The second-ever member dinner at Oshkosh AirVenture 2022 was the place where we announced our first-ever member awards. It was a long overdue idea that was the brainchild of Piper Owner Society Aviation Director Scott Sherer. The event took place at LaSure’s Banquet Hall on the opening Monday night of the show and hosted 150 guests. 

We thanked six people total with “Gold Star Awards” and gave them a plaque of recognition. Four are members who have been very active in helping other members on the forum. 

Mike Jones is constantly helping us to help our members. He not only helps them directly on the forums, but he also writes articles, edits the magazine, and has edited a book for us. Jim “Griff” Griffin and Eric Panning are both electrical engineers who give detailed and thoughtful advice on the forum, and their expert knowledge usually reaches the Q&A pages of the magazine. John Southworth is from Australia, but despite that distance, he is constantly helping people locate parts on the Piper forum. 

We also gave awards to our two core support people, A&P/IA Erich Rempert and Sherer. Rempert has been helping our members for years and is on a roll with great advice this year in particular. His Q&A responses make the magazine, and sometimes they fill two to three pages. Sherer is the person who is on the front lines of email replies and forum support. We couldn’t do any of this without him. 

Finally, we gave Bob Hart the Contributor of the Year Award. Hart, who runs avionixhelp.com and is an avionics consultant, has been writing our avionics articles for years and the past year’s columns were even greater than usual. He continues to help people affordably manage their panels. 

Thank you to the 150 people who made the dinner, and congratulations and thank you to our first award winners.