Featured Member

There’s aviation, and then there’s recreational aviation. Pilot Richard Greensted knows both. Beginning at age 14 with his intention to become a commercial pilot, he is fulfilling an aviation career flying for Alaska Airlines, based in Portland, Oregon. He and his family love camping, and his kids have grown up camping at Nehalem Bay State Park in…

So, where does the name “Bogdan” come from? “Poland” is his answer. Bogdan’s parents immigrated to the East Coast when he was a child. “They were farmers in Europe, and came over with the four of us kids, and like many Poles, Dad went to work in the steel mills,” he explained.  Bogdan chose the…

This photo is unusual because Duane is standing still. He has rarely been seen standing still since he landed his Cessna 205 at Ryan Airfield in the Spring of 2018, and immediately began helping maintain the place. Duane’s high school job was as a country-western radio DJ, but he saw more of a future in…

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…