Meet the Board of Directors
David St. George, Chair
David St. George is an FAA DPE (Sport to Multi ATP) and a Part 135 charter pilot flying the Pilatus PC-12 in the NYC area. He recently renewed his Master Instructor for the tenth time and is a Charter member of SAFE. Formerly a 141 Chief Instructor for over 25 years, with a Gold Seal CFI. David started flying at 16 and has logged over 15,000 hours. He owns a 1946 7AC Aeronca Champ and wrote the SAFE Toolkit app.
Michael Vivion, Secretary
After graduating from the University of Montana with a Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Biology in 1974, Mike was hired by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), National Wildlife Refuges Division. For 29 of his 34 year career with FWS, he was based in Alaska. His primary duties during this period of time included serving as a dual function pilot, operating aircraft on wheels, skis, and floats. His flying duties involved wildlife census, animal capture operations, law enforcement, and transportation of personnel and gear in remote parts of Alaska. He was stationed in Cold Bay for two years, Kodiak for eight years and in Fairbanks for 19 years.
In December 2005, Mike retired from the FWS and was hired by the University of Minnesota – Crookston to coordinate and teach in their aviation program, which is a partnership with the University of North Dakota. Mike taught a variety of aeronautical subjects as well as conducting stage checks and introducing students to the finer points of tailwheel and low level operations in the school’s Top Cub. Mike received his private pilot certificate in December 1969 and has been flying ever since. Of the 13,000 flight hours Mike has logged, approximately 2,500 are instruction given. Mike is a Master Instructor Emeritus, who is now happily retired and living in Bozeman, Montana. He currently owns and flies a Piper PA-11 Cub Special.
Eric Hake is a CFII, CSIP and actively involved in aviation education on a daily basis as a trainer for The Modern Pilot LLC, a Houston, Texas based business he founded in 2015. From 2009 to 2015, Hake worked for ForeFlight, where he personally answered more than 50,000 support email messages and built up the current Pilot Support Team. Hake is also a Redbird Certificated Flight Instructor, a mission-qualified pilot in Civil Air Patrol, and a sought after public speaker.
David Dempsey, Vice Chair
David Dempsey is an FAA CFI, CFII, Advanced/Instrument Ground Instructor, Gold Seal and Master Flight Instructor (airplane). He is the former owner and co-founder of the American Aviation Network LLC, a ground and flight training business based in New York City. For the Civil Air Patrol, he has acted as ‘check pilot’ and ‘instructor check pilot’. Additionally, he has over 25 years of aviation industry experience as an advisor to airlines, air taxi operations, and other aviation related entities. He has presented at FAA FAASTeam seminars on the topics of recurrent training and finding and keeping well- qualified flight instructors and is the founder of the New York Area, Master CFI/Pilot Group.
Charles McDougal
Charles is a flight instructor and ATP rated corporate pilot. After a 20 year career as a professional musician playing hotspots all over our great nation, including Dick’s Bar in Winner, SD and the Ooh- La-La club in San Antonio, TX, he learned to fly and began instructing. Charles eventually became the chief CFI at Wright Flyers Aviation where he managed the activities of up to 35 cheerful flight instructors, wrote experimental part 141 syllabi before it was fashionable, and birthed an accelerated training program for international aviators. A DPE from 1999 to 2014, he flew his Long-EZ all over the vast San Antonio district to conduct practical tests for Private Pilot through ATP. He published a training and testing informational website, Flight Training Coalition, for over a decade and earned from his constituents the unwanted moniker “Two-Ride Charlie”, or sometimes just, “That old guy with the hat”. Charles has had several articles published by AOPA Flight Training Magazine and continues to lobby for common sense, attitude based flying concepts and techniques. With over 10,000 hours of flight time logged in addition to over 2400 practical tests given, he is currently on sabbatical from teaching. Charles lives in San Antonio, TX where he helps his wife Madeleine care for other peoples dogs, writes about flying and flight training, composes and records music, and serves as chief pilot for a busy part 91 flight department.
Parvez Dara, Treasurer
Term Expires: 2019
Parvez Dara is a CFII and avid Mooney pilot. He recently renewed his Master CFI accreditation for the fifth time through Master Instructors LLC. Parvez is an aviation medical examiner (AME) as well as a Mooney Pilot Proficiency flight and ground instructor with the Mooney Aircraft Pilots Association Safety Foundation ( www.MAPASafety.com ). He also serves as a FAASTeam representative in the FAA’s Philadelphia FSDO area.
Tom Carr
Term Expires: 2018
Tom Carr is an ATP-rated pilot and flight instructor, with over 11,000 hours as PIC and 14 type ratings. He has given over 2,000 hours of flight instruction and was a Designated Pilot Examiner for 20 years. He is an experimental test pilot with a leading avionics manufacturer and was formerly a senior experimental test pilot at Beech Aircraft (and its successor, Raytheon Aircraft). He has extensive flight test experience in aircraft performance and handling qualities, particularly stalls and spins. He has a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, a law degree, and is currently working on a Master’s degree in Aviation Human Factors. He owns three airplanes, a Beech B55 Baron, a Grumman Tiger, and a BD-5 homebuilt.
Mike Garrison
Term Expires: 2019
Mike Garrison is a busy DPE in Florida where he conducts tests daily. He is a 7 time Master CFI and an FAA Gold Seal Instructor. In 2009 he received the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for 50 years of accident free flying. He holds an ATP and CFI in Single and Multiengine aircraft plus instrument airplane. He is a Charter and Silver level member of SAFE. A FAASTeam Rep for the Treasure Coast group and provides programs each year for FAASTeam and IMC. He has been flying for 57 years amassing 13,000 hours of which over 10,000 hours have been flight instruction. Mike has been a Cirrus instructor for over 10 years. His belongs to AOPA, EAA, NAFI, and Kansas Pilots. He holds a Bachelor and Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering and completed a career in practicing engineering in the power industry. He served as a Naval officer including Destroyer service in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
