The UND Flight Instructor Who Won the AOPA Sweepstakes Husky and What That Airplane Really Represents

A University of North Dakota flight instructor named Ashley Almquist has won this year’s AOPA Sweepstakes Aviat Husky, the association announced this week (July 2026). She is a certified flight instructor (CFI) and a 2026 UND graduate in commercial aviation and aviation safety, and she now owns one of the most capable factory-new backcountry airplanes available.

Who Won the AOPA Sweepstakes Husky?

The winner is Ashley Almquist, a flight instructor at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. She graduated in 2026 with a degree in commercial aviation and aviation safety, and she works as a CFI - spending her days in the right seat teaching other people to fly.

UND runs one of the largest and most respected collegiate flight programs in the country. The winters are unforgiving and the traffic pattern stays busy, and pilots who come out of that program tend to know how to handle an airplane.

How the AOPA Sweepstakes Works

Every year, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) gives away an airplane to one of its members. This is not a raffle ticket or a discount - it’s the airplane itself: keys, logbooks, the whole thing.

Members are automatically entered as part of membership. There’s no ticket to buy and no purchase required. At the end of the campaign, one name is drawn. This year it was Ashley Almquist’s.

Crucially, AOPA doesn’t hand over a stock airplane straight off the line. Over the course of the campaign, they build the airplane up - avionics, interior, paint - and document the refurbishment piece by piece in the magazine and online. By the time it’s awarded, the sweepstakes airplane is a showpiece the membership has followed for months.

What Is the Aviat Husky?

The Aviat Husky is a two-seat, tandem taildragger built in Afton, Wyoming. It’s a high-wing, fabric-covered airplane with a big Lycoming engine up front. Think of it as the airplane that answers the wish for a Piper Super Cub built new, with modern systems and a factory behind it.

It’s a bush plane - a short-field, off-airport machine designed to land where pavement doesn’t go. Big tires, long-travel landing gear, and flaps that let you drag it in low and slow over an obstacle and set it down in a couple hundred feet.

This is not a trainer. It’s the kind of airplane you fly for the pure joy of flying - into the backcountry, onto a gravel bar, over terrain most pilots only see from cruise altitude.

Why This Matters for Pilots

There’s a common narrative that general aviation is aging out - that the pilot population is graying, that training costs are pricing out the next generation, and that the airplanes on the ramp are older than the people flying them. Parts of that are true. The fleet is old and training is expensive.

But this win is a data point that cuts the other way. The winner isn’t a pilot at the end of a career cashing out. She’s a 2026 graduate and working CFI at the very beginning of one, suddenly handed the keys to a brand-new backcountry airplane.

That signals where the energy in this community actually is. Collegiate programs are full, flight schools have waitlists, demand for instructors is real, and the airlines behind them are hiring. The person who won this airplane represents the training pipeline the whole system is counting on.

A flight instructor’s job is quietly one of the most important in aviation. Every airline captain was taught by a CFI. Every stabilized approach and well-flown go-around traces back to someone in a right seat who taught it - usually in a tired old trainer, for modest pay, building hours toward the next rating. There’s something fitting about this airplane going to this person: the Husky is a reward, not a trainer, and it says that discipline leads not just to the airline job, but to the flying itself.

The Backcountry and STOL Boom

The Husky sits in a segment that has quietly gotten hot: backcountry flying and short takeoff and landing (STOL) airplanes. Over the last decade, interest in that corner of general aviation has exploded, complete with STOL competitions where pilots contest who can take off and land in the shortest distance.

Aviat has ridden that wave, as has the market for used Super Cubs, which have gotten genuinely expensive. AOPA’s choice of airplane this year is no accident - it reflects where the excitement in personal aviation lives right now. People want to fly for adventure: to land on a beach, a ridge, or a strip of dirt behind a friend’s ranch.

If you fly a nosewheel airplane and have never flown a taildragger, there’s a whole discipline waiting for you. Tailwheel flying demands more from your feet - it teaches you about the airplane’s tendency to swap ends on the ground, about crosswind technique, and about flying the airplane until it’s tied down. Many pilots say learning tailwheel made them better at everything else. If a story like this nudges you toward a tailwheel endorsement, that’s a good outcome.

What Winning an Airplane Actually Costs

The celebration photos leave out an important truth: an airplane you win is still an airplane you own. That means insurance, a hangar or tiedown, annual inspections, oil changes, and an engine reserve. A Husky is not cheap to feed, and a brand-new one carries brand-new-airplane values that shape the insurance premium.

There’s also the tax side. In the United States, the fair market value of a won prize is generally treated as income. That’s a matter for a professional tax advisor, not this article - but anyone who wins a high-value airplane should walk in with eyes open about the bill that can come with it.

None of this diminishes the win. It’s a spectacular prize. And the point is encouraging: the same safety-minded, systems-minded discipline that makes someone a good instructor makes them a good owner. This winner is equipped for it.

How to Enter Next Year’s Sweepstakes

The entry mechanic is simple: you have to be an AOPA member. The sweepstakes runs for the membership, with the entry included when you join. Most active pilots are already members anyway - for the advocacy, legal resources, flight-planning tools, and magazine.

After that, you wait, you watch them build the airplane, you tell yourself not to get your hopes up, and you get your hopes up anyway. This year, one member’s hopes actually paid off.

Key Takeaways

• Ashley Almquist, a UND flight instructor and 2026 graduate in commercial aviation and aviation safety, won the 2026 AOPA Sweepstakes Aviat Husky.
• The Aviat Husky is a two-seat tandem taildragger built in Afton, Wyoming - a short-field backcountry airplane, not a trainer.
• AOPA gives away a fully built-up showpiece airplane each year; membership is the only entry requirement, with no ticket to purchase.
• The win is a bright signal for general aviation’s future: it went to a working CFI at the start of her career, reflecting a full training pipeline.
• Winning an airplane brings real responsibilities - insurance, maintenance, storage, and potential tax on the prize’s value - that a disciplined pilot should plan for.

The source for this story is AOPA, which ran the sweepstakes, built the airplane, and reported the winner.