Vicksburg Municipal Airport Director Ronald Davis received the official plaque recognizing him as a Wright Brothers Master Pilot on Feb. 26 at a conference in Raymond.
The Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration designated him a Master Pilot earlier this year after examination of records of his work in aviation. Only those pilots who have completed and provided verified documentation of at least 50 years in aviation, starting with learning to fly, are eligible to receive the award.
The award is named for aviation pioneers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, who took their plane on its first heavierthan- air flight in North Carolina in 1903.
Monroe-born Davis, who turned 80 last Jan. 31, always wanted to fly and has been involved in aviation for 63 years.
He first took off and landed in 1963 in a cow pasture in Louisiana in a 1946 Taylorcraft airplane, along with his instructor. He soloed in Rayville, Louisiana.
“I earned each (onehour) lesson by working from sun-up to sundown Saturdays loading seed rice on an Army Air Force surplus biplane,” he said.
Later, having operated his own telecommunications business and joined his father in farming in Rayville, he earned a bachelor’s degree in aviation at the then Northeast Louisiana University, and an associate degree in aircraft maintenance at Pulaski Technical College in Little Rock, Ark.
He worked in a variety of fields, including flight instruction, charter flying and specialized scientific missions all over the United States and into Canada. Since July 2017, he has been Director of Vicksburg Municipal Airport.
He has also done aerobatic flying and in October 2024, he was the commentator for the Tallulah-Vicksburg Airport air show.
The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award from the DOT and the FAA honors Davis’ 50 years of “exemplary aviation flight experience, distinguished professionalism and steadfast commitment to aviation safety.”
