On a day when many are distracted with the peaceful transfer of the republic's power, our BOD voted to remove the Hills from the MCFI program and list the four interim committee members that will oversight the program.

Shameful actions by shameful folks. It could and should have been done at a public time and within a public presence.

Rich, I'll call you tomorrow about the Phone tree here in AZ. I am re-outraged and ready to push again.

Terry Claussen
480-203-3579

Quite shameful.

I have directed my publisher to remove the Master CFI wings from all of my products effective immediately.

I would like to see EAA & TBO's response. I feel that NAFI has definitely lost their way and has let petty issues blind them.

I do not wish to associate with an organization that resorts to backhanded tatics, lets petty issues blind them, and is not member responsive or responsible.

Ironically, my membership renewal invoice arrived in the mail today. I am not writing a check.

I've begun the process of removing references to NAFI from my web site, too.

I am thoroughly disgusted. Below is the text of an e-mail message I sent to Messrs. Blair and Poynor expressing my outrage. Within minutes, I received a FORM LETTER response from Jason with a weak request to reconsider. I find the sneakiness of this action to be appalling. Even worse, Jason Blair knows that the "**** has hit the fan" so to speak, and rather than address the concerns, he'd rather send you a form letter. I encourage everyone to express their displeasure not only to Jason but to Phil Poynor as well. Reading his message that "there is no crisis" makes me believe he's the Chairman of Fantasyland.




Messrs. Blair and Poynor:

I am a hard-working corporate Learjet pilot, graduate student, and CFI. I’ve never been a Master CFI or written an article for the Mentor, but each year I’ve faithfully renewed my membership because I support the cause of professionalism in flight instruction. In fact, I’ve been a member of your organization for nine years. While I’ve not been the most vocal member or even by far the longest-standing, what I am is a faithful dues-payer - and we all well know that is the foundation upon which an organization like NAFI relies.

Therefore, I was exceedingly disappointed to read the notice today that, in fact, JoAnn and Sandy Hill have been unceremoniously dumped from their long-standing roles as leaders at NAFI. I find it quite remarkable that this notice was (intentionally or not) sent out after the close of business on January 20th, so as to be lost in the crush of publicity from other events such as the Presidential inauguration. Were you deluded into believing that no one would pay attention? What is even more appalling is the fact that the press release detailing this move only contains a vague and cursory “thank you” for the Hills’ service buried in the eighth and final paragraph.

The NAFI board and executive director’s refusal to recognize TBO’s legitimacy and engage TBO as a stakeholder in the reform process is also disheartening. The disrespect that has been paid to the Hills, as well as to the dozens of other highly regarded Master CFI’s such as Rich Stowell, Doug Stewart, etc. is uncalled-for and smacks of pure empire-building by the remaining unelected and unaccountable members of the NAFI board.

The fact that hundreds of faithful NAFI members have joined an organization begging for change at NAFI should be a clarion call. Instead, when Mr. Poynor insists: “Crisis? Not from where I sit,” it simply indicates a Chairman that is wildly out of touch with his organization’s membership.

Here is the bottom line: you may rest assured I WILL NOT BE RENEWING MY MEMBERSHIP IN NAFI.

Inauguration day is supposed to be a day to celebrate our democratic process; I am not interested in contributing to an organization that features a small group of unelected and unaccountable individuals who will do or say anything necessary in order to stay on top of the heap. Nor will I recommend membership to any of my colleagues so long as this arrogant and irresponsible leadership continues.

Yours very sincerely,

Eric Basile
NAFI 17521

Having slept on it and with many thanks to Tom Poberezny for taking my call and listening to my concerns, my actions are still to remove all NAFI info from my website and the Wings from my publications. I'm also not writing a check to NAFI until these problems are resolved.

I'm not expecting an overnight response from anyone, especially those with the highest of emotions involved, but I have set my own deadline for when progress towards a member-responsive leadership should be in place. Obviously, the problem is not "who's going to do the work" as it is in many volunteer organizations, but something else, the fact that so few people can cause a harm to so many with no say in their actions.

So few people are in a position to do so much harm and they have caused harm to the Master CFI program, using the Master CFI for CFI renewals, and the court of public opinion for the entire flight instruction community. Plus, they're giving EAA a black eye. Even worse, as members, we have no say in these few, even fewer now, people's actions.

Add me to the (growing) list of people who are displeased with NAFI. I am one of the double Masters, that is MCFI/MGI and because of the behavior of the board, I cannot but feel that those designations and indeed the entire profession of aviation educator has been cheapened.
I can understand the EAA wanting to bring the Master Program in House, but the way the board went about it certainly doesn't follow the NAFI Code of Ethics.

I sent an email to Mr. Blair expressing my disgust and outrage at the ousting of the Hills from the NAFI Board of Directors. I told him the political underhandedness of using an internal election process to get rid of them, and using a member election process to vote in their successors was absolutely unacceptable. I too received the form-letter response, and I too will be canceling my membership.