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NCAA Business Manager, Lisa Edwards and her conference staff\ndid an awesome job (as usual) in seeing to everyone\u2019s needs and keeping the\nagenda activities on track. Anyone that has ever attended or better, been part\nof a conference committee knows how difficult a task Lisa and her team had,\nyet, as an attendee, you only see their style and grace as they interact with attendees.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conference was appropriately started by the singing of\nthe National Anthem by the Pinecrest High School Choir and accompanied by an\nHonor Guard of Civil Air Patrol cadets from Moore County Composite Squadron,\nGroup 5, North Carolina Wing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first session was a motivational session presented by\nScott Burrows, a man who was severely injured in a car accident at 19 and was\ntold he would never walk again. Through Vision, Mission, and Grit, not only can\nhe stand and walk but he\u2019s active in Special Olympics, golfing and snow skiing\namong other activities. Among his many comments, he left the attendees with two\nthoughts: \u201cBe willing to fail, but not willing to quit.\u201d And \u201cNever give up\nbeing a student of your craft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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During the Awards Banquet Space Shuttle Astronaut Colonel\nCurtis L. Brown, Jr. spoke with us about his various experiences in the\nprogram. He flew on six shuttle missions: STS-47, STS-66, STS-77, STS-85,\nSTS-95, and STS-103. He was entertaining and informative and a real pleasure to\nlisten to. Colonel Brown left the attendees with three things to consider: 1)\n\u201cIf you are not having fun at what you are doing, you are doing something\nwrong,\u201d 2) Anything worth doing is worth overdoing,\u201d and 3) The sooner you get\nbehind, the quicker you can catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As its name implies, the awards banquet culminated in multiple awards being presented, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The NCAA President\u2019s Award was presented to Dr. Daniel Findley of N.C. State University. Dr. Findley\u2019s accomplishments, services and products to North Carolina aviation\/airports are extensive. In brief, here is the inscription on the plaque he was presented, with the state of North Carolina formed by the identifiers of all 72 airports – \u201cThe 2023 President\u2019s Award is presented to Dr. Daniel Findley, a true thought leader for North Carolina aviation, whose invaluable insights, research, data and analysis have helped catalyze innovation across our airport system and promote our airports\u2019 significant impacts to the communities they serve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The Willard G. Plentl Jr. – Airport Professional of the Year Award was presented to Ron Maness, Airport Director of the Moore County Airport. Ron\u2019s aviation background spans six decades from Air Force F-106s to F-4s to flying T-38s as the Thunderbirds #2 then on to US Airways flying DC-9s, MD-80s, Boeing 727s, F-28s & F-100s and finally A-320s. His mantra has been, \u201cJust fly the plane.\u201d In 2004 Ron began the first of four periods as the Moore County Airport Manager\/Director. Mike Jones, the Chairman of the Moore County Airport Authority stated, \u201cFor someone who has been in the \u2018flying business\u2019 for over 60 years, this award certainly seems appropriate. Ron Maness embodies both the spirit and industry of aviation for which the Willard G. Plentl, Jr. Award is intended.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Bobby Walston, Aviation Director, North Carolina Department of Transportation, Division of Aviation, was given special recognition and a Retirement Award, a beautiful model of the Wright Flyer. Bobby will soon be retiring after 30+ years of dedication and service to the State of North Carolina and North Carolina’s 72 airports. Due to his unwavering commitment and far-reaching impact, North Carolina is positioned to be \u201cForever First in Flight.\u201d It\u2019s impossible to overstate how valuable Bobby has been to the NCAA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NCAA also presented scholarships to Madelyn Knowles, Sara\nWatkins and Keven Watson, recognizing them as part of the future of aviation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Madelyn Knowles is a junior at Elizabeth City State\nUniversity pursuing an Aviation Science degree with a focus in Aviation\nManagement and Flight Education. Madelyn\nis a certified FAA Private Pilot and is currently working on her instrument\nrating. She currently works at the\nElizabeth City Regional Airport in a front desk and lineman position. Madelyn\u2019s goal after graduation is to pursue\na career in military aviation and, preferably, to fly a rotor wing\naircraft. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Sara Watkins is a Civil Engineering student attending North\nCarolina State University. Sara\ncurrently holds a 3.5 GPA and is an Engineering Ambassador for the NCSU College\nof Engineering serving in many leadership capacities. Sarah has a dream to land a civil engineering\nairport position. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Picture11.jpg\")
Keven Watson is a junior attending Asheville-Buncombe\nTechnical Community College pursuing an Aviation Management degree as well as a\nCareer Pilot Degree. Now a Private First Class in the Army National Guard, he\nis a Powerplant Repairer specializing in propulsion systems for Blackhawk,\nApache, and Chinook helicopters. Keven\nholds a private pilot license and is currently working towards his instrument\ncertificate. Keven\u2019s expectations for\nhis future in the field of transportation is to become an airline pilot and, if\npossible, fly in the military. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This conference marked a transition period for the NCAA as\nLisa Edwards was working with Emily Winberg who will replace her as Business\nManager next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lisa has been the Business Manager for NCAA for 15 years.\nSpeaking with directors and officers of the association you hear things about\nLisa such as: \u201cYou can\u2019t say enough about Lisa\u201d, \u201cShe\u2019s the glue that holds the\nboard together year after year,\u201d \u201cEverything she touches gets bigger and better\nyear after year,\u201d \u201cLisa has the association running like a machine,\u201d \u201cShe\u2019s tenacious\nin bringing in sponsors and exhibitors,\u201d \u201cShe will be truly missed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Lisa began with NCAA in 2007, the conference had approximately 225 attendees and 17 exhibitors compared to this year\u2019s sell-out with 473 attendees and 56 exhibitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lisa will train Emily and continue full time until July 1st. She will then work part-time until the conference in April 2024 at Ashville, which is very fitting as it was at the Asheville conference 15 years ago when she started with NCAA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Winberg is a graduate of UNC Wilmington with a major in Communication Studies and a minor in Journalism. She is pursuing a Master\u2019s Degree in Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) at UNC Wilmington and will be moving to Charlotte, NC in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Growing up in Winston-Salem and around Smith Reynolds Airport, Emily has been around aviation all her life. Her parents met in aviation and her stepfather is an airport executive director, all of whom encouraged her to apply for the position of NCAA Business Manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ————————————————<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scotty Malta AAE, CAE, Capt. USAF (Ret.) is an aviation consultant with Airport Management Consulting Group (AMCG) and a frequent contributor to State Aviation Journal. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Scotty Malta The beautiful Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, NC was the venue of the 2023 annual North Carolina Airports Association (NCAA) Conference. The sold-out event with 473 delegates, 41 exhibitors, and 56 sponsors was themed \u201cAirports \u2013 Leading the Way in Economic Development\u201d. The conference committee, led by Conference Chair Edwin (Eddie) H. Madden, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"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-25312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-north-carolina"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25312","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=25312"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25346,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25312\/revisions\/25346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Picture1-edit.jpg\")