3 Professionals Honored With 2026 General Aviation Awards

The General Aviation Awards (GAA) honorees for 2026 have been chosen by the GAA board of directors in partnership with the FAA for contributions to the flying community in safety, flight instruction, and maintenance.

Here are this year’s recipients:

FAASTeam Representative of the Year

Aviation would be nothing without the dedicated professionals who strive to improve safety.

Mike Jesch from Orange, California, is one of those and has been recognized as the 2026 National FAASTeam representative. Jesch was born into an aviation family, as his father was an aerospace engineer who worked on the Apollo Lunar Module program. 

At the age of 6 Jesch already knew he wanted to be a professional pilot and a discovery flight he did at 14 sealed the deal. He earned his private pilot certificate before graduating high school, became a flight instructor by 21, and secured a place at the airlines at 23. Today he has 40 years of aviation experience and is a senior captain on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner at American Airlines.

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Jesch still keeps his GA instructor skills sharp, specializing in Cessna 182 and Mooney checkouts and IFR training, especially when it involves complex Air Traffic Control (ATC) procedures. He serves as the chief instructor for a local multiengine program, is a regular at local Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Young Eagles events, and volunteers for LightHawk and Angel Flight West. In July you can find him at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh teaching in the Pilot Proficiency Center.

Jesch is a big supporter of the FAASTeam program and regularly works with pilots, instructors, and other FAASTeam representatives to improve their knowledge of the FAASafety.gov website and the WINGS Pilot Proficiency Program.

He has personally completed hundreds of WINGS ground and flight activities, validated thousands of credits for other pilots, and achieved 25 basic, 20 advanced, and 18 master WINGS phases. His professional affiliations include lifetime memberships in EAA, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI), Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE), and the California Pilots Association (CalPilots).

​CFI of the Year

The 2026 National CFI of the Year is Mike Kloch from Bend, Oregon. Kloch has logged more than 8,300 hours in the air and flown 75 different types of aircraft, ranging from Carbon Cubs and helicopters to the F/A-18 Hornet and Fouga CM.170 Magister.

Kloch is a former Marine combat pilot, but these days his focus is on making GA safer.

As the CEO and chief instructor of Specialized Aero Works (SAW), his specialty is teaching pilots how to handle the unexpected. He’s one of few instructors in the U.S. offering Part 141-approved Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (UPRT).

Koch is also a three-time Master CFI-Aerobatic (MCFI-A), two-time NAFI Master CFI, and a member of the Master Instructors board of review.

Kloch also contributes his talents to flight testing, doing work for companies such as Epic Aircraft and Stratos Aircraft and sometimes testing individual experimental builds like the Van’s RV-14.

When he’s not in the cockpit, he contributes his talents to speaking at AirVenture or the Northwest Aviation Conference & Trade Show in Washington state each year. He also cohosts the Aviation Rant Podcast.

Kloch is a member of several aviation organizations, including the EAA, AOPA, International Aerobatic Club (IAC), and Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP).

Aviation Maintenance Technician of the Year

Without skilled aviation maintenance technicians, there would be no general aviation. A&Ps are the backbone of GA, and this year Roger Whittier from Phoenix is being recognized as 2026 National Aviation Maintenance Technician of the Year. Whittier is an Airframe & Powerplant Mechanic with Inspection Authorization (A&P/IA) as well as an instrument-rated private pilot.

His interest in aviation began as a child listening to his Air Force pilot father tell stories about his experiences. Although flying for the military was not a possibility for the younger Whittier, he found a career after college that gave him the resources to start flying lessons in the 1980s.

When he realized the need for maintenance technicians in aviation, he pursued that avenue, which led him to operating an aircraft maintenance shop where he performs repairs, maintenance, and alterations. Whittier specializes in owner-assisted annual inspections, which helps the owner learn more about the systems of their aircraft. There are people who have traveled from great distances to have him work on their airplanes while they assist.

Whittier loves using the process as a training opportunity for aircraft owners. 

​He has built an experimental aircraft and is the original owner of one of the earliest Cirrus SR22s produced. He personally picked it up from the factory in  2001.​

Whittier’s expertise in aircraft systems and maintenance led to the creation of the College of Advanced Technology within the Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association (COPA). He has developed courses, taught classes, produced videos, and published manuals designed to help Cirrus owners be safe and get the most out of their airframes.

His efforts have not gone unrecognized as Whittier has received COPA’s Lifetime Achievement Award and twice been named Mechanic of the Year.

His approach to aviation reflects a simple philosophy: To truly understand something, you must first be willing to take it apart. By getting “under the hood,” Whittier believes pilots can better understand not only how their aircraft work but why it works the way  it does—and how to make them safer.

About the GAA Awards Program

The General Aviation Awards program started in 1962 as a means to recognize a small group of aviation professionals in the fields of flight instruction, aviation maintenance, and flight safety.

Honorees are nominated by their peers. They are recognized locally, and national recipients are recognized during a ceremony each July during EAA AirVenture.