Mon, Dec 29, 2008
One of the better reason to attend the better aviation events
around the nation is the opportunity to enjoy the wit and wisdom of
some of aviation's true experts... but no one plays as well to an
aviation crowd as aviation humorist, flight instructor and safety
advocate, Rod Machado.

Rod is a professional speaker who travels across the United
States and Europe delighting his listeners with upbeat and lively
presentations. Machado truly loves mixing it up with the audience.
His unusual talent for simplifying the difficult and adding humor
to make the lessons stick has made him a popular lecturer both in
and out of aviation. Rod’s presentations include topics as
diverse as Risk Assessment, Defensive Flying and Handling In-flight
Emergencies. His non-aviation topics include: Safety Awareness
programs, Humor as a Communication Tool and The Lost Art of
Thinking.

Flying since 1970 and instructing since 1973, Rod has over 8,000
hours of flight time earned the hard way—one CFI hour at a
time. Since 1977 he has taught hundreds of flight instructor
revalidation clinics and safety seminars and he was named the 1991
Western Region Flight Instructor of the Year. Rod holds all
fixed-wing (powered) flight instructor ratings as well as an
airline transport pilot license. He also owns an A36 Bonanza.

He is AOPA’s National CFI spokesman and a National
Accident Prevention Counselor appointed by the FAA in Washington
DC. But most of all, he is a passionate and positive spokesman for
aviators everywhere and an excellent proponent for all things
aviation.

We caught up with Rod at the 2008 AOPA Fly-In, last June where
he gave an extensive preparation dedicated to a stirring discussion
on in-flight emergencies.

The seminar notes opined that, "With a little caution, good
judgment, and reasonable equipment, you can expect to fly safely
for most of your piloting days. Once in a great while, you may run
into a rare in-flight emergency. This is when knowing exactly what
to do to solve the problem is most important. Rod will provide you
with ideas for successfully avoiding and coping with some of the
most serious airborne problems. To fly confidently means to be
knowledgeable about potential problems and knowing their
solutions."
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