Johnny Blankenship has had a love for aviation for a lifetime, but had to postpone flying lessons until he completed his electrical engineering degree at the University of Kentucky, and pursued an engineering career at Motorola. Working full time and raising a family with his wife Rita consumed all of his time until he made time to start flying lessons at DuPage Airport in 1989. By 1990 he earned his Private Pilot license. His flying education continued with the Instrument Rating in 1995, Commercial Pilot’s license in 1997, and Flight Instructor Certificate in 2000. He then started part time flight instruction at Blue Skies, and continued working full time at Motorola until he retired in 2004. While teaching others to fly at Blue Skies, he earned his Instrument Instructor rating in 2009. Johnny has accumulated over 3000 hours of flight time, with 2200 flight instruction hours.