Named the George Lutz Memorial Service Award, in honor of one of the Chapter’s founders, this award is the sole inspiration of the Chapter President to select. It’s the highest accolade a Chapter member can receive. While our more senior members probably still remember George Lutz, our newer members might want to know why his name is on that plaque on the Chapter House wall.
George W. Lutz’s love of aviation inspired him to dedicate his time and efforts to improving safety, education, and the enjoyment of general aviation through his work with the FAA, Experimental Aircraft Association, and the Quantico Marine Corps Flying Club.
George Lutz served as an FAA safety counselor for 20 years, beginning in 1980. He was instrumental in the planning and presentation of safe pilot programs for the Dulles FSDO for 22 years. He initiated the planning, research and development of Advisory Circular 90-89A – Amateur-Built Aircraft and Ultralight Flight Testing Handbook. This Advisory Circular is recognized throughout the world and has provided a recognized safety program for the flight testing of amateur built aircraft.
He served as official Experimental Aircraft Association liaison with FAA headquarters on sport aviation issues, National Aviation Weather user forums, traffic at non-towered airports, GPS, and other FAA programs.
Colonel Lutz was a founding member and six-term president of National Capital Chapter 186 of the Experimental Aircraft Association. During his tenure, Chapter 186 organized, developed and managed the long-running and very successful Winchester EAA fly-in.
He served as chief flight instructor and supervisor for standardization for the Quantico Marine Corps Flying Club, which maintained 17 airplanes, carried 26 instructors on staff and had a membership of over 550 pilots.
In the early 1960s he helped found a flying club at Rose Valley Airport in Prince Georges County, MD, which then moved to Quantico Marine Base. Lutz joined the Army Air Corps in 1942 after graduating from the University of Iowa. In 1946 he left the service and moved to Seattle where he went to work for Boeing as a staff engineer. He re-entered the service when the Air Force was created and went to Air Force flight school in San Antonio. While serving in the Air Force, he received a master’s degree in engineering administration at George Washington University. While in the Air Force, Lutz served as a B-47 test pilot, held a number of staff assignments at the Pentagon and Andrews AFB, and was base commander at Nakon Phanom airbase in Thailand in 1970 and 1971. He retired from the Air Force with the rank of Colonel in 1972. While in the service he received two awards each of the Legion of Merit medal and the Air Medal.
Colonel Lutz was a founding member of the Marine Corps Flying Club at Quantico, where he was chief flight instructor at his death. Since his military retirement in 1972, he had provided flight instruction to about 600 students in the Washington area.
Colonel Lutz, a resident of Springfield, had lived in the Washington area since 1956. He was born in Buffalo Prairie, Illinois, and graduated from the University of Iowa. As a civilian flight instructor, he was chosen twice by the Federal Aviation Administration as East Coast flight instructor of the year. He received two Sport Aviation Major Achievement Awards from the Experimental Aircraft Association. He was a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the National Association of Flight Instructors, the Order of Daedalians and Quiet Birdmen.