This past December SCHS alum (class of 1961) Nick Prinster was awarded the Wright Brothers Master Pilot award. The Wright Brothers award is an honorable award given to pilots who have achieved 50 years of flying continuously with no accidents or violations. The award is named in honor of the Wright brothers who are credited to be the first Americans to invent, make, and fly a motor operated airplane. 

“The Wright Brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft with the Wright Flyer on December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Prinster is an Army veteran and worked in avionics while serving. Around 1965 after his service, his buddy convinced him to become a part of a flying club and the rest has been history. Prinster has been a flight instructor for 60 years and still is to this day. He operates out of an airport in Fulton, Missouri, teaching soon-to-be pilots on a single engine airplane.

“A lot of people have learned to fly in it [the airplane] and then they go on to better and bigger things,” said Prinster.

Every 10 years a pilot must have a flight review and be reviewed by an instructor like Prinster. This is his favorite part of the job; he enjoys helping pilots break their bad habits and fix issues to keep it ‘smooth flying.’

“When you get bad habits, that can get you hurt,“ Prinster said. 

Prinster is a father, a husband, and not only a grandfather but a great-grandfather. His wife, Edwina Prinster and he have been together for the last 30 years.

“Keeping up with him is pretty exciting, he’s a wonderful teacher and he can fix anything in the world… he’s probably the neatest human being ive ever met,” Edwina said.