Meet Our Instructors
Robert Osinski
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Robert Osinski
Chief Flight Instructor / FAA Designated Pilot Examiner |
Chief Flight Instructor /
FAA Designated Pilot Examiner
Growing up near New York City's Curtiss Field and Idlewild Airport in the 1940s and '50s would naturally influence anyone with a spark of interest in aviation. Bob Osinski was no exception. As a schoolboy biking to these airports to watch airplanes, he was certain he would one day command an airliner for a living. But, like George Bailey, Jimmy Stewart's character in It's a Wonderful Life, things kept getting in the way. He never did find his way to the airlines.
What he found instead was fulfillment in the heart of Long Island's general aviation community. Today, thousands of pilots there have come to know him in his roles as instructor and pilot examiner. And if the definition of mentor encompasses one who inspires and teaches others, then Bob is a rightful contender for the title of Long Island's preeminent general aviation mentor, too.
At age 16, Bob traded up from a bicycle to his first car, a 1955 Ford. Inspired by the airliners he saw at Idlewild, he used his new-found mobility to visit Zahn's Airport in nearby Amityville, where he signed up for flying lessons. He soloed in a PA-11 there in 1958, with the definite aim of flying for a living. To round out his credentials while building time, he went to Inglewood, California, a few years later and enrolled in the Northrop-Institute of Technology's Airframe and Powerplant School. He emerged with an A&P ticket in one hand and his new wife Marsha on the other. An opportunity to hire on with Pan American Airways as a sheet metal mechanic came up, and Bob took it, mindful of his new responsibilities as a family man. The couple headed east and settled on Long Island, where Bob began work at Idlewild (soon to be known as John F. Kennedy International) Airport. He later moved into Pan Am's jet engine overhaul division.
Mechanically minded, he enjoyed his work with the carrier, but he knew all along that his ultimate goal was to fly the airplanes he was working on. After several years with Pan Am, he left to work for Mid Island Air Service, a Long Island FBO based at Deer Park Airport. The company was in need of someone qualified as both flight instructor and mechanic. By now, Bob had added the CFI rating to his ticket, and to him the job seemed a more natural stepping stone to an airline cockpit. It was 1965, and the aviation world was ripe with opportunity. Little did he suspect he would spend the next four decades working for the same FBO. But as it turned out, he would have preferred it no other way.
The mid-1960s were boom years for general aviation, and Bob soon rose to the chief flight instructor position at the busy company. He managed a staff of 15 or so full-time instructors and found he really liked the job. With his reputation as both instructor and manager growing, he was selected by the FAA in 1968 to become a designated pilot examiner. At last count, he had more than 5,000 pilot examinations under his seat belt.
With 26,000 hours of general aviation flying experience (" it would be a lot easier to try and name the GA aircraft I haven't flown than the ones I did").
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