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Our Certified Flight Instructor Biographies

Below, are pictures and biographies of each of our Certified Flight Instructors.  Click on the picture or name to view their biography.

       

Rich Bush       Lytle Johnson      Jim Larkin     Paul Leadabrand

        

       Lori MacNichol     Holbrook Maslen     Jim Mullett    Mark Stevenson

        

       Pat Warren            Bart Welsh       Woody Woodworth


 

Rich Bush  Email Rich

McCall, Idaho

 

Rich has approximately 23,500 hours of flight experience, including over 3,000 hours as a flight instructor and over 1,000 hours in the Idaho backcountry.  He has flown over 120 types of aircraft.

Rich learned to fly in McCall and attained his private pilot license here on his 17th birthday.  By age 18 he had his commercial, instrument and flight instructor certificates, and built time during summers off from college flying back country charter and Forest service support.

While attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, Rich worked as a flight instructor for the University while earning his B. S. Degree in Aeronautical Studies. Rich earned his ratings the hard way, through assignments to every kind of “starter” job imaginable in aviation, from flying checks to mortuary services.

Employed by United Airlines in 1990. Rich was allowed to live his dream of living in McCall, spending his days off with his family flying into backcountry destinations in their Cessna 205 with camping and fishing on their minds. It was a natural for Rich to find himself instructing for the McCall Mountain/Canyon Flying Seminars, now on his 8th summer instructing for Lori. 

“I’ve been blessed to have had a wonderful variety of experiences in aviation, and I must say that I am honored to be associated with this school and this outstanding group of flight instructors.  We all continue to learn from each other and from our participants”.

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Lytle Johnson  Email Lytle

Decatur Island, Washington

As a boy, Lytle loved any kind of model airplane. Freeflights were his favorites because everything had to be right aerodynamically to get them to fly at all. In 1964 Lytle saw an ad for a Taylorcraft in the paper for about what his Harley was worth, so he sold bike and bought plane, all 720 lbs of rotten fabric. The next day he signed up for flying lessons and started re-covering the T-craft.

He eventually took the T-craft to the Bahamas twice and across the US twice, parachuted out of it multiple times, and learned a lot about flying. He started flying skydivers in 1965 and got a commercial license when he got tired of flying for free jumps.

An aerobatics course in Boulder showed him what the world looks like upside down. His first Cessna 180, a 1953 model, took him on many trips across the country and up into Idaho for his first taste of the backcountry in 1974. Backcountry flying has been an addiction ever since.

Lytle started flying floatplanes in Seattle and spent 21 years flying for a Part 135 floatplane operator, which involved radial engines and turboprops. Along the way he's picked up ATP and CFI ratings, flown Alaska, instructed with McCall Mountain Canyon Flying, and completed a Northstar, a SuperCub look-alike homebuilt that loves to go into all of the Idaho and Utah backcountry strips.

Lytle now shares a house on a runway in the San Juan islands with a large black cat. Sometimes he and Awos the cat travel to Illinois to chase mice and enjoy their large hangar there.

 

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Jim Larkin

Donnelly, Idaho

Jim Larkin started his flying career in a dusty hayfield in Donnelly, Idaho, in 1937.  A three cylinder Zekly radial pushed the old Curtiss Junior to tree-hugging heights, mostly between Donnelly and McCall.

 With War clouds looming, Jim completed CPT flight training, then moved on to USAAF Instructor School at Randolph Field, Texas.  Assigned to Rankin Aeronautical Academy, he graduated several cadet classes, flying the Stearman PT-17, then moved on to Air Force Air Transport Command, 6th Ferry Group, stationed in Long Beach, Ca.  He began collecting airplanes with World-Wide Ferry flights in B-24, B-17, P-38, P-61, B-25, C-47, C-46, and many smaller types. After high-altitude training in the C-46 Curtiss Commando, he was assigned to CBI at Mohanbari, India, flying "Hump Runs" to Western China and Burma.  .At that time, most CBI flying was supporting Chang-Kai-Chek and Chennault's Flying Tigers.

 Returning to Idaho, he joined his brothers in changing the old Larkin home place into what is now   Donnelly Airport.  Proud owners of a 1931 UMF-3 Sport Waco, they proceeded in making tracks into the Idaho "backcountry".  The first intensive timber-spray operation in 1947 kicked off Jim's involvement in spray operations, leading to an eight-year hiatus flying yearly spray jobs in the Grumman TBM's and Ford Tri-motors.

 He was employed by Johnson Flying Service until l956, when he went to Alaska, bringing back the last remaining Cunningham-Hall PT6-F freighter. The unique abilities of the old bi-plane led to USFS contracts, then full-time employment with Region 4 USFS in 1957.  Jim was designated director of the newly-formed Western Zone Air Unit, acquiring the national infra-red fire-scan imaging program, the National Radio Fire Cache, and supervision of R4's in-house air operations. 

 In 1964, ground was broken for the newly-formed Boise Interagency Fire Center, and Larkin's shop was moved out to its new quarters.  Jim retired in l978 as Director, R4 Air Operations, BIFC, now the National Fire Center.  Among twenty-one years of expanding air jobs, Jim graduated from Army Helicopter School and had helicopter check airman added to his "duties as assigned".  Jim's early spray work in the Fords and Boeing Stratocruiser led to his assignment in 1973 to operate two Army C-47s in Pakistan, controlling a massive outbreak of rice-stem borer, threatening Pakistan's rice crop. A Presidential award was given for this successful operation.

 In 1960, Jim made the first "Super Tanker" sortie: flying C-97 N9638C on a wildfire near Trinity Mountain, East of Boise.

Retiring from the USFS , Jim flew several years as co-captain on Joe Albertson's King Air 200. During this period he also crewed the Harrah Twin Otter helping support Harrah's Middle Fork Lodge.
 
During the nineties Jim was back in the USFS DC 3, now a Basler converted turbine C47TC.
 
With long time friend John Inman still operating helicopters at Twin Oaks, Hillsboro, OR., Jim would head for PDX. John's Hughes 300 was a fun way to comply with the bi-ennial flight review and maintain a minimal currency in "Sling Wings".
 
Jim found great pleasure participating in Lori MacNichol's Mountain Canyon Flying Seminars.
He had made life long friends, flown remarkable airplanes and probably learned more than his students.

 

Jim will always be with us.   In our hearts and in our aircraft...

Helping us along our way.

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Paul Leadabrand  Email Paul

Boise, Idaho

 

Paul Leadabrand is the founder, corporate managing member, and primary flight instructor of Stick and Rudder Aviation, a Kitfox-specific flight school. 

 

Paul grew up with flying parents, in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, and has made a career as a pilot. 

 

Paul has background as a Mountaineer, Search & Rescue instructor, Paramedic, Fire-fighter, Forest Ranger, Para-professional Archaeologist, Law Enforcement officer, and White Water Raft guide...but he has always been a pilot.

 

The majority of Paul's 13,000 hour flying career has been in the on-demand charter or corporate segment of general aviation – from Captaining light-jets around the world, to flying air ambulance on dark & stormy nights, to ferrying single-engine aircraft across the Atlantic, to flying llamas and ice-cream into the remote airstrips in the mountain canyons of Idaho.

 

Paul guarantees to bring the barnstorming-like joy of flying back into flight instruction with his safe, common-sense, practical approach.

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Lori MacNichol  Email Lori

McCall, Idaho

 

 Lori MacNichol learned to fly in McCall, Idaho, in 1982, because she wanted to get into the most remote fishing spots in the Idaho backcountry. Through her love of fishing, she developed a lasting love of flying and voraciously accumulated as much aviation knowledge as possible.  This knowledge grew to include the history of the Idaho backcountry and its early aviators. The private pilot license led to commercial and flight-instructor ratings, and Lori carefully began keeping notes on the essential piloting skills and peculiarities of backcountry flying. While expanding her piloting experiences working as an air-taxi pilot, she absorbed invaluable insight into the mountains and canyons from the old-timers in the area. Along the way, she added multiengine and seaplane ratings and is now qualified as an airline transport pilot.

Lori also discovered her true calling in aviation, as an instructor and teacher. She now owns and operates McCall Mountain/Canyon Flying Seminars, a flight school located in McCall, ID. This school provides flight and ground training for both primary and advanced pilots to improve the safety of aviation in the Idaho Backcountry. Her students not only get expert flight instruction from Lori and her other experienced instructors (she hand picks backcountry professionals to help with her unique courses); they also learn the history of the airstrips and wilderness. Moreover, they learn to appreciate the role that aviation plays in opening the backcountry to backpackers and sportsmen, as a means of transportation, and as an unequalled resource in emergencies such as fires or accidents. She also stresses the importance of flying responsibly so as to minimize the impact on other users of the backcountry. In addition to her own courses, Lori conducts aviation-safety seminars for general-aviation pilots and many advanced specialty groups, such as US Border Patrol and US Forest Service.

She is currently involved in the preservation of the wilderness airstrips across the nation and has been invited to speak in Washington, D.C,. during Congressional hearings, giving testimony in favor of preserving backcountry airstrips.  She has had the opportunity to work with Idaho Public Television’s “Outdoor Idaho” filming and has been hosted on segments of “Back Country Pilots” and the History Channel series “Modern Marvels” titled “Runways.” During the last year she presented seminars at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association national convention, Sun ’n’ Fun, and the Alaska Airman Show. 

Striving to foster the love of aviation and share the beauty of air travel in the wilderness, Lori continues to travel and speak at seminars and conventions across the Northwest, radiating her enthusiasm for flying and teaching. She considers herself extremely lucky to be able to spend every day doing what she loves best.

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Captain Holbrook Maslen  Email Holbrook

Boise, Idaho

 Holbrook holds air-transport pilot, instrument instructor, multi-instrument instructor, Part 135, and A&P certificates.  He has over 23,000 hours of experience, including over 2,000 hours in the Idaho backcountry.  He started flying in 1949 and served 3 years with the Army Paratroopers and 10 years with the LAPD, where he flew helicopters.  He also retired from United Airlines with 36 years of service.

 Holbrook owned a skydiving school and a FBO in southern California in the 1960's and later started a FBO in Honduras.  He continues to compete in the Reno Air Races and plans to fly a Formula One and his Unlimited in September.     

He currently owns a Cessna 180, 185, and 195; a Russian Yak3; a Beech 18; an L5; and a helicopter.  He is also restoring several other projects for his museum, “AEROPLANES OVER IDAHO.”  He recently restored a 1937 Military Harley Davidson and a Model T.

 Holbrook will roll out the red carpet for anyone donating planes and military memorabilia to the museum.

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Jim Mullett

Placerville, California

 Jim holds commercial pilot, flight instructor, and single-engine land and sea ratings.  He has 5000 hours of experience and has been flying the Idaho backcountry since 1985. 

 He flew C-180s for the California Highway Patrol and now owns a C-180 and PA-18.

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Mark Stevenson Email Mark

Louisville, Colorado

Mark started flying and earned his pilot certificate in Colorado in 1972.  Almost all of his flying has been in single-engine aircraft in the mountains and the Rocky Mountain West, flying mostly Cessna 182's and 206's.  When he is not busy with his sales job, Mark teaches mountain flying for the Civil Air Patrol, the Colorado Pilot’s Association, as an FAA Aviation Safety Counselor, and of course the McCall Mountain Canyon Flying Seminars.

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Pat Warren

Portland, Oregon
 

I’m 55 years old and I’ve been flying since 1969 with over 12,000 flight hours logged.  I am ATP rated in Airplanes and Helicopters, with an A&P Mechanic Certificate.  A former 135 Pilot in Helicopters and Airplanes, with many years of mountain flying in Helicopters, I got hooked on the Idaho Back Country in 2000. 

 I am currently employed as a Corporate Pilot flying Citation Jets and Turbo Prop aircraft out of Portland Oregon.  My spare time is spent flying for Sherpa Aircraft, Inc.  in new prototype “Bush Country” type aircraft.  I also find time to give Float Plane instruction in at Wiley’s Seaplane Base on the Willamette River, and Glider Instruction at Willamette Valley Soaring Club.  By far though, my favorite place to fly and teach flying is in the Idaho Back Country with McCall Mountain Flying Seminars.  I am eager for the new flying schedules to be announced every year and to meet new Pilots who want to expand their flying experiences.

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Bart Welsh  Email Bart

Wellington, Nevada

Bart started flying at age 18 and has accumulated a vast amount of flying experience.  He is a Commercial Pilot, an Instructor in both single and multi-engine, and an Instrument Flight Instructor.  He has held an A&P Mechanic License for many years and possesses an Inspector Authorization (IA).  He is also an FAA Safety Counselor.  Bart is one of our original Flight Instructors and has been with McCall Mountain/Canyon Flying Seminars since the program's original planning.

Bart is the former Director of Aeronautics for the State of Idaho and has spent many years working to develop and preserve the Idaho network of backcountry airstrips.

He owns a Cessna 180, a Cessna 150, and a Stinson 108-2 (Voyager).  He has flown nearly 6,000 hours with about 1,200 instructing, and over 3,000 in tail-wheel aircraft.  Bart has been flying in the backcountry as well as teaching in the backcountry for over 25 years.  Teaching is his passion.  He holds a BA, MA and Doctorate degree as a Teacher and Vocational Educator.

At this time, Bart operates a small flight training operation in Nevada and Idaho, to introduce youth and adults to aviation at virtually no cost.  Students that are interested in learning to fly must pay only for the fuel and help with labor to maintain the airplanes.

 

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Woody Woodworth  Email Woody

Santa Clara, California

 

Woody took his first ride in a small plane in 1983. He was so hooked on flying he started his lessons 3 weeks later. His mentor insisted that he learn in tail draggers, so he suffered through all the trials and tribulations of Amelia Reid Aviation in San Jose, CA. He completed his private the following year and slowly began to accumulate hours in rented and borrowed aircraft. He got his first taste of mountain flying in 1987 when a friend from work agreed to take him on a tour of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in CA. He was now hooked on the beauty and challenge of flying in the mountains.

During the next 8 years Woody was preoccupied with the responsibilities of a new business, a new wife and a new house. There was no time or money to fly. After the marriage broke up he found himself living and consulting in Israel, not exactly the hotbed of general aviation. After returning to the US in 1995, he picked up flying where he left off. He started to pursue the elusive instrument rating and the seaplane rating, and he purchased a ranch in the mountains of Northern California with a landing strip. After a year of flying rented 172s in there, he bought a Cessna 180. He then decided he needed the best mountain flying instruction available, so he enrolled in the MMCFS basic course in July 1998. He became addicted to Idaho, and returned for the advanced class every year. He took a sabbatical from his business to complete his commercial and flight-instructor ratings in late 2000. He then completed CFII and MEI shortly thereafter.  Woody feels extremely privileged to now be on staff at MMCFS.

Woody is an independent business and computer consultant who lives here in McCall. When he isn’t consulting or flying, he hangs out at the McCall Old Town Station, a Shell gas station and convenience store he has owned since 2005. 

 

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PO Box 1175, McCall, Idaho  83638 - 208-634-1344 Fax: 501-634-1348

www.mountaincanyonflying.com

 

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