Member Spotlight: Kassandra Stultiens-Zandstra named Best Sim Instructor 2026

We are delighted to celebrate a wonderful achievement within the Elevate the Line community.

Kassandra Stultiens-Zandstra has been named Best Sim Instructor at the Professional Flight Training Awards 2026.

This recognition is more than an individual award. It highlights the impact instructors have every day — often away from the spotlight — shaping competence, confidence and professional standards in aviation.

Simulator instruction is where technical knowledge, judgement, communication and human factors come together. A good instructor does far more than teach procedures. They create the conditions in which people can learn, ask questions, make mistakes, reflect and improve.

That is exactly why instructor quality matters so much.

At Elevate the Line, we believe that instructors are a critical part of aviation’s safety culture. Seeing one of our members recognised for her contribution is something we are very proud to share.

Congratulations, Kassandra, on this well-deserved recognition as Best Sim Instructor 2026.

We are proud to have you as part of our growing international community of female instructor pilots.

And perhaps this is also a reminder worth keeping:

Great pilots are trained by great instructors.