About Us

Redtail Aviation has teamed up with Slickrock Air Guides to offer better service than ever before! Come back soon to meet all the new team members.

Here at Redtail Aviation we all work together to make every flight a great experience. We love what we do and for years we’ve been sharing our back yard with people from all over the world who come to experience Utah for themselves. We’d like to get to know you, too, so come see us and let us help you make memories that will last a life time.

Come meet the crew!

Angie Johannsen: Accounting/Boss

Hailing from Lake Powell, Angie moved to Price in 2000 and we haven’t let her leave since. She’s got as much brown, Utah sand in her blood as anyone so she got her pilot’s license to explore the backcountry from above.

Angie is the heart and soul of the Redtail operation and everyone knows that if you want something done then you ask her first. Angie is the lion tamer of finances, the personal advice giver, and has a talent for knowing right where pilots have left their headsets and charts.

All work and no play makes Angie play harder when she finally has some days off. She’s a dirt bike riding, wake-boarding, Bronco restoring, tree swinging, yogi who spends most weekends in Lake Powell with her family.

Chris Bracken: Pilot/Mechanic

After migrating through California, Oregon, and northern Utah, Chris came back to Redtail where he had taken his first flying lessons years before. Now a mechanic and pilot, he moved his family to Price hoping to find a place among the aviation junkies that showed him the skies so long ago.

He has a plethora of job titles, including but not limited to, pilot, mechanic, official food tester, heavy box lifter, and cheesy jokester. “It’s not that all airplane pilots are good looking, just that good-looking people seem more capable of flying airplanes.”

When Chris isn’t mumbling jokes or lifting heavy boxes he likes water skiing, snowboarding, and reading books like “Cat in the Hat” and “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” to his kids.

Gary Springer: Director of Maintenance

Raised in the Boulder/Denver area, Gary graduated Colorado Aerotech, went north and found himself trying to keep from freezing in North Dakota. After the Rocky Mountains called him back to Western Colorado, alas, the red canyons of Moab and Redtail Aviation brought him a few more clicks west.

This man keeps our aircraft flying like Swiss watches and when he’s not elbow deep in a 100 hour inspection you can find him directing traffic on the ramp after hours. He usually smells of jet fuel and he’s been toying with the idea of a turbine powered jeep.

Since moving to Utah he has been exploring the remote backcountry and rafting the Colorado River and San Juan Rivers, slathering SPF 100 on his bald head in Lake Powell, and improving his disc golf game. All those things keep him young, but spending time with his family in Colorado and Wyoming is his priority.

Iris Palmer: Reservations/Office Manager/Line Staff

Raised in Moab, Utah, Iris has all the insider information about the locale. From the red rock formations to the rolling rivers, Iris has traveled Utah looking for adventure and found the opportunities to be limitless.

In an office full of pilots and ringing phones, Iris keeps the chaos under control. This multi-tasking queen can take a reservation, a fuel order, a phone call, and talk on the radio all at the same time. Maybe not at the same time, but she’s crazy good at what she does.

After work is done, house building to snowmobiling and much in between with her family is on the schedule. With what time she has left over she likes to hit the road and see where it leads. Sometimes a change of scenery is just what the doctor ordered.

Jennifer Jensen: Reservations/Office Manager/Line Staff

Born and raised near Price, Jennifer loves Utah and all its natural wonders. Growing up she spent time in locations such as The San Rafael Swell, Joe's Valley, and the Huntington Canyon area. After graduating from college she came home for good.

Jen is behind the scenes at all of our locations. This girl keeps Redtail racing forward in the 21st century. Jen does everything from computer/tech support for the offices, reservations, fueling, advertising, and everything else they left out of the job description.

When she’s not at work, she likes fixing computers, playing games, spending time with her husband and dog - Ninja, reading, and kicking butt in her Kung Fu lessons.

Larry Newby: Chief Pilot

“Newby Baby” has been flying these mountains since before written history. There isn’t a ridge, butte, or canyon that Newby hasn’t flown over and that’s what makes him such a great pilot. He knows a lot of history about the area and he’ll tell you all about it whether you want to hear it or not.

Based in Price, Newby is our trusty chief pilot here at Redtail and flies river shuttles, charters, scenic tours as well as flight instruction all at the drop of a hat. He’s our ‘Johnny on the spot’ and usually gets called to fly freight charters at wee hours of the morning.

When Newby’s not at Redtail he supposedly “works” making sure that we have power, but we all know he’s with his family at his cabin in the mountains playing with snowmobiles or riding motorcycles with Mark.

Larry Van Slyke: Pilot

Coming Soon.

Lavar Wells: Pilot

It’s been confirmed by his mother that Lavar was born in an airplane. He started flying before the hills were born and he’ll be flying long after they’re gone. You can take the man out of the airplane, but you can’t take the airplane out of the man...er, well, something like that.

Lavar works as a pilot for us as often as we can drag him away from his own airplane. He supposedly retired from Redtail, but can’t seem to figure out how to stop working.

When he’s not at Redtail he’s pretending to be retired. He drills wells (aka “Rattling Metal”) and spends time with his sweet wife and many children and grand children.

Mark Francis: Pilot/Big Boss

A Missouri farm boy that became a Utah desert rat, with stops in Wyoming and Colorado on the way. Bringing the “can do” attitude from the oil fields of Wyoming, Mark sets a great tone for the company, creating an enjoyable workplace and has a rare talent for inspiring loyalty and hard work.

Mark is usually found up to his neck in some adventure or project. In 2009-10 it was a motorcycle trip from Utah to the southernmost tip of South America. Today it’s to drive Angie crazy with new ideas for Redtail.

Mark loves to ride motorcycles, sail, scuba dive, boat Lake Powell, snowmobile or do just about anything he hasn’t tried yet. Oh yeah, he loves to fly too!

Nick “Nigel” Lamoureux: Pilot

Transplanted from Main via Colorado and then to Moab, Utah. A 3 week backcountry trip in ’89 kicked off more than a decade of leading wilderness trips and eating plenty of red dirt throughout south east Utah. He kept coming back to play and ended up staying. He never tires of seeing this magical land from above.

He’s the Moab manager, pilot, fueler, chief window wiper and vacuum tech. Nick is the embodiment of our collective attitude here at Redtail — adventure, charisma, and sense of humor coupled with a great laugh.

When he’s not at work he’s making pizza, brewing, working on his Australian accent, and/or scheming about his next fly-in canyoneering trip.

Shane Gonzales: Pilot

Shane is a Utah native, born and raised about 90 miles north of Canyonlands, Arches and Moab. His prior experience in aviation includes floatplane flying in the Seattle area and flight instructing in Wisconsin and answered the call of the wild to come fly with Redtail.

As a pilot he has conquered all. From charters to scenics, river shuttles and freight, Shane is a jack-of-all-trades and always makes us laugh with his witty movie quotes.

When he's not showing off the sights of Utah by air, he's trying to find the groove of the perfect golf swing or seeing Utah's many wonders by foot, skis or bike. Shane also does the best impressions of many popular TV characters. “If you’re not first, you’re last.”Ricky Bobby “Excellent, Smithers.” Monty Burns

Shawn Devereaux: Reservations/Line Staff

Shawn is another Utah native who grew up not a stone’s throw away. He started working at Redtail as a senior in high school and loved us too much to leave. He’s a hard worker who always gets the job done and somehow finds time to attend college, train for his private pilot’s license, and work for us as well.

Shawn does everything. From fueling and fixing trucks, to scheduling and cleaning, you can always rely on Shawn to know how to fix something or to just make it better.

Shawn loves to fly and continues to work on his piloting skills by training for his IFR and Commercial ratings. Shawn also won national awards for welding and also enjoys spending time in the great outdoors.

Tim Martin: Pilot

Better known as Arch Enemy #1, this La Sal native made a name for himself flying through the arches. Though his arch flying days may be behind him, he knows more about southern Utah history and geology than anyone else.

Tim is a frequently requested pilot and if you’ve ever flown with him or heard him talk about ancient Indian civilizations then you know why.

Tim loves flying, but also spends time playing in the dirt at his farm near La Sal and loves to go four-wheeling through southern Utah. He’s a great photographer and almost all of Redtail’s best pictures come from him.