Award Recipients

2007
Dr. Dieter W. Reisinger, Air Transport

2008
Gerard Temme

2009
Pat Svatek

2010
Billie Flynn and Mark Skoog

2011
MajGen Desmond E. Barker, SAAF

2012
Capt. Dave Carbaugh, Boeing Company

2013
Maurice Girard, Bombardier

2014
Gulfstream Aerospace

2015
Daniel Schwenzel, Airbus Helicopters

2016
Not Awarded

2017
Not Awarded

2018
Not Awarded

2019
Not Awarded

2020
Award Retired

Award Criteria

§ 1 Purpose

The purpose of the European Flight Test Safety Award is to enhance flight test safety in the European flight test community. The award shall serve as a motivation and recognition of an accomplishment in the interest of flight test safety. The accomplishment may either be an exceptional act which contributed to avoiding a test accident, or a presentation within the framework of the European Flight Test Safety Workshop which contributed most to improving flight test safety.

§ 2 Background and Philosophy

The birth of the European Flight Test Safety Award took place during the funeral of Gérard Guillaumaud, who was lost with the second Grob spn prototype in an accident on November 29 th, 2006. His fiancée, Heidi Biermeier, refused to accept that this would be the conclusion of Gérard’s spirit and passion for flying and aircraft, and found the funeral insufficient to honour him and his life’s work. Her very deep wish was to keep Gérard´s memory alive and to initiate a symbol which would pay tribute to Gérard’s life’s work and his constant endeavours to develop and improve safety in test flying. From this event the European Flight Test Safety Award was established by Heidi Biermeier, with support from Gérard’s colleagues and friends Tore Reimers, Al Lawless and Chris Worning.

 The European Flight Test Safety Award is based on the following philosophy as its guiding principle:

Gérard Guillaumaud lost his life in execution of his profession, but his spirit will still be alive. Gérard´s passion for flying and aircraft should be a legacy for us for achieving one aim: improving flight test safety.

§ 3 Award Trophy

The EFTSA trophy has been developed, manufactured and donated by Grob Aerospace GmbH in 21 specimens. 20 trophies are intended to be handed out over the years 2007 to 2026, the 21st trophy will be the master specimen which will stay at the SETP headquarters in California.

The trophy is made of polished carbon fibre and brass, and bears the following inscriptions, symbols and placeholders:

The inscription “European Flight Test Safety Award”.
The SETP logo.
A placeholder for the year, to be engraved.
A placeholder for the name of the winner, to be engraved.
The inscription “In the spirit of Gérard Guillaumaud 1961-2006”.

§ 4 Nomination

All presentations made during the European FTSW workshop are automatically nominated for the EFTSA.

For nominations related to an exceptional act in the interest of flight safety, the nomination shall be submitted in writing to the Flight Test Safety Committee not later than one month prior to the planned date of the European FTSW. The nomination may be submitted by any individual or organization, and may be submitted via mail, fax, email or the SETP web site:

Flight Test Safety Committee c/o SETP, P.O. Box 986, Lancaster, CA 93584
Fax. 661-940-0398
E-mail. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web site. http://www.setp.org/table/awards/

§ 5 Selection Criteria and Decision

The award winner will be decided by the European FTSW organisational committee under the leadership of the committee chairman during the course of the proceedings of the annual European FTSW.

The award can be presented to an individual or a team of individuals.

§ 6 Presentation and Award Handover

The award winner and the award trophy will be announced and presented at an appropriate stage of the event. When possible, the trophy should be presented by Heidi Biermeier.

A press release package presenting the award winner and a description of his or her contribution towards improving flight test safety shall be prepared by the FTSW organizational committee and forwarded to the SETP headquarters for later inclusion in the SETP cockpit magazine and other relevant aviation publications.

§ 7 Alternative plan

If the yearly European FTSW has to be cancelled for whatever reason, the EFTSA award for that year will be transferred to the European SETP symposium the following year, and the winner will be decided upon and presented by the European SETP organisational committee.

§ 8 Acknowledgements

Heidi Biermeier thanks the Flight Test Safety Committee and SETP leadership and Grob Aerospace GmbH for supporting her efforts to establish the EFTSA.