Phil "Sunny" Cataldo

Phil Cataldo earned his private pilot certification in 1999. In 2000, Phil purchased an Alon A-2 Aircoupe and learned formation flying with two other Ercoupe pilots. Along with formation flying, Phil and the other pilots—as members of the Experiment Aircraft Association (EAA) and supporters of the EAA Young Eagles program—flew youths to introduce them to aviation. Phil wanted to create a real formation flight team. Given the Ercoupe’s nickname of “Twin-Tailed Tiger,” he conceived of the “TigerFlight Formation Flight Team,” which also honored the WWII Flying Tigers squadrons with a flight suit patch that added a second tail to the tiger. General Robert Scott, a Flying Tiger pilot living in Warner Robins, Georgia, met with the pilots and approved the TigerFlight patch. In 2002, the TigerFlight Foundation was formed as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation with a mission statement of "Leading the Young to the Dream of Flight." Another local Ercoupe pilot joined the team, and Phil had his four-ship formation. To this day, the TigerFlight Foundation remains an all-volunteer organization. Phil and its other pilots have amassed more than 200 cumulative years of aviation experience and more than 60,000 hours in the air. From their hangar at the Richard B. Russell airport in Rome, Georgia, Phil teaches youths about “Being Pilot in Command of your own life” and developing a Flight Plan for Life, a presentation he has now given hundreds of times to visitors at the TigerFlight hangar, in Georgia school systems, and at events around the state. Since early 2008, the TigerFlight aircraft adopted a tiger-striped design Phil created, and they have done more than 200 public events, including flyovers, missing man honor flights, flights over memorial services for the fallen, Rome city events on holidays, baseball and football games, and air shows. Phil and TigerFlight continue to make an educational impact on children and adults:

• Phil and the other TigerFlight pilots, as members of the EAA, have flown over 1,500 youths for free to introduce them to the dream of flight.
   
• A 2013 agreement between TigerFlight and Kennesaw State University provided aviation science instruction and flight experience to over 50 teachers as part of the Northwest Georgia Science Education Partnership.
   
• TigerFlight Aviation Merit Badge clinics have been held for dozens of area Boy Scouts of America (BSA) troops.
   
• In 2021, partnering with the AFJROTC unit at Etowah High School in Woodstock, Georgia, a Private Pilot License Orientation was launched as a cadet-nomination process, inspiring numerous youths to apply for and receive the Air Force scholarships.
   
• TigerFlight partners with Georgia Northwest Technical College to introduce students to aviation maintenance careers. Hands on, introductory, classroom exercises give the youth experience with the hands-on world of aviation maintenance.
   
• TigerFlight Academy was launched in 2024 as a bi-weekly class to introduce careers in the aviation industry to youths fourteen to seventeen years old. Classes will run through August and be repeated annually.