R. Randall Padfield

Randy Padfield retired in 2014 as chief operating officer of AIN Publications, where he worked for 22 years, primarily as the company's editor-in-chief. Before coming to AIN, Padfield published articles in several other aviation publications while working full-time as a pilot.

He is the author of four books on aviation: Flying in Adverse Conditions, Cross-Country Flying—3^rd Edition, Learning to Fly Helicopters, and To Fly Like a Bird (a biography of helicopter pioneer Joe Mashman, published by the American Helicopter Society). In 1998 he received the NBAA's Gold Wing Award for reporting excellence and in 2016 he won the Lightspeed Aviation Excellence in Communications Award, part of HAIs Salute to Excellence program.

Rated as an airline transport pilot in helicopters and airplanes, Padfield trained and flew missions as a U.S. Air Force HH-3E rescue pilot; flew Sikorsky S-61s, Bell 212s, and Aerospatiale AS 332Ls for Helikopter Service of Norway for 12 years; and was a pilot with Trump Air of New Jersey. He received his bachelor of science degree in engineering management from the United States Air Force Academy in 1971 and his master of science degree in the same discipline from UCLA in 1972.

Padfield and his wife of more than 40 years have three adult children and five grandchildren.