• Gina Longo

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About Our Founder

 BRIEF BIO


Gina M. Longo is the founder of Trigpoint Systems, LLC and Gina M. Longo Consulting.


As an airline captain, flight instructor, and Crew Resource Management Instructor, Gina flew as pilot in command on more than 2750 flights, carrying around 75,000 people (and many pets) safely to their destinations, before she moved to Great Britain to instruct corporate pilots.


After returning to the USA, she struck out in a direction that allows her to use her extensive leadership and communications experience, becoming a leadership trainer, a professional speaker, and a four-time bestselling co-author. She's also been re-certified as a Crew Resource Management Instructor.


Gina earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Master of Forestry degree from North Carolina State University, as well as an alphabet soup of pilot and instructor licenses from both the United States and the United Kingdom. She also earned a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) from the University of Cambridge.

Captain Gina at the controls of the Canadair Regional Jet in flight.
Captain Gina sitting in the left seat of the Canadair Regional Jet while parked at the gate.

Leadership lesson: if you're the leader, then be the leader.

 SUCCESS BASED ON A PROVEN SYSTEM

How do pilots learn to be good leaders and good teammates?

We use a system called Crew Resource Management (CRM) to—among other things—build effective teams fast, communicate with our in-flight and remote colleagues, handle conflict, and make decisions (preferably good ones).

And CRM is one of the foundations of our signature Calmfident Leadership® System.

The Calmfident Leadership® System takes our award-winning licensed leadership training content and adds the skills and principles of CRM to it in order to help your team members become the leaders they need to be.

Because when you do leadership right, you do safety right... and then you do aviation right.
Captain Gina at the controls of the Canadair Regional Jet in flight.
ASA Captain Gina Longo and retired UA Captain Ray Longo.

While you see a chance, take it...

Singer Steve Winwood had the right idea, and when I saw a chance to chase a long-cherished dream, I jumped at it.
After 10 years as an airline pilot, I headed across the pond and on to new horizons as a simulator instructor at a training facility near London, England.


FEELING UNAPPRECIATED AND UNDERVALUED? I GET IT.

According to student evaluations and training results, I was one of the highest-rated instructors in my program, so when the world's economy went south, I hoped I'd be spared the axe, especially since losing my job would also mean I'd lose my UK resident's visa.

No such luck. Redundancy was the order of the day for far too many of us, and as a result...

I was out.


SERIOUSLY. I TOTALLY GET IT.

What this means to you is, if you're giving everything you have to your job but you still feel ignored, unappreciated, undervalued, and discouraged, I understand.

Been there, done that.
Captain Gina in the left seat of the CRJ, waving goodbye after her last flight.
Captain Gina standing next to a CRJ.

While you see a chance, take it... part two. And three.

With my job gone and our house now unaffordable, my globe-trotting German Shepherds and I had to search for fresh horizons again.

So with a new resident's visa in hand, I packed both of them and all of our gear into a craptastic Jeep (note to self: don't buy a car off Ebay) and a cosy little touring caravan, and the three of us spent the next three years roaming the Great British roads.

But those are stories for another time and place....


CHANGE YOUR STARS. MAKE AN IMPACT.

After we got back to the left side of the pond, I took some time to regroup, and eventually I realised that the end of my aviation and British dreams didn't have to be the end of all of them.

As an instructor, I'd had a great time training flight crews on human factors concepts, and as an airline pilot, I'd racked up 10 years and thousands of flight hours implementing those concepts.

Then it finally hit me: I wanted to make an impact on the world by sharing that experience and continuing to help people in aviation to improve their leadership and communication skills, so they could go out and make their own big impact on the world.

I wanted other people be able to reach up and change their stars, just like I'd changed mine... and Trigpoint Systems, LLC / Gina M. Longo Consulting took off into the wild blue yonder.
Gina, Jerry Lee, and Holly behind their caravan, The Driftaway Dogs, during their 3-year tour of the UK.
Gina, Jerry Lee, and Holly at Eshaness Cliffs, Shetland
Gina, Jerry Lee, and Holly at Lizard Point, Cornwall