Former GAN Columnist Grants $5,000 Flight Training Scholarship
Jeffrey Madison, a former Human Factors columnist for General Aviation News, recently presented his inaugural $5,000 flight training scholarship. The scholarship is funded through the sales of his book, ‘YIKES! 100 Smart Pilots and the Dumb Things They Did Yet Lived to Tell About ‘Em.’
The scholarship was awarded to the Eagle Flight Squadron of East Orange, New Jersey, during their 50th-anniversary celebration on June 14, 2025.
Madison’s Victor Kilo Foundation has a mission to sell one million copies of his book. The proceeds will be used to fund hundreds of training scholarships and flight simulators for under-resourced Civil Air Patrol squadrons and flight schools.
The book is a compilation of real stories from NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System, where pilots anonymously share their close calls and moments of poor judgment.
‘The story of how Reverend Russell White founded Eagle Flight Squadron in the basement of his church to keep kids in his community out of prison, hospital and the cemetery was the initial inspiration behind writing the book,’ Madison explained.
The foundation’s name, Victor Kilo, symbolizes ‘a thousand victories’ – the small steps necessary to realize aviation dreams.
Source: https://generalaviationnews.com/2025/08/26/former-gan-columnist-bestows-first-scholarship/