 or more years of civil and military piloting experience or 50 or more years combined experience in both piloting and aircraft operations; be a U.S. citizen and have not had any airman certificate revoked.
The effective start date for the 50 years is the date of the nominee’s first solo flight or military equivalent. For Freeman, that was Dec. 18, 1973.
Kozura read a letter to Freeman from Kenneth D. Hinzman, aviation safety, office manager, Grand Rapids Flight Standards District Office. In part, the letter states, “This award acknowledges your exemplary service, professionalism, devotion to aviation safety and recognition by your peers.”
Freeman received two plaques from Kozura as part of the award, one from the U.S. Department of Transportation FAA, and two lapel pins.
People attending the ceremony were invited to tell stories about Freeman.
His sister, Michelle Ball, said, “I think about my parents, who were so proud of Dave, being a pilot and always encouraging of him. But there was a story in our family ... when he was maybe 16, 17 years old, he had wrecked so many vehicles, my dad said he would have to buy a Sherman tank because he had wrecked several cars. So I’m just very grateful to God that Dave hasn't wrecked planes ... and so, it’s just kind of humorous because my dad got frustrated with the cars. And Dave went into a field where he was driving something, so it’s just kind of ironic.”
Kozura estimated that about over 4,000 pilots have received the award since its inception.
In an interview before the ceremony, Freeman, a 1972 Warsaw Community High School graduate, explained how he got into flying in the first place.
“I was just doing some traveling and I had a friend who was a member of a flying club in Fort Wayne, who offered to fly me to one of the meetings that I had in Milwaukee, and it just was so much nicer than driving a car there,” Freeman recalled. “So another friend that is from Pierceton was a member of a flying club here in Warsaw, and back then we could rent an airplane for $9 an hour I think I paid, and that included the fuel. He had a beautiful newer airplane in Fort Wayne that wasn’t expensive at all. So, it was just a form of transportation. I was sold on it as being able to travel easily.”
He turned 20 that November and his first lesson with the flying club was in December.
Around 1980, some things were changing for Freeman personally.
“With some encouragement from my dad at the time, because I hadn’t flown for a little while - I was focused on my family and building a home in another county - but my dad looked at me one day and he said, ‘You know you’ve got all that invested in your licenses, you should do something with it.’ And I was fortunate enough, near where I lived, to meet a business man and family that needed a pilot with my background because I had a few hundred hours in a specific twin-engine airplane, and so all I needed to do then was go get my commercial license in order to be paid to fly for them. So that’s what I did,” Freeman said.
His career as a pilot took him around the country and beyond. It was when he was sitting on an airplane down at Florida when Greg Garber - who manages Image Air - tracked Freeman down to help them.

    Dave Freeman poses with a collage of photos of airplanes that he’s flown over the last 50 years. The art piece was given to him by his five daughters Wednesday before Freeman received The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award from the Federal Aviation Administration. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union
  

“Having grown up here and started here and having family here - I was in New York at the time working - I always did want to come back, and so that was five years next week. February of 2019,” he said, recalling when he joined Image Air.
On what he likes about being a pilot, Freeman stated, “You know it’s just really gratifying to do it and do it well. To keep people safe from Point A to Point B. But, it’s been described as the best office in the world because we see beautiful sunsets, we see beautiful full moons and I’ve gone to some incredible places. There’s just all kinds of great places that I’ve visited around the world practically, from East Asia to Europe to South America.”
One guest at Wednesday’s ceremony - John Sanders - also received The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, back in 2015. He has since retired.

As for Freeman’s own retirement, he said he’s scheduled to go back to school next month and be requalified on the Challenger aircraft.
“I think, probably this year, could be my last year. I’d like to keep going, but there’s other things I’d like to do, too,” he said.
Krista Shoemaker is the middle of Freeman’s five daughters. She said her dad has been a pilot for her whole life and even before she was born.
“I find that it’s somewhat fascinating. It’s a career that I don’t think many have and maybe not even aspire to, but it’s always been fun growing up. We’ve been able to travel a lot more than the average person. We’ve been able to even be bumped up to first class when we’ve been flying because ... he’s flown for American (Airlines) so when we would fly commercially. Or, privately we’d be able to take the private jets to make little trips. So that’s been really great,” she said.
Her most special memory with her dad was when he took her on a one-on-one trip to San Diego. They explored the city.
Kara Huey, the oldest of the five daughters who came up from Georgia for the ceremony, has been flying with her dad since before she was born.
“The ones I remember the most is when I went on several trips when he worked for American Eagle. I was on his planes for that,” she said.
Her dad also taught her how to fly.
“He’s also a certified flight instructor, so I have all those memories of him teaching me to fly. And that’s when he lived out in Arkansas, so I have all of those memories,” Huey said.
She said learning to drive a car was harder than learning to fly, and her dad did teach her to drive a little bit.
“My favorite memories of him were him teaching me to fly. Very patient, which was funny. ... Great memories of landing and taking off and turning around. I have a lot of great memories of that,” Huey stated.
She mentioned that her dad has flown U.S. presidents and presidential candidates, such as Bill and Hillary Clinton; Secret Service; he’s had to fly to other countries to bring people back to be prosecuted; and a number of famous people.
“Sandra Bullock was rescuing dogs and she used their plane one time,” she said. “So just a lot of cool, different people that he’s flown over the years.”