By Mike Scott
A little bit of aviation history was honored in Memphis on Sunday afternoon, June 30, as Audrey Glass, now 86 years old, was honored for serving as a Certified Flight Instructor for 50 continuous years. In those years, Glass has taught around 300 local pilots how to fly.
Flying is a tradition in the Glass family.
“I was kind of brought up this way,” Audrey said. His father, Ernie, bought a new Aeronca Chief in 1946.
“When I got to work and could afford it, I started taking lessons,” he said. His instructor was Glen Wiley. Audrey earned his Private Pilot license, then worked his way through his instrument and commercial ratings.
“Glen kept after me to keep flying, which was something I wanted to do anyway, so I got my instructor rating,” he said. “Back then, I was working full time and instructing was a part-time deal. I liked to fly, and I was getting paid from something I liked.”
Audrey’s son, Tom Glass, was his first student.
Tom doesn’t remember too much about that first lesson, since by that time, he had been flying with his dad for years.
Since that day, July 1, 1974, Audrey has logged about 4500 hours of dual instruction time, and has a total time around 6500 hours. And those hours continue to grow as he continues to instruct students and perform periodic flight reviews for other pilots.
“I’ve been lucky to be healthy enough to be able to keep doing it. I was 30 years old when I started flying, and I turned 86 in May, he said. “I’ve got to meet a lot of nice people and fly a lot of neat airplanes.”
On Sunday afternoon, a surprise party organized by Audrey’s grandson, Jason, was held at the Memphis airport. Several area pilots flew in for the party, with over 50 people in attendance overall. Jason presented his grandfather a plaque reading “This Plaque is Presented to James Audrey Glass, in recognition of 50 years as a Certified Flight Instructor as well as for safe operations and promotion of General Aviation”.
And the tradition continues. Jason Glass is a flight instructor and works as a Federal Aviation Administration Inspector.
