Maj. Clive Goodwin (right) receives the FAA’s Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award from Bob Sutherlin of the FAA in a ceremony in Raleigh-Durham International Airport's General Aviation Hangar.
Photo by 2nd Lt. Terri A. Richards, North Carolina Wing
2nd Lt. Terri A. Richards
Assistant Public Affairs Officer
Raleigh-Wake Composite Squadron
North Carolina Wing
NORTH CAROLINA – Maj. Clive Goodwin, former commander of the Franklin County Composite Squadron, has been recognized for more than 50 years of accident-free flight with the Federal Aviation Administration’s Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award – an honor extended to only about 1,600 pilots.
Goodwin, who received the award from Bob Sutherlin, the aviation agency’s FAASTeam program director for North Carolina, began his flying career when he joined Civil Air Patrol as a cadet in the fall of 1942. The following year, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces. After reporting to Sheppard Field in Texas for 30 days of basic training, he was pulled aside to fly B-25 and B-29 bombers.
Goodwin was attached to the Army Air Forces Training Command at Lowry Field in Colorado, where he and his crew flew the B-29, and was eventually assigned to the 500th Bombardment Group in Saipan, though World War II ended before he was deployed.
He was discharged into the reserves as a private in 1946 and remained in a New York-based reserve unit until 1955.
Goodwin's aviation career has also included running a small airport in New Jersey, flying for the Coast Guard Auxiliary and assisting the nation of Trinidad in developing an FAA-like certification system for pilots and mechanics.
