MentorLIVE is a monthly, live-streaming broadcast that airs on the third Wednesday each month at 8:00 PM Eastern. These programs feature subject matter experts from many aspects of the flight instruction industry to help CFIs succeed in their training endeavors. All presentations are WINGS-approved!

Upcoming broadcast:

October 18th, 2023, at 8 p.m. ET: Techniques for Backcountry Flight Instruction Presentation by Amy Hoover, Ph.D.

A plethora of resources exist on navigating the terrain, weather phenomena, hazards of high density altitudes, aircraft performance, operating in confined areas, and takeoff and landing techniques. However, most pilots, regardless of previous experience, have the same challenges when first introduced to mountain, canyon, and backcountry flying, and much of it is a mental game.

With more than 30 years and 3,500 hours of backcountry instruction given, Amy Hoover will share her personal insights on the unique challenges pilots face with respect to judgement, decision making, and other human factors related to efficient and safe operations. She will share specific techniques she uses to help backcountry students appreciate the need for proper planning, maneuvers to practice before going into the backcountry, aircraft control, and setting personal limitations, as well as enhancing situational awareness.

Presenter Biography: Amy Hoover wonders what she will be when she finally grows up. Flying was not a childhood dream; she spent her youth in the Appalachians doing all the hillbilly things kids do and managed to survive unscathed. Hoover skipped out of high school and went to university, where the most exciting thing was rowing on the Varsity Crew team. Originally a music major, she had a chance encounter with the subject of Geology, with which she fell completely in love. As National Merit Scholar, Hoover focused on academics and pursued B.S. and M.S. degrees in Geology and Geochemistry, with a minor in nuclear chemistry, which gave her the opportunity to tramp around the wilderness in central Idaho banging on rocks and enjoying the wide-open spaces. When she finished graduate school, the death of jobs in her specialty field led her to yet another distraction; she became a wilderness whitewater river guide on the Middle Fork and Main Salmon Rivers deep in the Idaho backcountry.

With less than 90 hours in her logbook, Hoover decided she needed her own airplane, and along came her 1947 Cessna 120. That little airplane was bare bones, without communication or navigational aids, and it taught her how to really fly. Tailwheel endorsements were not required, so she cautiously expanded her understanding of how the airplane wanted to be treated, and in exchange it taught her about how to fly in the mountains and canyons, read the wind, respect the terrain and the heat, and safely explore the backcountry. She gained knowledge through the tutelage of many of the “old-time” back country pilots, and absorbed every bit of wisdom she could from them.

Not quite two years after she started her pilot training, she flew the Cessna 120 from Idaho to Florida in the middle of a cold, snowy winter. With only a handheld radio, and a watch and sectional for navigation, it was a three-week trip chocked full of adventures.  She then planted herself in the middle of the South Carolina – Atlanta, Georgia area to obtain her instrument rating and commercial pilot license. She flew a lot of different airplanes, gained experience in IMC and a busy ATC system, and made new friends. Then, it was back to Idaho with the Cessna 120 to look for a job. Since the Charter companies required 500 hours minimum, Hoover obtained her flight instructor certificate in 1992 and continued to work as a guide until she could build the required time fight instructing. She was hired in 1993 as a 135 back country Air Taxi pilot and spent several years hauling hunters, rafters, and gear into the Idaho Wilderness airstrips and ranches. She also worked as a contract pilot for the Forest Service and BLM, continued to flight instruct, and obtained her MEL certificate.

After a short stint as a corporate pilot, flying a Beech Duke and a Mitsubishi MU-2, Hoover realized backcountry flying and flight instruction were her true passion, so she quit to become a full-time instructor and teach backcountry flying for the FAA and on her own. In 1997, she co-founded the McCall Mountain Canyon Flying Seminars with two other lady instructors, after which she spent the next few years developing the curriculum, designing the seminars, authoring the training manuals, and running the seminars from McCall, Idaho. She sold the 120 and bought a Cessna 180, which led to many more adventures, and now owns a 2011 American Champion Scout. 

As people who are still not grown up are wont to do, she felt the itch to move on to something bigger, so she sold the seminar business and took a job as the director of the Aviation program at a community college in Oregon while she completed a Ph.D. in education and conducted experimental studies in aviation human factors related to multi-tasking in the cockpit, which ultimately landed her in her current position. Hoover has been teaching in the Aviation Department at Central Washington University for 20 years, was Department Chair for 8 years, and has been a Full Professor since 2012. She has published over 30 professional articles and manuals and given more than 200 public presentations on a variety of aviation topics nationwide. Hoover keeps her hand in giving backcountry instruction in summers through her business, Canyon Flying.

Hoover’s students encouraged her to expand on the training manuals she had written, so in 2018 she invited her long-time mentor and friend, Dick Williams, to collaborate and authored the book “Mountain, Canyon, and Backcountry Flying” published in 2019 by ASA. Hoover continues to give seminars and workshops on backcountry flying around the country, and still enjoys teaching at the University. She was featured in Who’s Who of Professional Women in 2018, was awarded the Albert Nelson Lifetime Achievement award in 2019 by Marquis Who’s Who, and was selected as the FAA National Flight Instructor of the Year in 2022. 

Host Biography: Karen Kalishek is a Designated Pilot Examiner, three time NAFI Master Instructor, CFI, CFII, MEI, CFI-G, AGI, IGI, FAA Gold Seal Instructor and FAASTeam Lead Representative. She holds an ATP certificate and has ASES and Glider Commercial privileges. In 2019, Karen was honored to received the National FAASTeam Representative of the Year award. She has held officer positions in and is actively involved with several aviation organizations. She is also a Major in the Civil Air Patrol, serving as a CAP volunteer flight instructor, check pilot, examiner, mission pilot and cadet orientation pilot.

She is an independent flight instructor, has a particular fondness for antique aircraft and enjoys spending quality time with her RV-6. Before becoming a full-time flight instructor, she was an executive in the banking industry, taught graduate school, and as president of her own corporation, spent over 20 years providing international consulting services in 37 countries.

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