HALLO Flight Training Center

Welcome to HALLO (High Altitude Low Level Operating) Training Center.  Our flight instructors listed below have the credentials to provide HALLO Flight Training students with the skills to safely negotiate the challenging environment of the backcountry.

Bob Del Valle, SES, CFI, Commercial pilot.  Bob Has been a pilot with high altitude flight experience in the Rocky Mountain region for over 25 years.  He has been a member of the Civil Air Patrol as a Search and Rescue Mission Pilot for 17 years.  Bob has introduced many first time pilots to the backcountry strips in Idaho and the bush strips of Alaska.  Bob has owned a cabin on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska since 2000 and has had the privilege of spending every Summer flying to and all over Alaska for personal adventures in his own aircraft and flying Civil Air Patrol missions piloting float equipped DHC-2 De Havilland Beavers.

Don Heineman, SES, CFII, MEI, Commercial Pilot.  Don, our most experienced pilot has over 39 years as a flight instructor.  He spent the majority of his flying career plying the high altitude corridors of the Rocky Mountains.  He too is a Civil Air Patrol Search and Rescue Mission pilot and Mountain Check Pilot with over 27 years in CAP.  He was a research pilot for Colorado State University, which included research flights in Alaska above the Arctic Circle and he flew medical flights in Lear Jets and King Airs in Arizona.

Scott Middleton, CFI, Commercial Pilot.  Scott started his flying career in the Denver, Colorado area as a CFI working in an intense high volume training environment.  His instructor skills have successfully created over 100 private pilots, where all the flight training was in the high altitude environment of Colorado.  In aviation, the term, “The Right Stuff” refers to courage, confidence, dependability.  This definition fits Scott very well.  On departure from an Idaho airstrip the aircraft he was instructing in had a partial engine failure.  He took over control and reconfigured the airplane, a C206 and just before a tree top landing, he was able to correct the problem and climbed to a safe altitude.  He then calmly reported on the radio that he was having a minor engine problem and thought it best to fly to Mc Call to have it checked out.  That’s the guy you want with you when Murphy shows up.

Tom Aex, SES, CFII, MEI, Commercial Pilot. Tom spent the majority of his flying career as a freight hauler and corporate pilot flying a variety of turboprop and turbojet aircraft.  He is presently flying a Super King Air 300 for medical flights.  His real love is flying the canyons and ridge tops in single engine aircraft.  Ask Tom about the summer he spent in Alaska flying a C206 with oversized tires onto beaches in Hallo Bay of the Cook Inlet, on bear viewing flights.  Have you ever wondered what it is like to face a 1000 pound grizzly from 20 feet?  Tom knows!