A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Senior Editor

Curt Epstein

Jet Support Services (JSSI) has named co-president Neil Book as president and CEO. He suceeds Louis Seno, who will serve as chairman emeritus and special advisor to the board of directors.
Samuel Hill, previously president of Embraer Aircraft in Fort Lauderdale and most recently retired from his position of senior v-p of sales and marketing at Honda Aircraft, has been appointed CEO of Quest Aircraft.
FlightSafety International announced that David Davenport has been promoted from v-p to senior v-p of the New York-based training company.
Mike Askew, previously managing director of landing-gear manufacturer APPH Group, has been named CEO of Dunlop Aircraft Tyres.
Canadian training provider CAE has appointed Robert Lewis v-p and general manager of its global business aviation, helicopter and maintenance training business unit. Most recently he served as CEO and president of Michigan-based Pentastar Aviation.
Crane Aerospace &amp; Electronics has appointed Greg Gomez-Cornejo, most recently operations executive for Hamilton Sundstrand, v-p of operations of the electronics group. The Redmond, Wash.-based company also named former Lockheed Martin executive Todd Witchall v-p of finance and CFO of the electronics group.
Gulfstream has appointed Allan Stanton regional vice president for international sales in the Middle East. Previously he served as regional sales director for Hawker Beechcraft in the Middle East, Africa and Turkey.
Texas-based aircraft maintenance, management and charter provider Baker Aviation has named Ray Goyco, Jr. as COO. Previously he was chief strategy officer for Shipit AOG.
Bob Schick, previously director of safety and risk management for Tac Air’s Utah operations, will assume that role for the entire company.
West Star Aviation has hired Rick Januszewski as King Air technical sales manager. Most recently he was sales manager for Safe Flight Instruments.
Former corporate pilot and ground service technician Andy Weibel has joined Colo.-based aircraft broker J. Mesinger Corporate Jet Sales as technical director.
UK-based aircraft charter broker Chapman Freeborn has named Natalia Bazenova executive sales director of private jet charter for Russia and the CIS.
Sunshine McCarthy, most recently v-p, facilitator and strategist for ServiceElements, has joined Baldwin Aviation as director of training. The South Carolina-based company also named Margriet Bredewold, previously a professional development coordinator and trainer for Jet Aviation, as its European representative within the company’s aviation safety and compliance business.
South Carolina-based systems integration and modification specialist Chippewa Aerospace has appointed Mike Neder director of business development. Most recently he held that same title with Avionics and Systems Integration Group (ASIG).
Aviation system solutions provider Appareo Systems has named Tony Grindberg its aviation business unit manager. Most recently he launched the NDSU Research and Technology Park as a start-up entity.
BBA Aviation Engine Repair and Overhaul has made two additions to its global sales and service team. The company appointed Trevor van Rooyen, previously director of technical services with ExecuJet Maintenance, as a regional sales manager for sub-Saharan Africa, and named Luke Chiang, most recently a director of regional sales with Jet Aviation, as regional sales director for Singapore.
New York-based aviation services provider FirstFlight has named Kayla Force marketing coordinator.
The International Helicopter Safety Team (IHST) has added Robinson Helicopter president Kurt Robinson to its executive committee.
John Petersen, founder and CEO of the Arlington Institute, has been elected chairman of The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation. He succeeds Larry Williams, who has completed his three-year term. 
Awards &amp; Honors
At the National Aeronautic Association’s awards banquet on November 13 in Washington, D.C., NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen received the Charles Lindbergh General Aviation Diploma from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) in recognition of his years of service to general aviation. The award is given for significant contributions to the progress and success of GA in either air sport or transportation, or in the work of international bodies concerned with GA. “[Ed] has had a major, positive impact on the world’s general aviation community for well over a decade and is a most worthy recipient of the Diploma,” said Jonathan Gaffney, president of the National Aeronautic Association, the U.S. affiliate of the FAI.
German aviation services provider FAI rent-a-jet was named the International Travel Insurance Journal’s air ambulance provider of the year at the International Travel Insurance Congress in November in Barcelona. The Nuremburg-based company, which has been in operation for 25 years, has a fleet of 20 aircraft, including six permanently configured as air ambulances, as well as its own certified maintenance department. 
GE Aviation and StandardAero received the 2012 Canadian American Business Council (CABC) Achievement Award for their collaboration on the GE Aviation Engine Testing, Research and Development Centre (TRDC) in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The award is presented to a partnership between a Canadian company and a U.S. company that meets criteria for sustained profitability, job creation, financial strength, environmental responsibility and exceptional innovation. The $50 million, 122,500-sq-ft facility opened last year at James A. Richardson International Airport and conducts icing certification testing on GE’s jet engines and develops advanced testing methodologies and equipment for GE Aviation’s commercial, business/general aviation and military aircraft engines. StandardAero maintains and operates the certification test center. 
Final Flights
Dilip Ballal, Ph.D., 66, a noted alternative aviation fuels researcher at the University of Dayton, died on November 23 in Dayton, Ohio. He was division head for Energy and Environmental Engineering at the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) and the Hans von Ohain Distinguished Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and director of the university’s von Ohain Fuels and Combustion Center. During his career he amassed more than 40 years of experience in fuels, gas-turbine combustion and emissions. In his nearly 30 years at UDRI, Ballal helped garner more than $130 million in Air Force funding for research and development in synthetic, alternative and blended fuels as well as technologies to improve combustion and thermal management and reduce emissions. Before coming to UD, Ballal held positions at the General Motors Research Laboratories, Purdue University and the UK’s Cranfield Institute of Technology.
 John Silva, 92, the father of the television news helicopter, died on November 27 in Camarillo, Calif. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II as a radar operator, he was chief broadcast engineer with Los Angeles television station KTLA in the late 1950s, when he had the idea of mounting a video camera and television transmission equipment in a rented Bell 47 to beat the competition in covering live news events. After convincing his employers to spend a small fortune on equipment for a plan that no one was sure would work, he figured out ways to reduce thousands of pounds of bulky television equipment to a load the helicopter could carry. Silva’s developments in electronic news gathering earned him two Emmy awards.
Steven Kanyar, 75, a corporate and commercial pilot for more than three decades, died on December 6 in Burlington, Ontario, after a battle with cancer. He emigrated from Hungary on his own at the age of 19 with little in his pocket, and after working several jobs, including a stint as a uranium miner, he achieved his dream of earning his pilot certificate at the age of 30 at a Toronto flight school, where he continued as an instructor. His first corporate job was for Canadian businessman and philanthropist E.P. Taylor, first flying a Hawker Siddeley HS.125 and then one of the first Gulfstream IIs to roll off the line at Grumman. After a stint flying for Great Lakes Airlines he returned to corporate aviation with TransCanada Pipelines and later the Bank of Nova Scotia’s flight department to fly the Gulfstream II, Lockheed JetStar, Falcon 50 and Falcon 900. He capped his career flying a Falcon 900 for Magna International in 1998.

People in Aviation: January 2013

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