‘It is a big deal’

Based at Missoula Montana Airport in Missoula, Montana, LMFC officially opened to members in August 2025. The club takes its name from Glacial Lake Missoula, which formed about 12,000 years ago and covered the valleys of western Montana with nearly 2,000 feet of water.

AOPA acting Co-President Katie Pribyl and members of AOPA’s media and flying clubs teams attended the celebration. Pribyl was able to talk to many members of the club and addressed the group with excitement.

“We’re here to celebrate ... our 300th flying club that AOPA has helped get off the ground,” Pribyl said. “It’s a group of people who have put together their time, and their money, and their friendships to keep flying, and that’s something really special.

“It is not easy to start a flying club. You got bylaws, you got to pick an airplane, insurance, you have to pick a dues structure, and then everybody has to agree to it,” Pribyl said. “This club got it done, and we just want to celebrate that.”

Joe Featherly, one of LMFC’s co-founders, owns two Cessna 150Ds nicknamed “Dimples” and “Sunshine,” which are very popular with club members and on the ramp.

Featherly said he had an idea of a club several years ago, but not all the pieces to put it together. After buying a hangar at the airport in 2018, he said he couldn’t understand why Missoula didn’t have an established flying club.

“It is a big deal to be recognized as the 300th flight club in the country,” Featherly said.

“Owning your own airplane is super expensive and so when you can share those expenses and you only have to pay a fraction of what it costs to own an airplane, and you get access to them, there’s really no better benefit than that,” Pribyl said. “Flying club members help keep each other safe and accountable...which is really what AOPA is about.”

James Wasem, one of LMFC’s founding members, said he met Featherly in 2025 and learned about his vision for a flying club. They began talking and had a Cessna 150D available to get the club started. Drawing on Wasem’s background in project management and start-ups, along with Featherly’s airplane, they met with certificated flight instructors and formed the club.

The group registered as a nonprofit 501(c)(7) social club in 2025 and completed its AOPA club registration in 2026. Wasem said AOPA’s involvement helped the founders navigate the legal considerations involved in establishing a club that would help people keep flying.

“One of the biggest challenges for me coming out of learning to fly was plugging into a community of peers and flying with them,” Wasem said, "It is one thing to go to meetings, it is another to actually get in the airplane and do something.” 

The importance of a flying club in Missoula is not lost on local pilots. Several people at the event said there had been discussions about forming a club for more than five years, but no effort had come together until now.

“Part of Joe’s vision, and I am very much on board with that, is establishing a great GA community and ecosystem here that really prides itself with GA aircraft and is outside the realms of flight school and keeps people flying for decades in the future,” said Wasem.

Emma Fuchs, a club member, said a flying club in Missoula makes flying more affordable and helps pilots regain currency. She is excited to explore the area from the air while working toward the ratings she needs to fly professionally.

LMFC’s fleet includes two Cessna 150s and three additional aircraft added in October 2026: a 1978 Grumman AA-1C Lynx, a vintage 1954 Piper Tri-Pacer with a 135-horsepower engine, and a 1959 Cessna 182B intended for more experienced pilots seeking a high-performance aircraft.

One of the club’s younger members, Gus Turner, said his grandfather was a smokejumper who spoke highly of the flying clubs that had operated in the area in the past. Those stories helped inspire Turner to get involved in establishing LMFC.

“Having a community presence in a flight club is very important. One of the questions we put on the application to join is ‘Why do you want to join?’ and most people answer with ‘to be part of a flight community’ which is great.”

“We are trying to plan for something ten-fifteen years in the future so that people will still have this community. What you plan for the future is the important part,” said Turner.

A club’s diversity brings new ideas and perspectives. LMFC’s 30 members range in age from 22 to 75 years old and include both men and women.

PJ Mesa, an LMFC member, said diversity is an important part of the club. ”I think it is super important to have younger people and women in aviation. I think it is not empowering to show up to a space and have nobody that looks like you or has your experience. I think you can learn way more when there is not that barrier and there are people that have something in common with you.”

“I am blown away by the diversity in this hangar," said Pribyl. “As a woman pilot it is so exciting to see all these women here and all these young people here. We need that in general aviation and you are providing that and providing a space for these folks. … AOPA is proud to be just a part of this.”