With more than 11,000 hours logged across warbirds, high-performance jets, helicopters, and dedicated aerobatic aircraft, Don has spent nearly three decades at the controls—building, refining, and mastering the art of flight since the mid-1990s.
A full-time professional pilot for the world’s largest fractional jet operator, Don brings real world perspective to every lesson. Don holds airplane CFI/CFII, helicopter CFI, and tailwheel endorsements, and is a regional aerobatic champion. Few instructors can match his breadth: from formation flying and high-altitude turbine operations to competition-caliber aerobatics and many many hours of upset-prevention and spin training in FAA-approved aircraft.
What drives Don isn’t the logbook total or the trophies—it’s the chance to pass on everything he’s learned to other pilots in order to make them measurably safer and more capable aviators. He has an exceptional ability to read each student, break down complex aerodynamics into language that clicks immediately, and then push comfort zones in a way that feels challenging yet completely under control.
Whether you’re a new private pilot ready to truly master stalls and spins, an instrument pilot sharpening partial-panel skills, a helicopter student perfecting autorotations, a fixed-wing or rotor-wing pilot due for your Flight Review, or a seasoned ATP seeking real spin experience and advanced upset-recovery muscle memory, Don builds every lesson in either airplane or helicopter around one core idea: real-world capability and unbreakable confidence.
Pilots who train with Don don’t just check boxes—they leave the cockpit noticeably sharper, calmer under pressure, and equipped with skills most pilots never acquire. If you’re ready to take your flying to a level most only read about, climb in with Don and see what almost thirty years of intense, varied, passionate flying can do for you.
