Richard McSpadden, AOPA’s Senior Vice President of the Air Safety Institute and Former Commander of the USAF Thunderbird Aerial Demonstration Team, leads ASI’s efforts to reduce general aviation mishaps through research, education, and industry collaboration.
Richard is a commercial pilot and CFI with over 4,500 hours in 30 years of flying a variety of civilian and military aircraft. He has extensive experience in aviation safety, including ground, flight, and special event operations.
Prior to joining ASI, Richard had a successful career at Hewlett Packard leading large, geographically dispersed operations providing business-critical information technology services. Prior to HP, Richard closed his 20-year Air Force career as the Commander and Flight Leader of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds flight demonstration team where he headed the U.S. Air Force’s flagship organization and led over 100 flight performances.
In this episode, we talk about Richard’s expansive career, critical areas of innovation in aviation safety, and about AOPA.
In This Episode
9:45 – How Richard went from being a professional military pilot to leaving his career in aviation
15:16 – How Richard got back into aviation through AOPA
18:08 – “Formal, structured flying, when you are doing it for a living, does a great job of sucking all the fun out of it.”
21:40 – Critical areas that are going to pave the way forward in aviation safety
23:02 – “Every fatal accident we have in aviation makes the news, so that is what the general public thinks of small aviation.”
24:06 – The five principle model of aviation safety
28:20 – Resources you can find with AOPA as aviators
32:50 – Ways you can become a part of AOPA
40:03 – What you can do if you want to get involved in aviation safety
Links
Email Richard: richard.mcspadden@aopa.org