Davis to be named Master Pilot

VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN) — Ronald Davis, Vicksburg Municipal Airport Director, will receive the official plaque recognizing him as a Master Pilot on Thursday, Feb. 26, at a conference in Raymond, Miss.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) designated him a Master Pilot earlier this year after examination of records of his work in aviation. Only those pilots who have completed and provided verified documentation of at least 50 years in aviation, starting with learning to fly, are eligible to receive the award. 

The award is named for aviation pioneers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, who took their plane on its first heavier-than-air flight in North Carolina in 1903.  

Davis, a native of Monroe, La., who turned 80 January 31, always wanted to fly and has been involved in aviation for 63 years. He first took off and landed in 1963 in a cow pasture in Louisiana in a 1946 Taylorcraft airplane, along with his instructor. He soloed in Rayville, La. 

“I earned each (one-hour) lesson by working from sun-up to sundown Saturdays loading seed rice on an Army Airforce surplus Biplane,” he said. 

Later, having operated his own telecommunications business and joined his father in farming in Rayville, he earned a B.A. in aviation at the then Northeast Louisiana University, and an Associate Degree in Aircraft Maintenance at Pulaski Technical College in Little Rock, Ark. He worked in a variety fields, including flight instruction, charter flying and specialized scientific missions all over the United States and into Canada.

Since July 2017, he has been Director of Vicksburg Municipal Airport. He has also done aerobatic flying and in October, 2024; he was the commentator for the Tallulah-Vicksburg Airport air show. 

The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award from the DOT and the FAA honors Davis’ fifty years of “exemplary aviation flight experience, distinguished professionalism and steadfast commitment to aviation safety.”