Club Approved Instructors

Jim grew up flying with his dad in Piper Cherokees, Piper Comanches, a Beech Debonair, a Cessna 175, and even a Cessna 310. His dad was never certified as an instructor, so Jim took his first “official” flight lesson on his 15th birthday with a family friend who was a CFI. Jim didn’t finish up his PPL until he was in his early 20’s. He owned a 1/3 share of a Cherokee 180 with his dad and his brother for a few years, then he took a 25-year break from flying while he raised his kids. During the break, he worked for a company that owned a Mooney, then upgraded to a Cessna 340. He managed to wrangle a fair amount of right-seat time in those airplanes during the long break. He also got heavily into R/C aviation and started the NeST-RC Aviation Club in Noblesville in 2011.

Jim got back into it flying in earnest in 2015. He heard about Sky-Vu from his friend and instructor, and when he checked into our club, he jumped in head-first. He joined in January of 2016 and immediately started making a positive contribution to the club. He rebuilt and modernized the club web site and helped with the club-sponsored rusty pilot seminar in 2017. In December of 2017 Jim was elected vice president of the club. In December of 2018, as the president at that time opted to fulfill the vacant role of maintenance officer, Jim was elected president and has served in that role since.

Jim utilized our club airplanes to obtain his instrument rating in 2016, then his commercial license in 2018. He passed his CFI checkride in July of 2020. He successfully completed an accelerated multi-engine course in April of 2023, and completed his CFI-I certification in September of 2024. Currently Jim has logged over 2500 hours total, and is flying 50 to 70 hours per month; mostly through his business (Expediair Aviation) where he manages and flies aircraft for corporations, partnerships and individuals.

Jim is current in all of the Sky-Vu aircraft and is eager to train in all of them for initial checkouts, flight reviews and currency checkouts. His weekday schedule is often flexible and provides opportunities for flight training when the airplanes aren’t typically so busy.

Tom Eaton started flying as a teenager, then added certificates and ratings up through CFII while in college.  While working as an engineer Tom added glider, multiengine, and ME instructor ratings.  After retiring from an engineering career in 2014 he added his ATP certificate and a seaplane rating.  (The seaplane rating was a blast!)  Tom and his wife, Anne, live on the northeast side of Indianapolis and have six boys between them.  One of the boys caught the aviation bug, learned to fly in a glider, and is now flying for the airlines.  Tom joined Sky-Vu in 2016 and was elected Vice President of the club in December of 2018.  He is happy to work with you on checkouts, refreshers, or upgrades in any of the Sky-Vu airplanes.

Kurt first earned his private pilot license in 1991 while working for Caterpillar as an engineer in Decatur Il. After a few years enjoying a local Cessna flying club and getting some taildragger time life got in the way and he took a hiatus from aviation.  Finally after 3 moves, a return to graduate school and starting a family he returned to flying and earned his instrument rating, using it to shuttle the family on multiple cross country trips.  He earned his CFI certificate in 2018 and has been instructing at TYQ since then, enjoying every minute of it. He has been a member of Sky-Vu since 2013 and looks forward to providing checkouts, flight reviews, instrument work, and any other instruction members might find helpful.

Hello, my name is John Oot and I have been a club member since 1999 and one of the club-approved instructors since 2004.  I enjoy teaching, working with members and introducing new members to the club’s aircraft and avionics.

As important as air work is – slow flights, stalls, steep turns, traffic pattern ops, etc. which are skills every pilot should master, my real passion is teaching the technology of GPS and the autopilot systems. These are the tools we use to navigate and manage our single pilot work load on cross-country flights and IFR operations.  Getting to know these systems makes our trips safe and more enjoyable.