PHILANTHROPY REPORT - Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

AOPA FOUNDATION
28 2011-2012 Philanthropy Report
LUIS
ARANEDA
as a Boy GroWinG uP in his native
Chile, Luis Araneda looked to the sky
with a sense of longing, wondering what
it would be like to soar with the birds.
Compelling as the desire to fly was,
however, it wasn’t until later in life—
after emigrating to the united States
and becoming a physician in the u.S. Air
Force—that he was able to act on his
dream and start taking lessons.
Fast-forward several decades and Araneda
has long since left the uSAF, but the flying
bug is still with him. The private pilot
owns a Cessna 172, which he keeps at the
Bedford, Pennsylvania, airport and flies
“just for pleasure, just to feel something
different.” A specialist in anesthesiology
and pain management, as well as an
aviation medical examiner, he enjoys the
excitement and sense of personal freedom
that flying brings.
It’s a feeling he hopes future generations will be able to
enjoy as well. Like many in the pilot community, he worries
that the cost of flying is becoming more of a deterrent, both
to young people who would otherwise get involved and
to existing pilots struggling to stay active. “The challenge
today is money,” he says. A frequent audience member at the
AOPA Foundation’s Air Safety Institute seminars, he is an
enthusiastic supporter of efforts to help pilots fly safely, seeing
them as integral to the long-term image of general aviation
among non-pilots and would-be aviators.
Such earthly concerns aside, though, it’s clear that Araneda
still carries a sense of wonder at the miracle of flight. After a
day filled with the stresses of twenty-first century medicine,
there are few tonics as effective as a trip to the airport. “It’s
still exciting for me, flying like a bird—it’s just a pleasure.”
FOUNDATION SUPPORTER
AOPA FOUNDATION
2011-2012 Philanthropy Report 29