Rob Mark, Business Jet Pilot, Aviation Journalist & Editor, and Video & Audio Producer
A lifelong pilot and flight instructor, Rob began flying as a single pilot for small companies in aircraft like the Piper Seneca and Navajo Chieftain. He later flew for the original Midway Airlines until that company closed its doors in 1991. The majority of his flying career has been spent as an ATP-rated business aviation and charter pilot in both Part 91 and Part 135 operations. He’s logged nearly 7,000 hours of flying time and also holds ratings as an instrument and multi-engine flight instructor with seaplane ratings. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Rob also spent 10 years of his career as an air traffic controller and supervisor for the FAA in both VFR towers and Tracons.
Until August 2021, Rob was Flying magazine’s senior editor. He’s now a contributing editor for Business and Commercial Aviation, part of the Aviation Week Group. He’s also written feature stories on flight operations, safety, air traffic control, and training for Aviation International News, Air & Space, AOPA Pilot-Turbine, Air Line Pilot, Professional Pilot, Career Pilot, P1, The Chicago Tribune, The Northwestern magazine, and others. Rob is a former member of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Association (PATCO), the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) and the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA).
He was twice awarded the Airbus Aerospace Journalist of the Year at the Paris Air Show and also twice awarded the National Business Aviation Association’s Gold Wing Award for Outstanding Journalism, one while at Aviation International News and another when he was with Flying. Rob Mark was inducted into the Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame in the fall of 2021 and earned the famed Wright Brothers Master Pilot award in 2018. During his career as a journalist, Rob has authored four aviation books published by McGraw-Hill and has also, since 2006, published the award-winning industry blog, Jetwhine.com.
An audio producer, Rob co-hosts the Attitude Adjustment on EAA Radio during each day of AirVenture, the nation’s largest airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He’s a co-producer of the long-running podcast, The AirplaneGeeks, and regularly contributes to Aviation News Talk.com. He has also served as an on-air aviation expert for CNN, Fox News, NBC-TV, NewsNation, WGN-TV & Radio, the BBC, and a number of other media outlets. He’s also delivered on-camera analysis for some of his own stories such as for P1 when he evaluated Gulfstream’s G550.
Rob wrote, produced, and narrated an NBAA safety video “Alone in the Cockpit,” about single-pilot aircraft operations during the six years of his spare time he spent supporting the Safety Committee. He wrote and produced a safety video – “Before You Fly Your Drone.” – in the early days of unmanned aerial vehicles aimed at operators not familiar with how their flying could interrupt operations for regular aircraft. While on assignment in France, Rob was invited to fly the mighty A380, an experience he later turned into a video, “Flying the A380,” with the help of his friend Pete Combs.
A graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Mark devoted five years as an adjunct faculty member in the graduate program at Medill. He’s also taught the ground school for a variety of airmen certificates including the private, commercial, instrument ratings, and the control tower operator certificate.
Rob Mark is a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society, The Society of Professional Journalists, the National Business Aviation Association, the International Society of Air Safety Investigators, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Flight Safety Foundation, He’s currently serving as the vice president of the Chicago Executive Pilots Association.
E-mail: rmark@commavia.com
Twitter: Jetwhine
Instagram: Jetwhine
Base: Evanston Illinois just north of Chicago
Phone: 847-864-9780 (office), 847-644-1575 (cell)