Director
MATT FOSTER
Director Matt Foster grew up immersed in aviation. At a young age, Matt’s dad introduced him to flying and camping in the Idaho backcountry. He was a successful business owner who was able to use General Aviation aircraft for business as well as pleasure. Raised on an airpark, Matt soloed on his sixteenth birthday, got his private at age 17,…
Read MoreJOE BROWN
Director Joe Brown spent 33 years in the aviation industry and in a family business with his father and brother. Until 2023, he and his brother owned Hartzell Propeller, Hartzell Engine Technologies and Hartzell Aerospace Welding. His professional life, social life and family life are deeply connected to aviation, “and the friendships that unfold in…
Read MoreTIM RILEY
Vice President Tim Riley has devoted many volunteer hours organizing and assisting on airstrip improvements in Idaho and Montana. He has also worked closely with the US Forest Service to foster cooperation and support RAF goals on public lands across the country.Riley is a native of upstate New York. His introduction to aviation was as a…
Read MoreSTEVE TAYLOR
Director Steve Taylor grew up in and around airplanes. He soloed a Super Cub on this 16th birthday and got his pilot’s license on his 17th. His career at Boeing included assignments as the President of Boeing Business Jets, and Chief Pilot for Commercial Airplanes, giving him the distinction of having flown on all seven…
Read MoreTODD SIMMONS
Director Aviation is in Todd’s DNA. His father was a U.S. Army flight surgeon; one grandfather a B-26 pilot during WWII, the other a crop duster. An uncle flew A-4’s in Vietnam; another uncle hunted enemy submarines in a Sea King for the Navy; yet another served as Beechcraft’s chief structures engineer for the Starship, the…
Read MorePETER BUNCE
Director In April 2005, Peter (Pete) Bunce became President and CEO of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) which is headquartered in Washington, D.C. with additional offices in Brussels, Belgium. He and the GAMA staff travel worldwide engaging regulators, policy makers and elected officials to promote general aviation and advance the interests of GAMA’s international…
Read MoreMIKE PERKINS
Treasurer and Secretary Mike was born and raised in New Hampshire (hometown is North Conway), where his interest in aviation began early. His grandfather (Transport Pilot’s License #3926) started flying in 1913 after building his first airplane. Later he became a barnstormer where he met Mike’s grandmother Freda. Deciding it was time to settle down,…
Read MoreJACK TYLER
Former Director Jack was introduced to flying in 1989 by son Devin, who began washing planes for flight time at age 13. Before long, Jack, his wife Patricia, and Devin were all licensed and flying as one another’s co-pilots on weekends, vacations and then college shopping. When Devin began flying for the Navy, Jack and…
Read MoreBILL MCGLYNN
President Bill McGlynn has been a part of the RAF since 2010 and President since 2018. He retired from a career in the computer industry in 2013, where he worked for Hewlett-Packard for 24 years. He became a pilot in 1995 and currently flies a backcountry 182. He and his wife Julie live in Leavenworth,…
Read MoreJOHN J. MCKENNA, JR.
Chairman Aloft above the Mining City of Butte, a kid seeing the grandeur of Montana’s Rockies for the first time is destined to become passionate about aviation. Those early flights in a neighbor’s Bonanza motivated young John McKenna to obtain his private pilot license at the age of 16. For forty years, he’s rarely traveled…
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