Tiziano Bernard, the Trieste, Italy, native who earned three degrees at Florida Tech on his way to launching a distinguished and ongoing career in aviation, has been named the best Certified Flight Instructor in the nation by the Aircraft Operators and Pilots Association (AOPA).
“Born to a flying family, the AOPA Flight Training Experience Award national winner for best instructor of the year prioritizes professionalism and takes pride in the success of his students,” AOPA said last month about Bernard, a CFI at Georgia-based Savannah Aviation Flight Training, in announcing national and regional honorees.
Bernard ’15, ’16 M.S.,’18 Ph.D., did grow up traveling. But his priorities were clear, even back then: It was not the where, it was the how. It had to be via flying, he would tell his parents.
He eventually winged his way to the Space Coast and Florida Tech. After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering, Bernard later became the first graduate of the university’s flight test engineering master’s degree program. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in human-centered design. He said his time at Florida Tech, which also included primary flight training, was defined by outstanding faculty.
“We are the sum of our experiences and our mentors. I was privileged to be mentored by giants like Dr. Ralph Kimberlin, Dr. Dan Kirk and Dr. Lucas Stephane,” he said. “The education – and training – that I received as a pilot from Florida Tech and then later from Garmin, as well as my flight test training, truly built my foundations based on rigor, high standards and a continuous desire to improve.”
Bernard said that when he did his first post-Florida Tech flight review with an instructor from Garmin, the global technology company, he said Bernard was extremely organized and procedural.
Bernard told us, “That’s a testament to Florida Tech’s training towards professionalism and excellence.”
Working at Gulfstream Aerospace Flight Test, the ownership of the nearby Savannah Aviation flight school enlisted Bernard to help, he said, translate “small airplane” to “big airplane.” That was in 2022, and since then he graduated 25 students, became an FAA Gold Seal CFI and a Cirrus Instructor. Then came the AOPA award for his work at Savannah Aviation.
Bernard continues to work full-time at Gulfstream as an experimental flight test engineer on the GVII and GVIII programs and teach part-time at Savannah Aviation.
The AOPA awards, celebrated in the association’s Pilot magazine, involve an application-based review under which instructors and flight schools were invited to apply for regional and national recognition. Applicants could request reviews from students, instructors, designated pilot examiners and other clients who had worked with them during the previous 12 months. A panel of industry experts then screened the applications without knowledge of the applicants’ identities.
