Michael is the chief instructor at Windward Phoenix and has taught hundreds of students over the last two decades. He started his career instructing primary students in gliders, before moving on to coach more advanced pilots in pursuit of records and podium finishes and while the pinnacle of his soaring career has been seeing his students achieve amazing feats, he also enjoyed success chasing records and holds several FAI badges and awards in the sport and in 2004 he spent a month in Dalby, Australia training under three-time world champion George Lee honing his skills in sailplane racing.

In 2005 he started his career in commercial aviation and has since logged 15,000 hours flying throughout the Americas and is currently mentoring the next generation of pilots at SkyWest Airlines.

Seeing the unique crossover that flying and sailing have and wanting to instruct again outside of aviation, Michael decided to go “back to school” in the maritime world and started at the bottom of the US Sailing program as a basic keelboat student. This severed two purposes, to knock the dust-off old skills and to establish a modern knowledge base.

Since 2018 Michael has earned US Sailing instructor endorsements for basic keelboat, coastal navigation, and celestial navigation and holds a USCG MMC for Master of 50T vessels inshore. He has sailed and raced throughout the Great Lakes, Caribbean and Atlantic in a variety of fleets.

Michael also enjoys pushing the limits in endurance sports like ski-mountaineering and distance running and is looking forward to a new training program with Uphill Athlete that starts later this year and runs well into 2024 with the goal of summiting a major peak in North America.

On the rare off day, you will find Michael enjoying time at home with his wife Rachel and their three cats.