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JON WILSONThe Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association honors Jack Tunstill after the FAA gave its own lofty tribute.
ST. PETERSBURG - Jack Tunstill, the tenacious advocate who played a major role in Albert Whitted Airport's continued aviation use, has won a top award from a 400,000-member national pilots group.
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association honored Tunstill, a Seminole resident, with the Laurence P. Sharples Perpetual Award, the highest recognition the group gives to a civilian.
"It's the award given to the private individual who has done the most to benefit general aviation over the past year," said Chris Dancy, AOPA spokesman.
Tunstill, 59, became Albert Whitted's most recognizable public face during last year's debate about the airport's future.
Leading up to a referendum on whether to keep the waterfront landmark open, Tunstill relentlessly attended forums, lobbied officials and stayed in touch with the media to present airport supporters' side of the story.
AOPA president Phil Boyer presented the award to Tunstill on Oct. 23 at the organization's convention in Long Beach, Calif.
"In short," said Boyer, "he supported his airport and he never gave up."
Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration last month recognized Tunstill in its own way.
The agency renamed an intersection fix - a way point depicted on FAA navigational charts - after Tunstill.
The way point, about 1,200 feet in the air near 54th Avenue N, changed from PINEL to JACKT as of Sept. 30.
"It's unusual to have them named for a specific person," Dancy said.
Tunstill, a pilot and instructor with 6,600 flying hours, said both honors surprised him.
The Long Beach presentation, which he attended with, his wife of 38 years, Ginger, took place in front of about 400 people. "I regard that as a high point in my life," said the retired Florida Power engineer.
"The naming of the intersection just caught me completely by surprise," he said. "That is kind of a legacy. "When I'm gone, that's here."
Tunstill is the second Sharples award winner from St. Petersburg. Airport activist Ruth Varn won it in 1986, also for her work to preserve Albert Whitted.