SUMMIT AVIATION Continued from page 43 O ut of what he describes as “a small piece of real estate” at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN) in southwestern Montana, Ben Walton, President of Summit Aviation, has grown a start-up flight school—which he founded in 2001—into a major flight training center, also offering aircraft charter, management, sales and acquisitions. At the same time, Summit Aviation has also been Montana State University’s (MSU) flight training provider under the university’s aviation degree program for more than 10 years. As Walton tells it, he was attracted to Bozeman’s out- door lifestyle, vibrant downtown and culture after graduat- ing in 1999 from Indiana State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Professional Pilot Technology. Prior to starting the flight school, which began with a single Cessna 150 and closet space in a hangar, Walton racked up nearly 2,000 hours of time as an instruc- tor at seven flight schools over a three-and-a-half-year period. During that time, he also flew a Beechcraft BE 200 out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming and worked for the U.S. Forest Service, flying on reconnaissance, fire air attack and wildlife tracking in Piper Super Cubs. After moving to Bozeman, Walton initially sought employment as a flight instructor with one of the three flight schools already there. “I talked with all three and determined we would not be a good fit,” he remarked. “What I wanted was the freedom to provide my students with the kind of flight training I believed was necessary for success. That meant giving students not only excep- tional instruction, but a positive impression of aviation and sense of community they would never forget.” That approach has worked well, considering the fact that what became “Summit Aviation” opened its doors as a one-instructor (Walton) operation without even a busi- ness name. “On the first day, 25 students showed up, largely as a result of the printed flyers which I distributed all around Bozeman,” Walton explained. “The program was extremely limited, consisting only of the private pilot license ground course, which I designed and taught.” He described most of the students as “being older and nontraditional,” even though MSU’s ROTC depart- ment had, at Walton’s suggestion, sponsored the class through an Extended Studies program. “During the first class, I realized there was a huge need for flight training, which was how Summit Aviation, as a company, came to be,” Walton said. “Within one year, I was training 55 students, and it kept growing.” Based on that success, Walton convinced MSU to sponsor an instrument rating course under Extended Studies, and then a flight training component offering 15 hours of airplane time for college credit. From there, Walton approached MSU to expand its growing involve- ment in aviation into a full four-year degree program. “Aviation was booming in the Gallatin Valley—our part of Montana—but the problem was that more stu- dents were leaving the state to attend universities which would prepare them to become career pilots,” said Walton. “Students with exceptional mountain flying skills were moving to North Dakota, Arizona and Florida to finish out their flight training while obtaining a college degree.” To address the situation, in 2004 Walton met with rep- resentatives of the various colleges which make up the MSU system, presenting them with a proposed curriculum for a four-year aviation degree program. Initially, the interest wasn’t there. “I went to meeting after meeting, presenting one proposal after the other, and yet no one had a place for it within their own four-year degree program,” he remarked. That changed the following year with a phone call from a gentleman who was intrigued enough with Walton’s “I’ve worked for other operators that claim to value their pilots, but I’ve never had a com- pany go so far to show it. Summit does everything they can to give my family stability. I can’t remember the last time I missed my anniversary or any family birthday because of a trip. They do whatever they can to get us home in time. All the pilots were home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. What kind of operator does that?” —Andy Bloyer, Phenom 300 Captain 44 Aviation Business Journal | 1st Quarter 2018
