{"id":17104,"date":"2020-12-09T16:16:20","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T16:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=17104"},"modified":"2020-12-09T16:16:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T16:16:23","slug":"gtcc-aviation-instructor-honored-with-faa-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/north-carolina\/gtcc-aviation-instructor-honored-with-faa-award\/%20","title":{"rendered":"GTCC Aviation Instructor Honored with FAA Award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em> Photo above: Program Director for the Aviation Electronics Technology Program at Guilford Technical Community College, Larry Belton, with the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Larry Belton says it was a \u201cmistake\u201d he ever became\ninvolved with aviation. That \u201cmistake\u201d more than 50 years ago forever changed\nthe life of the Program Director for the Aviation Electronics Technology\nProgram at Guilford Technical Community College, located in Jamestown, North\nCarolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the past five decades he has impacted countless\nlives teaching aircraft maintenance at the college level while maintaining a\npassion for flying and restoring vintage aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Belton recently received national recognition for his\nmany years in the aviation industry when he received the Charles Taylor Master\nMechanic Award from the Federal Aviation Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award recognizes the\nlifetime accomplishments of senior mechanics serving more than 50 years of\ncivil and\/or military maintenance experience in the aviation industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award is presented in\nhonor of Charles Taylor, the first aviation mechanic in powered flight and\nrecognizes the lifetime accomplishments of senior aviation mechanics. Taylor\nserved as the Wright brothers\u2019 mechanic and is credited with designing and\nbuilding the engine for their first successful aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And all because of a \u201cmistake\u201d during his senior year of\nhigh school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs far as how I got into aviation is a kind of mistake.\nI have always loved airplanes, but (as a child) never got to be around any,\u201d\nsaid Belton, a United States Air Force veteran who was a helicopter mechanic\nduring his four years of service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe spring of my senior year a friend talked me into\ngoing to Piedmont Aerospace with him for a tour. From there it was all\naviation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Belton grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and says\nmuch of his early life was spent hunting and fishing with cousins in Davie\nCounty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Belton has worked at Guilford Technical Community College\nin the aviation program since 1992. He began as an aviation systems technology\ninstructor and now oversees the Aviation Electronics Technology Program<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWorking for GTCC has been a good career move for me,\u201d\nsaid Belton who restores antique aircraft in his home shop. \u201cAviation has been\nvery good to me and by teaching, I can give some of that back and hopefully\ngive someone else a good start in a rewarding career.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo above: Program Director for the Aviation Electronics Technology Program at Guilford Technical Community College, Larry Belton, with the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award. Larry Belton says it was a \u201cmistake\u201d he ever became involved with aviation. That \u201cmistake\u201d more than 50 years ago forever changed the life of the Program Director for the Aviation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17105,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-north-carolina"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Larry-Beltonedit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17106,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17104\/revisions\/17106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}