Featured Member

Pilot and RAF member Perry Null ignited a multi-generational love of flying, especially exploring the backcountry. He began flying “late in life” and often flew between his home in Gallup, New Mexico and Texas in his Cessna 210, and his Cessna 206. He modified his current craft, a 1976 I/O 550-powered 182 with VG’s and…

Most pilots hanker for ever-faster aircraft after attaining their pilot privileges, eager to get from point A to B swiftly. But not RAF members Bill and Yvette Tracy of Elyria, Ohio. “It takes us a week to get to Montana,” he says, obviously preferring that slower pace. “I flight plan for 80 miles an hour,…

Ray and his wife load up their 200-hp “Back Country Explorer” and enjoy camping at airstrips in Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.  He’s worked on a few of those airstrips, installing vault toilets, windsocks, and making other improvements with the RAF, alongside volunteers from other aviation groups. “[RAF Alaska Liaison] Al Clayton has done a…

Seventeen-year-old Aaron Trueblood has always been excited about flying. He took time off from his ramp duties at Glacier Jet Center in Kalispell one June day and headed to Missoula for the AOPA Regional Fly-in. It may have changed his life. As he strolled along the impressive lineup of GA aircraft, he was attracted by…

Heidi Stoeppler found a group of what quickly became “the best friends I’ve ever made,” at an RAF fly-in. She visited with Jeff Russell, joined, and when her professional flying permits, she digs in at the work parties, too. Watching cropdusters in Montana, she knew she wanted to fly. Not from an aviation family, her…

RAF Featured Member Carmine Mowbray If there was ever an individual who epitomizes volunteerism for the Recreational Aviation Foundation, it is Carmine Mowbray, from Polson, Montana. She has volunteered her time to publish the RAF Newsletter, sent out press releases and RAF Briefs, worked on the pilot shelter at Ryan Field, swung a Pulaski cutting…

I’ve been flying throughout MT with my father since my earliest memories as a child and have been flying throughout the state and elsewhere since I was 17. Like all aviator fathers, I search out opportunities to share that passion with my kids. This weekend for me posed the most fortunate opportunity to collage an…

The RAF can’t say enough about Jo Schumacher and all she does for the organization. “Jo works her fanny off at Sullivan Lake, Sun ‘n Fun and other events, helping “man” the booths, cooking for RAF crews, cleaning, and organizing,” says RAF’s Tricia McKenna. “She is just a great cheerleader, supporter, and hard worker.  And…

I was born in Belleflower, California in 1923. My father was an oilfield worker and wildcatter. Mother graduated from college at age seventeen with an engineering degree from Penn State University. Teaching was her first career but much later, she went into the contracting business. At one time was the only woman in California to…