Brian was bitten by the aviation bug after watching the movie “The Right Stuff” at age six.
He decided he was going to fly the F-16. At twelve he took his first flight lesson in a C-172 at Peachtree DeKalb Airport then later soloed a C-150 at Walterboro airport in South Carolina on his sixteenth birthday. At age 17 he passed his Private Pilot check ride and at 18 was instrument rated and flew as Pilot in Command on search and rescue missions in The Civil Air Patrol.
Brian attended Marion Military Institute and later graduated the United States Air Force Academy, achieving a degree in Psychology with an emphasis on Human Factors Engineering. While at USAFA, Brian ran his own flight school in Denver teaching private, instruments, commercial, aerobatics and mountain flying. For two years he was actively instructing in ten types of aircraft. After graduation Brian instructed in the busy airspace of Los Angeles California for a summer and later that year he attended Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi, graduating number 1 out of 32 graduates. He earned many awards including the Air Education and Training Command Commander’s Trophy, the Flying Excellence Award, and the Top Gun for Instrument Flying in both T-37’s and T-38’s. Because of his graduating rank he chose the F-16 and trained at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. Brian again was a Distinguished Graduate from his class and earned the Top Gun trophy for Air-to-Ground employment.
He got his first choice assignment of Shaw Air Force Base, SC.
Once there he was rapidly deployed to Turkey as a Wild Weasel flying 18 combat missions, totaling 93 hours, in northern Iraq throughout 2002 and 2003. During that deployment he routinely flew 6-9 hour missions, often in challenging weather, while being shot at almost daily and requiring in-air refueling approximately once per hour. After that deployment he returned to South Carolina and continued to flight instruct and fly missions with the Civil Air Patrol.
Stateside F-16 missions included Operation Noble Eagle, the protection of major cities and The President of the United States. These missions were in all weather and often at night. Again, these missions lasted 4-6 hours with multiple in-air refuelings.
While on active duty, Brian attended the Life Support Officer’s course as well as the USAF Safety Officer Investigation course and became qualified as a mishap investigator. He has worked on and led multiple mishap investigations. After flying the F-16 Brian became a Fighter Fundamentals instructor and a T-38C Functional Flight Check pilot, test flying aircraft just out of major maintenance. In 2009 Brian left active duty and worked as a CFII contractor for the fledgling Iraqi Air Force in Iraq. He instructed on diesel C-172s and the C-208 Grand Caravans in Iraq.
In 2011 Brian returned home and returned to F-16 flying for the South Carolina National Guard, then in 2012 he deployed to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom.
He flew 77 combat missions totaling 330 hours. All but one these missions were Close Air Support providing air cover to allied troops in combat. These missions often required flying amongst tall mountains at night, in weather, and employing ordnance in close proximity to friendly forces. On one of these sorties he flew a six hour air cover mission for The President of The United States during his visit to Afghanistan. After four years with the SC guard he transferred to the Georgia National Guard to fly the E-8 Joint Target Attack Reconnaissance and Surveillance aircraft, the Boeing 707 airframe, as a part-time traditional guardsman in addition to running Viper Flight Training. Throughout more than 24 years of aviation, Brian has flown over 4,000 hours in 70 types of aircraft and gliders. He has gained a unique background in aviation safety with his education and experience as a safety investigator. His real world experience in all realms of aviation makes him the ideal instructor to professionally meet all your flight training needs.
