THE Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), last Saturday evening honoured long serving aviators, pioneers/entrepreneurs, and those that have made significant contributions to aviation but have passed on.

Special awards of long service were given to Malcolm Chan-a-Sue, Col. Ret.; Egbert Field, Col. Ret.; Charles Hudson; George Loye; Godfrey Charles Archer; Margaret Chan-A-Sue; Jennifer Debarros; Major Patrick Nichols; Captain Lloyd Marshall – the longest serving pilot; Fazal Khan; Ahmad Mazahar Ali; Bill Mohaboob, and Michael Charles – the only pilot in his group that remained in Guyana.
Michael Correia, Mohamed Ali, Kayman Sankar, Ronald Reece, Edgar Phillips (posthumously) – the first Director of the Civil Aviation Authority, Air Services Ltd., training school and the Art Williams and H. Wendt training school, were also honoured as the pioneers and entrepreneurs in the aviation sector.
Special acknowledgement was also given to Aubrey Alexander, Paula McAdam –the first female air traffic control officer;  Zulfikar Mohamed – the current Director of the GCAA; Jeffrey Murray (Reds), Jeffery Pierre, Chitrani Heeralall and M.S. Khan.
During the awards ceremony and dinner which was held at the Princess Hotel and which culminated the celebrations for the 100 years of aviation in Guyana, honour was also given to those pilots, engineers and flight operators who have passed on, but have made significant contributions to the aviation sector.
Those persons’ contributions have made a great difference in the industry and have also set the stage for greater things to come. Some of these include George Schmidt, Henry Fitt, Robert Roberts, Guy Spence, Michael Chan-A-Sue, Maykhan Sharma, Clement Sur, Gary Peterkin, Eon Fraites, Vickram Nandan, Paul Gittens and Krishna Sankar.
The GCAA also launched ‘Reflections’ – a colourful and informative magazine that captures the achievements of the aviation industry over the last 100 years. The commemorative magazine contains articles and pictures about various aspects of flights in Guyana.
During March, the GCAA staged several thrilling and exciting activities in observance of 100 years of aviation in Guyana. These include the re-enactment of the first flight on Homestretch Avenue, the sky show done by the Brazilian Smoke Squadron, career talks at 40 schools, exhibitions at the Ogle and Timehri airports, launch of flight club and the turning of the sod for the new GCAA head office and the CJIA expansion project.
In 1913, the first flight occurred in Guyana, and from that time to now overwhelming developments have been seen in the aviation industry. Most noticeable are the many airstrips spread throughout the country, proliferation of private operators, training and continuous investments made towards the development of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) and the Ogle Airport.
The inaugural flight which was undertaken by a German-American man took off from the then Canon race course which is now Bel Air Park and flew around the city.