“HOLD MY BEER AND WATCH THIS” — NOT

We’ve all heard the phrase when someone had a stupid idea and was about to act on it. As we kick off RAF 2025 it feels like a good time to work towards not being the person at either end of that tag line, joke or not.


Seriously, what can we do to make 2025 the safest and best year yet? Well, we can work to be our best when heading to the backcountry. That starts with getting ready before we go.


The RAF has – either on its own, or with the help of others – accomplished some worthwhile objectives toward safety and backcountry etiquette. We can all be proud of that. 


Here are just some of the great resources we’ve put together with our friends who stand ready to help us. Check out these partners and some specific things you can get going on right now to make 2025 your best flying year.


AOPA ASI Backcountry Resource Center
RAF Safety & Backcountry Etiquette
RAF Backcountry Etiquette Team
Redbird Flight:
Sustainable Training Habits
Dealing With Bird Strikes and Other Wildlife Strikes
Why All Pilots Need To Be Aware of Plan Continuation Bias
Density Altitude and Hypoxia: What To Consider on Hot Summer Days and Nights

And if you find something that you believe could be useful, please feel free to share it, so it too might become a part of our safety and backcountry culture. Send it here.


The RAF has been working hard on our Backcountry Etiquette effort. We’ve invested time and resources to become better caretakers of the places we all love, and ensure continued access. We readily share our story with other users who have yet to get to know us well. 


We would like to ask that each of us do what we can to be a part of that user group that others respect. So, if you want to have that beer, make it your favorite and enjoy. We know you aren’t going to ask someone to hold it while you say, “Watch This!” 

Have a great 2025.


– John McKenna, RAF Chairman

Submitted January 13, 2025


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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.