Longtime pilot Boyd King was honored Tuesday afternoon for half-century of flying without having any flight-related incidents. He received the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award during a ceremony at the Great Bend Municipal Airport.
“Although he now resides in Florida, he wanted to return and receive the award here in Great Bend,” said airport Manager Martin Miller. “He has always been a strong supporter of the airport, as well as a significant sponsor of all the Great Bend Airfest events.”
Ceremony proceedings
The well-attended ceremony Tuesday afternoon included many area aviators, aviation industry representatives and friends of the longtime pilot.
Rick Stevens, program manager for the FAA Wichita Flight Standards District Office, and Danny Orpin, FAA Flight Standards District Office assistant manager, presented King with his Master Pilot Award, plaque, certificate and pin. “This job allows me to do many enjoyable things,” Orpin noted. “One of the things I get to enjoy the most is present the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award to a deserving pilot.”
The program recognizes pilots who have conducted 50 or more consecutive years of safe flight operations. It begins with the pilot’s first solo flight or military equivalent. “The award is intended to recognize the highest level of professionalism, skill and aviation expertise,” Orpin said.
Orpin related that King had a busy year in 1972, beginning with his solo flight that February. He received his private pilot check ride in May, He then married his wife Tona in August.
King performed many Angel Flights and Discovery Flights, receiving his IFR commercial rating in the years that followed. “It is clear that Boyd is a pilot that is passionate about flying,” Orpin said. “He is also deeply committed to being a safe pilot. He consistently seeks training, holding himself to the highest standards in both training and real-world operations.
“Boyd is also a pilot that shares his passion for aviation with everyone around him,” Orpin said.
His wife Tona was also recognized, receiving a pin as a Master Pilot Spouse. “The FAA recognizes and understands that it takes a very special spouse to support the efforts of a Master Pilot,” Orpin noted.
Stevens made one last presentation. “We have always heard as we are growing up, ‘be careful what you do, it will wind up on your permanent record,’” Stevens said. “I have Boyd’s permanent record here; this is what we call a ‘blue-ribbon package,’ it is his history that includes everything he has submitted to Oklahoma City to show what he has done over the course of his career.”
A passion for flying
“I am excited to say I have been flying general aviation for over 50 years now,” King said. “I started my love of flying at a young age of four when my uncle Andrew Kazmaier, a C-47 instructor for the Army Air Corps in WWII, offered all the family rides in his Cessna 170.
“This passion continued when I turned 14 years old,” he said. “That passion for flying has never left me.
“I willing to talk airplanes and flying to anyone who will listen,” he said. “I am still an active pilot and continue to fly over 120 hours a year for both business and pleasure.”
Milestones
Here is a rundown of his flying background:
• He has nearly 3,000 hours in his logbook to date.
• In 1971, during his second year of college at Fort Hays State University, he answered a newspaper ad to form a college flying club. He began taking ground school and flight lessons immediately.
At that time, his mother was concerned he was over committing myself with school, flight instruction and a serious girlfriend, Tona Kay Roberts, who he intended on marrying.
• He was hired by the registrar and director of admissions of Fort Hays State University as a part-time student employee beginning his second semester, which helped me pay for lessons.
• He soloed Feb. 19, 1972, and got married Aug. 12 of that year to Roberts and this year marks their 50th wedding anniversary also.
• Upon graduation at Fort Hays State in 1973, he started work at The Farmers State Bank of Oakley. In 1974 the bank started a new bank building project necessitating the need for an airplane and pilot. The bank leased a Beech Sierra which was also used to take employees to meetings in eastern Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado.
• He bought his first airplane, a Cessna 150, in April 1977 and flew it frequently back and forth on weekends to work on our family farm at Lewis,. As the family grew, they decided they needed a four-place airplane. That is when he bought a Piper Warrior and his wife Tona began taking flying lessons.
• In August 1979, he got his commercial rating and continued working in banking. He also began working on an instructor’s rating, which he was unable to complete due to a change and relocation in work.
“That and my wife not getting her pilot’s license are my biggest regrets in my flying career,” he said.
• Following moves to Meade, Garden City and Holcomb, where he served as bank president, he moved to Hoisington in September 1990 as executive vice president of the Hoisington National Bank and began flying out of the Great Bend Municipal Airport.
• In September 2003 he became a part owner of a Turbo Lance. He had started contracting for a bank consulting business and was able to use the Turbo Lance to travel for work.
• As their children moved further away from home pursuing their careers, he began looking for something that could make trips to visit them non-stop from Great Bend. This is when he purchased a 1962 Comanche 250.
• In January 2014, he decided to get his multi-engine rating.
• In February 2018, he purchased his current aircraft, a Twin Comanche.
“I have truly been blessed to own and fly many different aircraft and advance my ratings and licenses throughout the many years of flying,” he said. “I even took a helicopter lesson in 2017.”
He has been a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association for nearly 50 years and was member of the Experimental Aircraft Association for a few years early on. He has flown Angel Flights for Kansas City, Mo., and Tulsa, Okla., and has given countless airplane discovery flights over the years.
