Fred L. Gibbs

This is Gibbs’ second NAFI Master Accreditation. Gibbs is the retired CEO of his aviation consulting firm, The ABC Group, founded in January 2000. The company specializes in air traffic issues with the FAA and many of the aviation industry’s major air traffic players, including Boeing Air Traffic Management, Raytheon, DynCorp, DME, Washington Consulting Group, and Lockheed Martin. 

He currently runs Wiseman Aviation flight school in Flagstaff, Arizona, and is its only flight instructor providing more than 1,000 hours of ground and flight training per year. He is a former second vice president of the Arizona Pilots Association, was director of its safety and education programs through 2018 and is currently director of safety and education programs emeritus. He also served as safety officer for the Civil Air Patrol squadron in Flagstaff, as well as flight check pilot and certified search and rescue mission pilot.

Gibbs has been a pilot since 1973, holding ATP, multi-engine, commercial SMEL, CFII, and remote (drone) pilot certificates. He has been an instructor pilot since 1976 with more than 16,000 hours of instruction time given with a total of slightly more than 19,000 hours total. He has also flown 2,500 hours in his own Bellanca Super Viking.

Gibbs has been a Safety Counselor/FAAST Team Lead Representative since 1973 and a former FAA designated pilot examiner. He was the 2003 Safety Counselor of the year for the state of Arizona.

As a finale to his flying career, in 2023 he will receive the FAA’s Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for 50 years of safe flight. He has also been immortalized on the National Air and Space Museum’s Wall of Honor at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport in Chantilly, Virginia.