IBAA is proud to welcome Jon Paschka to speak about aircraft performance at our next safety luncheon on October 7th, hosted by Waldinger Corporation.
The event will begin with a social time at 11:00 with lunch and keynote to follow.
Jon’s flying career and, actually, his love of all things aeronautical, began in front of a black and white TV screen on a Saturday morning in 1959 when a nameless voice proclaimed, “From out of the clear blue of the western sky comes Sky King…” Suddenly, a twin Cessna would do a “buzz job” on the camera and send shivers up and down the spines of hundreds of young boys around the country. Smitten by the “bug”, Jon knew he “had” to be a pilot.
‘Soloing” in 1970, as a senior in high school from what was then 2600’ of grass, Jon learned early on the importance of take-off and landing distance computations. Gaining his ratings and then instructing in northeastern North Dakota on rain soaked or snow packed runways served to drive home contamination issues. Later, flying charters in a B55 Baron to out of the way airports in Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado demonstrated real “density altitude” issues.
Jon has over 50 years and 17,000 hours of flying under his belt, a “Gold Seal” Flight Instructor ticket for Single and Multi-Engine Aircraft and Instruments, and 10 business aircraft Type Ratings ranging from the Metroliner to Citation X. He is quick to point out that, with the exception of the King Air 350 and the Citation CJ3, none of the types are in current production, which simply translates: He is old! But airplanes still need enough runway; weight, altitude, and temperature still are relevant; and runway contaminants still remain the forgotten factor.
