FEATURED RAF SUPPORTER: MIKE HINES

Mike Hines was one of those kids who at age 14 worked all month saving up money for an hour of dual instruction in a Cessna 150. He earned his PPL while still in high school, including spin and aerobatic training. This was in the 1970s at the old Ventura County Airport in Oxnard, California, “Before it got so busy,” Mike says. He’d fly solo cross country to the old Rancho California airport, which has given way to Temecula commercial development.



Mike and his wife Nancy now live near Polson, Montana and have been spotted more than once mowing the vast grassy areas surrounding the RAF’s Ryan Field above West Glacier, each operating a large-deck lawnmower. For years, they hauled mowers and a brush hog the 140-mile round trip to help out at their own expense. Mike has flown into other Montana backcountry airstrips to help at annual work parties as well.


An accomplished photographer, Mike also volunteers his skills during the Ryan Fly-in and other aviation events. “Airplanes are my main focus,” Mike says, but he also packs his camera equipment on his year-round off-road adventures, and has had his images published in several places, including Toyota’s magazine. His shot of kayaking on Flathead Lake made the cover of Montana Outdoors Magazine.

After high school, Mike joined the US Marine Corps and spent four years in the aviation maintenance program. While stationed in Colorado, he joined an aero club. He met and married Nancy there, and they prioritized family and their three children. “Family came first, and I didn’t fly for 35 years,” Mike said.


During that time, Mike worked several years for Martin Marietta, Raytheon, and Northrop. “I became an electrical engineer while at Northrop where we made drone target aircraft and parts of the B2. When Northrop shut down the entire facility of 2,000 employees in 1991, we chose to move to Montana instead of seeking a transfer,” Mike says.

Their passion for four-wheeling began in Colorado, as they awaited snowstorms when they could pull people out of the snow in their four-wheel drive pickup. When the new Jeep TJ Rubicon came out, Mike still remembers the ad stating, “It’s the most fun you can have at three miles an hour.” But it was Nancy’s encouragement that led to one in their garage.

Nancy serves as secretary of the Skyliners 4-Wheel Drive Club, and Mike organizes group rides into the mountains, the favorite being in five-foot deep snow, testing each driver’s off-road skills, often requiring the clever use of a winch.


An innovator of electronic control devices, Mike has had success building and selling his products through his website, Hellroaring Technologies, Inc. Some of Mike’s designs are 20 years old, but are still in demand. The year they sold 30,000 units to a military contractor seemed like a good time to celebrate. “As we were sitting in our hot tub, I said to Nancy, I’ve always wanted an airplane,” and in 2009 he found the ideal low-time 2004 Cessna 182 in North Carolina and had it ferried to Montana, and bought a hangar for it at the Polson Airport.


Mike earned his instrument rating, and stays current, logging the required approaches before they expire. Although he chooses to avoid IMC, he sometimes needs the skills to fly in summer’s smoky conditions in the West.


The RAF appreciates Mike and Nancy and all they do for the organization, in addition to their busy lives growing their business, maintaining their acreage, tending laying hens, and efforts to keep the bears from ruining all their many fruit trees. “We have some sacrificial trees that we let the bears have, but the rest is fenced now — the pruned cherry, apple, peach, plum, and pear trees,” Mike adds.


Submitted on August 14, 2025

Recent Posts

IF WE COULD . . .

By Kodi Myhre • December 23, 2025
At about this time, every year, we have this conversation at the RAF about what our year end letter (code for asking for your financial support) should say to you, and about the RAF and the accomplishments of the past year.

WORTH THE READ: STEF GOZA GUEST EDITORIAL

By Taylin Trafton • December 23, 2025
Our many RAF supporters have such vast and varied experience, and we’re capturing some of their words of wisdom to share with you. This guest editorial is by Stef Goza, a pilot and an RAF Alaska liaison.

BILL DUGAN IS NEW NEBRASKA LIAISON

By lellington • December 21, 2025
Bill credits aviation for much of his success in business and the ability to serve his companies and family. What began in a Champ, and a Tri-Pacer owned by five people, turned into what Bill calls, “a key business tool” in which he accumulated 9,000 hours – in a Cheyenne, a Pilatus, and a TBM, where ninety-five percent of his flying was for business. “My retirement enabled me to recall ‘Why I Learned to Fly’, a slogan from an old RAF video.” Bill’s son, Patrick, purchased the C185 they now share. “While attending a business function, some associates arrived in corporate jets. As they joined up on the tarmac, the jet pilots gathered around Patrick’s 185, and one of the passengers asked, ‘What’s special about this?’ No explanation needed for this RAF audience,” Bill says. “My involvement in the RAF is, in a partial way, repaying the rewards aviation has endowed me with. Having been involved in many worthwhile nonprofits, this is one where financial support is only part of the picture. Physically participating in great projects that have a lasting effect, with good people, returns a great personal benefit,” he says. “My only regret is that I wasn’t there at the start.” Bill and his wife Jane are privileged to be able to split time between their long-time home in eastern Nebraska and Scottsdale, Arizona. While still serving on several boards, he enjoys golf “about every third shot,” biking, cars, and reading, but always looks forward to the time he can be involved in the RAF. “It’s flying with a purpose,” he adds. Bill can be reached at bdugan@theraf.org

Jake Hampton

December 15, 2025
AR Ambassador

RAF ADDS MICHIGAN LIAISON SCOTT ANTTILA

By Taylin Trafton • December 11, 2025
A Christmas gift of flight lessons from his parents started Scott Anttila’s aviation journey in 1985. “I learned at Johnson Field, a small grass strip tucked into the woods in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and that early exposure to simple backcountry flying stuck with me,” Scott says. Growing up in the U.P., he spent a lot of time outdoors and found that flying was another way to get to the places he liked to explore—especially the ones most people never saw. As he earned more ratings and eventually moved to the Detroit area for work, Scott realized he needed a way to stay connected to northern Michigan. He bought an airplane and used it to get back to the smaller airstrips and lake country he enjoyed. Along the way, he also flew gliders out of Frankfort, soaring along the Sleeping Bear Dunes and towing sailplanes over the Great Lakes. “Those flights gave me a different appreciation for the landscape and made me even more interested in the small, out-of-the-way airports scattered around the state,” he says. Visiting those kinds of places, Scott first came across the Recreational Aviation Foundation. He started using RAF-supported airstrips both inside and outside Michigan. “I noticed how well-kept they were and how much access they opened up,” he says, adding, ”Over the years, I’ve watched a number of grass strips close, which made the RAF’s mission feel especially important to me. Maintaining these airstrips keeps aviation connected to the outdoors and makes it possible for more people to reach the quiet, remote areas that inspired me to fly in the first place.” Scott joins the other two RAF Michigan Liaisons, General Grant and Tanmoy Ganguly. He can be reached at santtila@theraf.org . Submitted December 11, 2025.