Three longtime aviators were honored during the Aero Club of Northern California's 2015 Crystal Eagle dinner with National Aeronautic Association  certificates for their contributions to flight. NAA President Jonathan Gaffney presented Certifiates of Merit to:

 

Tony Banta was honored for his contributions to Air Force flight testing and warbird operations. Banta began his Air Force career as an avionics officer. He later was a stability and control engineer in a combat maneuvering group, working with a small cadre of civilian and military engineers mostly focused on the maneuverability of the F-16. He trained as a flight test engineer at Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB, was selected by the Air Force as an astronaut candidate and was qualified by NASA as a mission specialist candidate. After active duty, Banta took a job as a program manager in Silicon Valley. In the Air Force Reserve, he flew the F-111 for ten more years before retiring as a lieutenant colonel. Banta began to fly World War II-vintage fighters, and has logged almost 2,000 hours in warbirds over the past 15 years.

 

Lonnie Autry was honored for his lifelong service to general aviation, and to future generations of aviators. Since he restored his Piper J3 Cub more than 40 years ago in the garage of his San Jose home, Autry has worked to restore many historic aircraft, his own and those of others, not as museum pieces but as flying airplanes. Over the years, Autry mentored future aviators. Among them were neighborhood kids hanging around the airport to the offspring of aviation business people who grew up at the airport.