All our management personnel can be contacted using the e-mail form on our human resourses main page.
Executive Management
President & CEO - Gary Widup, MTN001
Gary is the original founder and was the original President of Mountain Air. He has been an avid flight simmer since the early days of
SubLogic in the late 80s. He was one of the early pioneers on the SATCO network (the predecessor to VATSIM), having started both the Denver
and the Salt Lake City ARTCCs. He later served as both the deputy director and the director of the USA division of SATCO. He stepped down from day
to day management at Mountain Air in October 2002 after four years at the helm, but remained as
Chairman of the Board providing insight and direction. In January 2010, Gary stepped back into day-to-day management and once again
became the President and CEO. Gary works as a consultant, doing database management and programming as well as traffic safety
consulting. He is an avid motorcyclist, and also enjoys fly fishing and camping.
Executive Vice-President - Verne Cotton, MTN005
Verne is one of the five original founding members of Mountain Air. He has been an avid flight simmer since the late 80s.
He was also one of the early pioneers on the SATCO network, having worked alongside Gary in the Salt Lake City ARTCC. He later served
as the Events Manager for the USA division of SATCO. Verne was promoted to Vice President in 1999, and then became the President in October
2002. He served in that capacity until May 2005 when he became Vice-Chairman. In January 2010, he again assumed the role of executive
Vice President. Verne is a retired Operations Supervisor for FedEx. Besides flight sim, he enjoys model ship building, reading and politics.
Vice-President of Operations - John Downen, MTN2245
John joined Mountain Air in January 2013. He immediately became a regular at our group flights, and enjoyed them so much
he decided to give back by becoming our Group Flight Coordinator in September of 2013. After almost a year at that, he was promoted to Events Manager
in August 2014. In August 2017, John was promoted to VP of Training and Events. In June 2019, we consolidated the three VP positions into a single VP
of Operations, and John assumed that position. He began with flight simulation about the time FSX came out, but got hooked. John works as an EMT for
a county ambulance service in busy central Florida. He also enjoys radio-controlled models of various types.
Line Managers
Member Services Manager - Bruce Marten, MTN1794
Bruce joined Mountain Air in June 2008, and began his management tour as chief pilot of the PAJN hub
in January 2009. In November 2010, he became the passenger operations manager, and then in December 2013 he took on the member services department
as manager. Bruce works as a church pastor. Besides flight sim, he enjoys backpacking, watching movies, and playing PC games. His newest investment
of time is tending to his three backyard hens.
Flight Operations Manager - Frank Sullivan, MTN2183
Frank joined Mountain Air in July 2012. Over time he realized that this was his home Airline and started giving back.
He started with verifying routes for the the hubs and worked up to Assistant Operations Manager. In September 2015, Frank
was promoted to Operations Manager. Frank's first experience with
flight sim was on a Commodore 64, and even with the crude graphics he was hooked. Frank works as a Parts and Fleet
Supervisor for a large refrigeration contractor. In his free time away from Flight Sim he enjoys family time, gardening,
and tinkering with home projects.
Training Manager - Tony Yonek, MTN2869
Tony began his flight simulation career with FS98. Since then he has accumulated over 3500 hours, most of those being in FSX.
For the past several years, Tony has flown exclusively on VATSIM. He joined Mountain Air in January 2017, instantly becoming an active
member. He was named Training Manager in June 2017. Tony is retired from the Air Force and currently lives in PA, maintaining public safety
radio systems. He is also a Certified Flight Instructor with Instrument rating, specializing in advanced avionics cockpits. During
his free time, Tony enjoys spending time with his family, archery/bow hunting, and is an audio/video geek.
Dispatch Manager - Gene Miller, MTN2612
Gene was born and raised in Indianapolis and due to back surgery had to retire in 2001 from over-the-road truck driving
after 18 years and 1.8 million accident free miles. He became interested in flight sim in 2014 and joined Mountain in August of 2014.
Shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with leukemia and became inactive for a few months to undergo treatment. He started fyling again when he was able,
and the immersion in flight sim along with the friends he's made here helped take his mind off his health problems. Fortunately, he's healthy
enough again to have life mostly normal. He agreed to become a dispatcher in June 2017 as a way of giving back to the airline and help
keep things going strong here. He was promoted to Dispatch Manager in August 2017.
Staff
Assistant Flight Operations Manager - Don Singleton, MTN2554
Unlike many Mountain Air pilots, Don is a late comer to the world of flight simulators flying the
latest version of X-Plane. He purchased X-Plane in the spring of 2014 and within the month joined
Mountain Air and has enjoyed a very friendly “ready-to-help” group of flight
simmers from around the world who have taught him a great deal about this hobby and avionics – and
his journey continues. Besides this hobby, Don has enjoyed cycling most of his adult life and
to this day still enjoys single track on the mountain bike as well as an occasional century ride
on his ultra-light carbon fiber road bike.
Dispatcher - OPEN
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