SAVE ABQ'S ONLY BALLOON DPE!

Pilot education and training are essential to ensuring and maintaining that our National Airspace safely serves the people of New Mexico. For over half a century, the ballooning community in Albuquerque has worked hard to cultivate a culture of safety and openness to promote best practices and encourage pilot and crew education. To that end, I have had the privilege to serve on the AAAA Education Committee with some of the finest and most experienced balloonists there are. One such pilot is Beth Wright-Smith. With 45 years as a pilot and more than 5000 hours total time flying balloons of various shapes and sizes, she has trained over 400 pilots and volunteered thousands of hours of her time with the Balloon Federation of America (BFA), the Albuquerque Aerostat Ascension Association (AAAA), and the FAA Safety Team (FAASTeam). Not surprisingly, she has earned such accolades as the BFA Director's Award, the AAAA Ruppenthal Education Award, & the AAAA’s highest honor, the Sid Cutter Award.

So it was a shock to the ballooning community when the FAA’s Albuquerque FSDO (Flight Standards District Office) chose to terminate Beth’s status as Designated Pilot Examiner, based upon an anonymous complaint making an absurd allegation that was verifiably false. The action taken by the FSDO was problematic on many levels, and those problems will hopefully be addressed separately. In the meantime, Beth is facing a significant financial burden to appeal this action. To that end, we have created this Go Fund Me campaign to help cover the legal expenses to effectively work to overturn this unjust termination of a DPE who for decades has demonstrated her competence, integrity, and dedication to the sport of ballooning and the education and training of generations of safe pilots. In the event excess funds are raised, they will be donated to the AAAA/BFA Balloon Camp and the AAAA Youth Balloon Program. Please give generously.