Introducing Staff, Stringers, Videographers, And People Who Make It All Work

Anyone who's ever been to Oshkosh knows that there are hundreds of events and activities as well as tens of thousands of people that descend (some quite literally) on Wittman Regional Airport in mid-summer. While we have a very hard-working and dedicated staff, ANN could not provide you with the extensive information we do without the help of some equally ... some might say more ... dedicated volunteers who give a week of their time to make sure you have the best possible coverage of the show. As we lead up to this year's edition of AirVenture, we'll be introducing you to the people that make all of that possible.

Earl Downs: Associate Editor

Earl joined the ANN team in November 2013 and is referred to, among other things, as an Associate Editor. Right now we have him working with ANN News Editor Tom Patton on daily news stories, he writes the scripts for the airborne program, and he catches some crazy projects from Jim.

Earl will be holding down the fort on the homefront in Oklahoma this year, but he has been to Oshkosh many times as a freelance writer for EAA Publications. EAA has published more than 100 of his articles since 2003.

Earl is a highly rated pilot who began flying at age 14 in 1956 and started flying for a living in 1961 when he became a flight instructor. In one way or another aviation training has been a big part of his aviation career. He has thousands of hours as a flight instructor, and over the years has also acted as a pilot examiner and administered more than 1,000 checkrides.

He moved from GA to an airline and spent 23 years in the flight operations ground training department with Trans World Airlines. During his service with TWA he obtained his flight engineer rating and says, “I needed the FE rating so I could fly in the only sideways facing seat on an airliner that didn’t flush.” He took early retirement from TWA in 1991 to open his own FBO and the flight school in Cushing Oklahoma.

During the days of operating the FBO (Golden Age Aviation, Inc.) he also obtained his A&P mechanic ratings. Earl’s first writing assignments in 1996 were with Flight Training Magazine and for 6 years he published a monthly aviation periodical called The Oklahoma Aviator.

Earl and his wife, Mimi, continue to reside in Oklahoma, and Earl insists it is not because his parole officer won’t let him leave the state. He is active as a flight instructor and enjoys specializing  both in taildragger training and in preparing pilots to test fly their home built airplanes. He currently owns his own homebuilt, a Zenith Zodiac 601XL-B.

FMI: www.aero-news.net