Dave Schuler
Dave Schuler of Apgar, Montana, lives very near Glacier National Park’s West entrance, and within six miles of the RAF’s Ryan Field. He and his wife Cindy are some of the few folks who call it home year round, as it gets pretty quiet when the Park closes for the season and heavy snows blanket the forest.
“I discovered the RAF at AOPA’s Missoula fly-in,” he said. When he and Cindy built their home on family land in Apgar, near Ryan Field, “I reached out to see if they might need occasional assistance. Little did I know if you raise your hand around this outfit, be prepared to have someone grab it, give it a hearty shake and hand you a shovel,” he says. Dave has volunteered to be the local go-to guy if something needs to be done on the Ryan property, a great deal of help for the RAF.
Dave otherwise manages his profession, overseeing field operations for the largest crop insurer in the U.S. and Canada. “We insure everything from corn to clams, cows to citrus,” he says.
Dave grew up on a grain farm north of Great Falls. He was exposed to flying by his father who was a crew chief for the Montana National Guard, and involved in the CAP. Dave took his first flight lesson from a local spray pilot in October of 1973. He learned to fly from a North-South grass airstrip just off the notoriously windy east slope of the Rocky Mountain Front, and logged hours in and out of the small airports of Conrad, Fairfield, Dutton and Choteau. The Great Falls Tribune reported that Montana’s highest recorded wind gust came in 2002 at 143 mph near Choteau. ”I developed good crosswind skills,” Dave says. He solo’d before he turned 16, so the instructor had to “post-date” his logbook entry.
“I added my commercial, instrument, CFI, and AI credentials at Sunbird Aviation in Bozeman while attending Montana State University.” Upon returning from Bozeman, he started a flight school with two Cessna 150s based out of Choteau. “I used one 150 as a Jeep,” he quips.
A grain buyer who had gotten into the insurance business invited Dave to “get an airplane and we’ll go visit agents,” and Dave’s career literally took off, first in a Cessna 210, then a Beech Baron. One year, Dave recalls he was “271 day days straight on the road.” Over the past 40-plus years, he’s flown into or over 49 of the 50 states, and four Canadian provinces with stays in Barrow, Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay, and Nome, in Alaska (and twice flew around Denali in VFR), Churchill, Manitoba; Yellowknife, Northwest Territories; and Rankin Inlet in Nunavut, and points in between.
He came to a decision when his son was born, “Did I want to be a nomad or a father,” and he stepped out of aviation for 20 years.
A backcountry seminar re-ignited his passion for flying, and he got current, and between 2015 and 2017 completed a Vans 14 – it only took him two years to complete the aircraft, and its 20,500 rivets. “I’m a typical farmer, I have a tool hobby. Good thing I don’t live too close to a tool warehouse,” he says. Dave flew his homebuilt to Oshkosh, and it earned him a Bronze Lindy at AirVenture.
Having accumulated around 4,000 hours so far, Dave and Cindy enjoy their RV-14 and use it for pleasure trips. Their son works in Missoula, and their daughter is an attorney for the State of Montana in Helena.
Facing eventual retirement, Dave had wondered how he could build a new community. It seems he’s found it. “The folks I’ve met through the RAF are all fantastic. It’s a unique collection of folks, all with passion for saving these airfields,” he says.
Submitted February 12, 2025
By Carmine Mowbray