Member Milestones
Have you gained a new rating or certificate? Purchased your first airplane or flown your 5000th hour? Shout out a friend that has landed in a challenging new place or welded their first tube on a new project. Or maybe you want to commiserate after shelling out for your first annual inspection. Whatever milestone you have achieved, help us strengthen our community by sharing it here!
Email info@alaskaairmen.org to contribute
Note from the Editor: This issue, we have three members with an exciting new Milestone to share. Stephanie Painter, David Krumm, and Abraham Harman have been selected to join the Alaska Airmen Association Board of Directors as the new term starts in October of this year. Read on to get to know them a bit and be sure to seek them out at the Great Alaska Aviation Gathering to share your thoughts on future goals for the Association. We thank them for being willing to step up and serve the Association and we are looking forward to doing great things!
Stephanie Painter is a 4th generation Alaskan and 3rd generation Alaska pilot. She started her flight training in Oregon while finishing up a BS in Geography and then returned to Alaska, eventually attaining her private certificate at Merrill Field in 2010. Soon after getting her ticket, Stephanie and her partner (who eventually became her husband) acquired a 1950 PA-20 Pacer that opened the doors to all things Alaska and aviation. There was no looking back. Stephanie worked in multiple technical, supervisory and GIS mapping roles for the Municipality of Anchorage before leaving in 2016 to look after her budding aerial mapping business, JAV Imagery LLC. By 2018 the business was growing rapidly and her husband also left his career to join her. Together they operate 26 single and twin-engine planes in all 50 states. JAV Imagery has now had the pleasure of working with over 150 pilots, building time on their way to successful aviation careers. Stephanie is honored with the opportunity to serve as a board member with the Airmen and looks forward supporting the mission of creating a robust aviation community for current and future generations of Alaskans. She still has the Pacer, but now you will most often find her loading car seats and coolers into the back of a cherry red converted 182.
Lieutenant General (Ret.) David Krumm is a trusted executive leader widely known as a strategic planner with demonstrated success building high-performance, effective teams and team of teams through empowerment, lasting relationship building, timely decision making, problem solving, and conflict management. He is currently a Director of Strategy and Planning at BAE Systems and recently completed a diverse military career with his concluding assignment as the Commander of Alaska NORAD Region, Alaska Command, and the 11th Air Force. David possesses relevant and practical experience in a wide range of government, national security, and defense-related areas. He is a graduate of Auburn University and holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from that institution. David also attended Harvard University in the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs Program and is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Seminar 21 program.
After obtaining his pilot’s license shortly after college, it was the pursuit of aviation-related jobs that ultimately brought him and his wife Katie to Alaska, where he has worked previously as Lead Engineer and Head of Manufacturing Operations for Airframes Alaska and Alaskan Bushwheels. It was through working on those projects related to and flying in Piper Super Cubs that his interest specifically in STOL and backcountry aircraft design developed.
Currently, he is the co-owner of Helio Alaska, Inc. based at Birchwood Airport in Chugiak. Helio Alaska is the holder of the Type Certificate to the Helio Courier aircraft and they are working to return it to production. Abe has spent many hours volunteering as a member of the Alaska Airmen NextGen Board and is also an officer of the High School to Flight School nonprofit scholarship program for Anchorage and Mat-Su area high school students.
He enjoys flying for fun and to get out and see the many local areas that are best enjoyed and accessed from the air. He also feels strongly about the importance of sharing the passion for aviation with others and thinking of ways to help promote and encourage more involvement in general aviation in Alaska and elsewhere.
