PHILANTHROPY REPORT - Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

AOPA FOUNDATION
24 2011-2012 Philanthropy Report
DUDLEY
TAFT
For dudley TaFT, the importance of
efforts to improve aviation safety was
driven home in a frightening way. “I was on
approach to Philadelphia, IFR, and I had
a passenger in the right seat,” he recalls.
“There was a VFR aircraft skirting around
the airspace to the west, and as I was
setting up for the approach, the right seat
passenger yelled, ‘Look out!’ and I was just
able to duck below the other aircraft. I was
close enough to see the guy’s face.”
Thankfully, the incident led to nothing
more than an elevated heart rate, but for
Taft—who had survived a similar close
call on another occasion—it drove home
the importance of efforts to make the sky a
safer place.
A pilot for nearly 50 years and with 8,500
hours, Taft has owned and flown a variety
of different aircraft over the years, both
for personal and business use. Starting
in a Cessna 310, the successful executive
worked his way through an Aerostar and two different
Cheyennes before joining the jet world with a Citation 501 in
1983. His current mount is a Citation CJ3, used extensively
for both business and personal missions.
Asked about the impact of general aviation on his life, Taft
is quick to reply, “It’s been tremendous. It was of terrific use
in business starting in the late 1960s. I had a broadcasting
and media company with stations scattered in places that you
couldn’t easily get to with the airlines. I got tremendous use
for the company, and then later as I spooled down I used it
more for personal flying and pleasure.”
Taft sees AOPA as an important bulwark against a rapacious
regulatory culture (he was particularly concerned about the
TSA’s proposed Large Aircraft Security Program, now on
hold). Of equal importance to such efforts to “keep the world
sane” from a regulatory standpoint are initiatives to improve
the safety record of general aviation. “I support the AOPA
Foundation because of the job it does on safety and keeping
people informed,” he says, thinking back to his own close
calls. “We need to improve our safety record, particularly on
the lighter end. I’ve had personal experiences with that.”
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AOPA FOUNDATION
2011-2012 Philanthropy Report 25