CEPA Election, Annual Meeting & November Safety Meeting
2025-11-12 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Harper College, 1375 S Wolf Road, Prospect Heights, IL, 60070, United States
Evening topics:

CEPA Director’s Election
Annual Meeting
November Safety Meeting: Ice and Aspects of Winter Operations

Speaker:
Lou Wipotnik, Master CFI, CFII, MEI, has earned his Master CFI designation for the 10th time and was the 1996 National CFI of the Year. Holding the Master CFI designation continuously since 1998, Lou was granted Master Instructor Emeritus (MIE) status in 2016, following his induction into the Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame. This recognition was given in appreciation of his many years of commitment to excellence, professional growth, service to the aviation community, and quality aviation education. He has taught for several distinctive flying schools during his aviation career and has logged over 15,000 hours as PIC in over 60 years as a pilot. Lou also served in the Civil Air Patrol, flies Young Eagles, and is a recipient of the distinguished FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award.

7 Times Lucky - How to Survive a Low-Altitude Engine Failure (Hopefully)
2026-01-28 19:00 - 20:30
Join CFI Daniel Feldman for an exploration of low-altitude engine failures and the lessons he has learned after seven of them.

Speaker Bio:
Daniel Feldman is a CFI Sport with more than 3,500 hours of dual given and over 5,000 total flight hours. He is the owner of Foxtrot Aero, which specializes in light sport instruction in both fixed-wing and gyroplanes with a focus on vintage and experimental aircraft.

Flight Following Or Go Rogue?
2026-02-25 19:00 - 20:30
You take off for your VFR one-hour cross-country. You’re about to head into a TRSA, so you call for flight following. It’s crazy hot and bumpy, so you tell them your destination, and you are climbing to 8,500 feet. Unfortunately, that’s not what ATC has in mind. They say maintain at or below 3000′. Whoa! What do you do?
Speaker Bio:

Michael Baraz holds ATP, CFI, CFII, AGI, and IGI certificates. He is an active flight instructor and FAA Safety Lead Team Representative. He loves helping people achieve their flying goals and staying safe, current, and proficient through continuous training with WINGS credits. Michael flies a Mooney Rocket 305 (because life is too short to fly slow). He is a member of several flying clubs and pilot associations in the Chicago area and is the treasurer and past president of CEPA.

Situational Awareness: How Good Pilots Lose It, and Get It Back - Penny Levin, PhD, CFI
2026-04-22 19:00 - 20:30
Join Penny Levin, PhD, CFI, for Situational Awareness in Single-Pilot Flying: How Good Pilots Lose It, and Get It Back. This practical program for general aviation pilots will explore how distraction, workload, routine, and cockpit screens can erode situational awareness in small airplanes, and what pilots can do to recognize the signs early, stay ahead of the airplane, and fly more safely.
Speaker Bio:

Dr. Penny Levin has combined her two professional passions-psychology and aviation. She presents on flight instruction, flight safety, and pilot mental health. She is a member of the Olympic Mental Health Registry. A longtime member of the Civil Air Patrol. Dr. Penny has flown as an instructor, a mission pilot, and a mission pilot instructor, and as the Pennsylvania Wing Assistant Director of Safety, responsible for creating an innovative aircrew safety seminar series. She is an instructor in the AOPA Flight Instructor Refresher Course

Using AI for flight planning - Bob Reynolds
2026-05-27 19:00 - 21:00
Bob will explain how to use Generative AI to create an actual, stressful fight plan using ChatGPT for a weather briefing for the Go/No Go decision. Also planning to share two other scenarios: a ChatGPT session was used to debrief on a NORDO situation in Atlanta, and then hypothesize with the system to plan for a similar situation taking off IFR from KPWK. This new, rapidly evolving technology is helpful but challenging, and occasionally seductively wrong!
Speaker Bio:

Bob Reynolds is a Chicago-based SR22T pilot based at KDPA with 2,400+ hours and landings at 496 airports. A Guinness World Record holder (48 states in 38:13 with John Skittone), he has landed at all major Class B airports and flown to the northernmost point of North America—Barrow, Alaska—circling many of the nation’s most iconic landmarks at low altitude along the way. He is currently planning a transatlantic flight this July. Now he applies AI and ChatGPT to flight planning, debriefing, and smarter decision-making.

PWK Bedtime Stories: Navigating Airspace, Approaches, and ATC - Aaron Barclay, CFI/CFII/ATC C90 - June CEPA Safety Meeting
2026-06-24 19:00 - 21:00
Master PWK airspace, practice approaches, and ATC comms through real local stories.
Whether you’re dodging the O’Hare “shelf” or trying to squeeze in one last practice approach before the sun goes down, flying out of Chicago Executive can feel like a high-stakes thriller. Join us as we crack open the “Big Book of PWK Bedtime Stories” to learn how to keep your flight from becoming a cautionary tale. We’ll dive into the nuances of our local airspace, the “to call or not to call” dilemma, and the secret language of asking for favors in a busy corridor. From the best way to file your flight plan to those legendary “did he really just say that?” moments, we’re covering it all. Come for the survival tips on who to call and when, and stay for the open forum where no question is too basic and no “there I was” story is too strange. Let’s ensure your next trip off Runway 16/34 ends with a smooth landing, not a phone number.
Speaker: Aaron Barclay, ATC Specialist, CFI/CFII
A Chicago native and 2007 Embry-Riddle graduate, Aaron has been a C90 Approach Controller in the radar room since 2008 and a CFI/I since 2012. When he isn’t managing the arrivals, he is actively instructing and flying with the Naperville Flying Club (LL10).
A true hands-on hobbyist, Aaron loves motorcycles, working on cars, and figuring out how things work. He is married to his 5th-grade sweetheart, and together they are raising four wild boys (like himself) between the ages of 9 and 15. Whether he’s on the scope, in the cockpit, or in the garage, he is always looking for the next challenge.
