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The award is given to pilots who have conducted 50 or more years of safe flight operations and is one of the FAA’s most prestigious honors.
“There are a whole lot of people who have done a whole lot more than me. I’ve just been surviving for 52 years,” Frederick said humbly. “It’s kind of a sense of accomplishment. It’s very rewarding.
A few months ago, CCPA member Scott Miller saw a Master Pilot Award given at another location and immediately thought of Frederick as a local candidate.
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Miller and Champaign County Pilots Association President Dana Booghier asked several of Frederick’s friends and associates to write letters of recommendation for a nomination package and all responded.
When the acceptance arrived from Jason Forshey of the Cincinnati FAA office, the hardest part was keeping the award a secret.
In the guise of a regular meeting, family, friends, former co-workers and association members gathered Wednesday night to support Frederick, who was surprised with the honor from Forshey.
Frederick grew up on a family farm near an airport in Montgomery County and had two uncles who were pilots during World War II.
He began flying lessons in the summer of 1966 and then joined the U.S. Air Force that autumn, serving as a pilot in Vietnam. Frederick served 24 years, including 18 in the Ohio Air National Guard with the 178th Tactical Fighter Group in Springfield.
“He was the best A-7 pilot I knew — next to me,” joked Rick Lohnes, who retired as commander of the 178th Wing and is now a Clark County commissioner.
Frederick a senior maintenance officer, was always helping when needed when Lohnes was a scheduling officer.
The pair reminisced about the things they could do as pilots back in their day that are gone in the age of drones.
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Frederick has been a flight instructor since 1971. Booghier said it’s hard to find someone with his experience and knowledge of several types of aircraft, including jets, making him invaluable as an instructor.
The skies were his second home and he always enthusiastically brought family on various flights, including when he piloted the company plane for Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, according to Frederick’s daughter, Kristen Nelles of Hilliard.
Some of her son Caleb’s earliest memories are of flying with his grandfather.
Another daughter, Jenny Healey, flew in with her son, Declan, from their home in Hamden, Conn., for the event.
“Maybe (the skies) were his first home, it’s been such a part of his life,” she said. “It’s really like a lifetime achievement award and meant so much to him to have so many people here.”
After years of living in Worthington, Ohio, Frederick and wife Dori, who both grew up on farms, were looking for a plot of land in the country and discovered five acres in Springfield, moving there in 2000.
Frederick even had a connection to the namesakes of the award. His mother was a nurse who cared for Orville Wright during his last years of life in the 1940s.
So maybe flying was destiny or plain desire.
“I just like to fly,” Frederick said, smiling.
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