Expert and Author

Dan Boedigheimer, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer
Advanced Aircrew Academy

After finding a passion for teaching as a flight instructor, Dan Boedigheimer built a solid instrument scan and gray hair flying a Beech 1900 for Great Lakes without an autopilot across the Midwest. The regional airline flying would routinely include eight (8) instrument approaches a day (uphill both ways in icing conditions to minimums). His business aviation flying experience spans four (4) years in a small Part 91 flight department (one aircraft/two pilots) and 13 years in a large Part 135 operation starting as a SIC and working his way up to managing their training and standards program.

With a philosophy of being a lifetime learner and a stubbornness to re-write a 300+ page dissertation for a third time to free the reader from having to endure the “non-academic” word “it,” Boedigheimer holds a Ph.D. in Aerospace Science. He gained membership to the Delta Mu Delta Academic Honor Society for finding 193 academic ways to rephrase “it”.

Inspiration for his Ph.D. dissertation came in the first hour of him being a first-time attendee to Safety Standdown in 2006. Tony Kern captured the attention of the audience with his proven leading-edge road map on how to join the Global War on Error. Four years later, Boedigheimer’s FAA sponsored dissertation “Exploring Pilot Reliability Certification and Changing Attitudes on the Reduction of Errors” was published in the Journal of the Transportation Research Record with the data to prove the effectiveness of Convergent Performance’s PRC program. Boedigheimer later joined the Convergent Performance team as a lead human factors instructor while continuing to be a full-time pilot. He has been a regular presenter at Safety Standdown since 2011 in Asia, Latin America, and the U.S.

Boedigheimer has served on the NBAA Safety Committee since 2014 - first as a member of the Training Advisory Committee and today as the Chairman. He also serves on the International Business Aviation Council’s IS-BAO Standards Board as the training subject matter expert and is a reviewer for the Embry Riddle Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education and Research. Boedigheimer’s day job is leading an incredible training team as CEO and a founding partner of Advanced Aircrew Academy.

Boedigheimer lives in Colorado. A good summer day is spent hiking and a good winter day is had by snowboarding in several feet of new powder. Him and his wife, Jodie, are empty nesters with their son, Jason, working at the Grand County (Colorado) Department of Public Health, daughter-in-law Kendra working for the Grand County Sheriff, and daughter, Keira, studying Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University.