By Lorrie Penner, IAC 431036
Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement. -Golda Meir
Early training included getting up at 6:00am to go out to the airport and receive training from his grandparent’s friends. A variety of standard airplanes including Cessna 150, Cessna 172, and a Cherokee. They were all part of local the Mentone Flying Club which had been formed in 1957. The club got its name from Mentone, a typical Midwestern town, which boasted a landing strip in the small community of 800 people. Since 1940 the Mentone Airport was known as “Chick’s Landing Strip”, located on Allen “Chick” Herendeen’s Farm. Yes, Chick was aerobatic great Bob Herendeen’s father.
Chick and Dr. Dan Urshel (past president of the National Flying Physicians) decided to form a flying club. The club started out with nine members flying a dearly beloved “Champ.” There were a lot of military guys who had come back from the Korean War and wanted to learn to fly. Training was provided under the G.I. Bill. There were some monthly dues, but the club members all worked together to help each other out with maintenance and keeping the club neat and tidy.
After Chick’s passing, the Mentone Airport was sold and eventually closed in 1981. The club relocated their headquarters to the Fulton County Airport, Rochester, Indiana. Over the years the club grew from the original nine members to over 100. At the time Taz was taking flight instruction, over 500 people had received their pilot’s licenses through the club. Those were the days, flight instruction in the C-150 was $15/hr and $10/hr went to the instructor for his time.
Taz soloed at 16 and got his private pilot license at 17. His first taste of aerobatic flight came when he enrolled at Purdue University where a professor asked him to try aerobatics out, so he enrolled in the aerobatic course. He received his Bachelor of Science in Professional Flight Operations while flying Beechcraft 300, King Air 200’s and Boeing 727-100/200. After college, Taz flew a Sabreliner 40 as well as Cessna Conquest corporately until joining the U.S. Air Force in 2002.
While in the U.S. Air Force he started out in the Northrop T-38A/C Talon jet trainer and became an instructor. Other opportunities came along including, becoming a Mission pilot in the Rockwell B-1B Lancer bomber, and instructor/Evaluator Pilot in the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted Aircraft (RPA)s.
Along the way he continued enjoy aerobatic flying, although he passed on buying a Decathlon at one point, he did fly the plane as a lease. Eventually a friend of his found the YaAK-52. Taz flew it a lot and liked the military aspect of it as some of its look and characteristics reminded him of the T38 he had instructed in.
When he first started flying his goal was to earn a new rating every year. Taz used the G.I. Bill for his helicopter rating and CFI rating. During college he had even had an opportunity to experience seaplanes. He has amassed over 12,000 hours in over 500 different airframes. He enjoys the challenge of instructing in different types of aircraft. His love of aviation and desire to inspire future aviators earned him the Flight Instructor of the Year in 2018, FAA’s General Aviation Awards Program.
Now having been a flight instructor for 25 years his goals are to help inspire people. He’s been posting video to his YouTube channel, Instagram and Facebook accounts. The thing that you will notice immediately are all the positive quotes that accompany his posts. “It sort of took on a life of its own. The postings on social media have been a real draw to many who are interest in learning more about aviation,” said Taz. Sometimes the quotes are deliberate, but often he just types “positive quotes” on his keyboard and does a Google search. For something so random, he manages to get great quotes to match his spectacular photos and videos.
Other aviation related projects have included; creating an aerobatic/upset recovery training program utilizing a Decathlon and his YAK-52. He is an experienced Technically Advanced Aircraft (TAA) instructor specializing in Avidyne, Garmin, Aspen and Honeywell glass cockpits. And he created and recorded over 55 hours of video content for Helicopter Online Ground School (HOGS) Instrument Rating course. All this while still working his regular job with the Air Force.
A favorite saying of Taz’s is; “An empty seat is a missed opportunity”. He is a huge proponent of the Young Eagles program and will routinely share his love for aviation with younger kids, trying to pass on the experiences of his own youth. As an aviation ambassador to young enlisted Air Force airmen, he designed an incentive ride program to help motivate them to become officers and pilots. He personally flew 19 enlisted airmen free of charge, three of whom decided to start flight training.
Taz is a member of IAC 777, Las Vegas, so he has some opportunity to hang out with other acrobatic enthusiasts. He is the Chef Flight instructor at Chennault Flying Service N. Las Vegas, where their Primary trainer is the Diamond DA40. For those after multi-engine training they use a Beech Barron. Even though the flight school doesn’t have an aerobatic plane he spends a lot of time giving rides in his oil guzzling YAK-52 (Apparently the aircraft goes through 2 quarters an hour). Currently Taz does 90% of all spin training in Las Vegas in a Decathlon. "I have people coming up from Arizona and down from Utah to spin with me," he said.
After retirement he wants to open his own flight school that offers Upset Recovery and spin training. He has observed if done right CFI candidates find that spins are easier than they thought. To future flight instructors Dan would say, “Teach your students what to look for [in spins and any kind of aerobatics]. Don’t ever let your guard down as an instructor.”
You never know what someone might do or not do when they are first learning any kind of unusual attitude. “I was working with CFI applicant, instructing them from the backseat. The candidate was practicing stalls and entered a spin. The candidate froze, of course it was a lesson learned and I guided them through the recovery. When something like that happens, the next time they return for another lesson, we climb to a nice high altitude and I deliberately put them in a spin and let them work their way out of it. There is nothing like experience.”
Taz has considered getting into aerobatic competition. His time is pretty full though. He still toys with the thought once in a while. If it turns out to be something he could use as a tool to inspire he might get a little more serious about it. He has always enjoyed encouraging the next generation of aviators as well as giving back to the aviation community as a whole.
Follow Taz on Facebook @dan.christman and Instagram @chrisairaviation
"One moment can change a day, one day can change a life and one life can change the world."
-Buddha
Checkout Dan "Taz" Christman's YouTube Channel. Lots of YAK and Decathlon videos!
