Col. Palmer Sullins, Jr. Receives Highest Honors from FAA: The Master Pilot Award
ern Province from 1967 to 1968. He is a Life Member #74-1228 and a Charter Member of Sacramento (CA) Alumni Chapter and Kenner Metropolitan (LA) Alumni Chapter. He is a Life Member of the Southwestern Province #484 and one of the first to support the Senior Kappa Affairs Endowment Fund. He is a current member of New Orleans (LA) Alumni Chapter and has served on the Board of Directors for four years. Brother Sullins’ goal is to one day fly his airplane to Dallas in support of Kappa Kamp at Paul Quin College, Dallas, TX. This will be the first attempt at exposing at- tendees to aviation as career opportunities. His volun- teer aviation expertise and exposure will be a new and invigorating era to expand Kappa’s influence on young males. His military and aviation careers fit perfectly in Kappa’s role modeling programs. He was born in 1946 on the campus of Tuskegee (Insti- tute) University to Palmer and Della Sullins. His mother Della, was the first person in the State of Ala- bama to receive a BS degree in Nursing. According to his mother, he was a self di- rected child; curious about everything but extremely fascinated about airplanes. Anytime an airplane passed overhead, he would stop and take notice while only a toddler. At the age of three, he got his first flight with
his uncle. Unfortunately, the J-3 Piper Cub they were in hit a sinker hole at Mo- ton Field, grass runway at the time and ground looped upon landing, severely dam- aging the airplane. They escaped unharmed but this only increased Palmer’s ap- petite for flying. At the age of nine, his dream of flying became a reality when he overheard Chief Charles Alfred An- derson, former Chief Flight Instructor for the Tuskegee Airmen primary training telling someone about the need to teach youth to fly and alluded to the fact that his two sons showed little interest in flying. Palmer interrupted by asking, “May I be your son? In 1955, Chief Anderson took him under his wing and began giving him flying lessons. They remained very close and addressed each other as “Best Friend” until Chief ’s death in 1996. One day in 1958 while Chief was demonstrating the use of a new VOR radio in Chief ’s Cessna 120. Milton Crenshaw, also a for- mer Tuskegee Airmen flight instructor stopped by to the hangar (now Tuskegee Air- men National Historic Site Museum, Hangar 1). It was Sullins first time meeting Mr. Crenshaw as he enlight- ened both about the proper method of fine tuning the then “new state of the art” VOR navigation instrument which featured a coffee grinder crank for searching
I n 2014, the Federal Aviation Administra- Wright Brothers Master Pilot Program which recog- nizes individuals who have exhibited professionalism, skills and aviation exper- tise while piloting aircraft and have conducted 50 or more consecutive years of safe flight operations. The Wright Brothers “Master Pilot Award” (MPA) is the highest and most prestigious award the FAA issues to pilots certified under Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) part 61. This award is named after Wilbur and Orville Wright, the first US pilots. Col Palmer Sullins, Jr. (Gamma Epsilon 1965) is one of these prestigious tion (FAA) initiated the
individuals and having obtained 52 years of certi- fied flight and more than 21,000 flight hours. It was presented during the An- nual Black Pilots of America (BPA) Memorial Day Fly In in Pine Bluff, AR in May. Additionally, Brother Sullins was honored by his home town of Tuskegee, AL, awarding him the Chief Charles A. “Chief” Ander- son Lifetime Achievement Award, the most presti- gious aviation award given by the City of Tuskegee. This award was named for Chief Anderson who was the Chief Primary Flight Instructor of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. Brother Sullins served as Junior Province Vice Polemarch of the South-
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