Your Flight Instructors
Rhett Kamm | CSIP General Manager & Chief Instructor
As IA’s Chief Flight Instructor since 2014, Rhett has given thousands of hours of flight instruction and achieved success for hundreds of students. With Rhett’s effective approach to teaching, students and instructors from all over the world seek his expertise. Under Rhett’s leadership since 2010, IA has expanded from a handful of instructors and aircraft to the premier general aviation services provider that it is today. The quality of Rhett’s expertise, instruction, and leadership is continuously recognized, including through Cirrus’s designation of Rhett as a Platinum CSIP and award of IA as the first ever Cirrus Training Center of the Year.
Ian Howells | Assistant Chief Instructor
Ian started his flying career at Independence Aviation in 2014. Upon receiving his Private Pilot Certificate, he was hired as a Ground Support Representative, then eventually the Ground Operations Supervisor, while attaining his Instrument and Commercial. He then joined the flight program at Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology in Tulsa, OK where he earned his CFI & CFI-I. He is currently pursuing his Bachelors in Aviation Flight there, while here in Colorado!
Stephen Slade | Instructor & Safety Officer
Stephen began his aviation career in 1999, obtaining his Private Pilot, Instrument, and Commercial ratings in Colorado, before earning his CFI through Arizona Aero-Tech in Tucson, AZ. With over 26 years of service in the USAF, he currently serves at Schriever AFB, CO. Stephen began flying with IA in 2017, completing the SR22 Cirrus Perspective Transition course. Since teaching has always been a passion for Stephen, he truly enjoys teaching and passing on the love of flying in a Cirrus!
Bob Stedman | CSIP & Instructor
Bob has been a flight instructor since 1974. He has as great a passion for teaching as he does for flying. With thousands and thousands of hours of flight instruction, he’s an expert in cabin-class piston twins, jets and turboprops. Bob’s Cirrus experience dates back to 2001, and he became the first Cirrus Standardized Instructor in Colorado in 2004.
Ben Barash | Instructor
Ben’s lifelong passion for aviation led him to earn his Private Pilot certificate right out of high school. He went on to get his Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering and spent his early career designing and testing turbine aircraft engines. Ben is now a corporate pilot and is type-rated in the Gulfstream III and Challenger 350, but his love of general aviation has also been keeping him busy flying for a skydiving company, Pilots N Paws missions, as well as teaching others how to fly here at IA!
Jack Brennan | Instructor
Jack has spent so much time in the cockpit in his 40+ year career, that he’s actually a little uncomfortable on the ground, except when he’s fishing. He has clocked thousands and thousands of hours as a Navy pilot, instructor, and as a Continental Airlines captain for 29 years. We think he’s one of the best catches we’ve ever made – and so do his students!
Ricky Burton | Instructor
Ricky 1st joined IA in 2015 working as a Ground Support Representative during the summers while attending Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Ricky dreamed about flying since he was a kid, has earned all of his certificate and ratings with IA, and has a goal to join the airlines one day!
Jenna Coffman | Instructor
IA welcomes Jenna as our newest Instructor Pilot. As an Aviation Professor at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, she’s developed curriculum for people from all walks of life. She adds to her portfolio a Master’s Degree in Higher Education from Walden University. Her adaptable style will help you find success no matter what kind of background you have in aviation.
Brendon Eddy | Instructor
Brendon first started flying after graduating college with a degree in criminal justice and decided to change career paths. After a discovery flight in a Cirrus SR22 at a small airport outside his home town of Philadelphia, he knew right away it was a goal and lifestyle he wanted to pursue. Training and receiving all his ratings in Cirrus aircraft and multi engines on the east coast, a change of scenery and the challenge of mountain flying brought him to Denver to join the IA team.
Chuck Gensler | CSIP Instructor
Chuck is a lifelong aviation educator, which is his dream come true. He spent most of his 25-year career in the U. S. Air Force training youngsters to be the best of the best. Now, in “retirement,” he’s teaching the rest of us to be the best we can be. Never one to rest on his considerable laurels, Chuck was also one of the first Cirrus Standardized Instructor Pilots in Colorado, and has earned the FAA’s national 2017 Flight Instructor of the Year!
Masten Hamlin | Instructor
Masten has been an instructor since the early 1990s. He brings to the classroom significant turbine and charter experience garnered from his time with one of the leading jet charter operations in the Rocky Mountain region. His teaching skills and in-depth knowledge of all aspects of aviation are widely respected throughout the Centennial Airport community, as well as by the fortunate IA students he mentors.
Kiley Lynch | Instructor
Kiley joined us after years of flight instructing locally in Colorado. She brings to the IA team a background that includes multiple aerobatics competition wins and a plethora of mountain flying experience. Your training with her will have you experiencing challenges that help you step out of your comfort zone in order to grow. Of course, all still in the safety of a Cirrus.
Angel Andres Rosado | Instructor & Media Specialist
Pronounced “On-hel” you might recognize Angel from another part of our operation. Doubling as our Media Specialist, he joined IA in 2019. Angel likes to use modern technology to help debrief your lessons including in-cockpit videos, and telemetry. This tech helps you to better refine techniques as you progress through your learning experiences and flying adventures!
Bob Shank | Instructor
Bob’s first flight experience occurred at 10 years of age when riding in a DC-3 in Eastern Colorado. With decades and thousands of hours of flying experience, Bob is ATP rated in fixed-wing and rotary aircraft. His background includes military, charter, corporate, air ambulance and flight instruction as well as sales. He retired from the Wyoming Army National Guard in 2005 as a CWO4 and Master Aviator. Bob is also a NAAA certified appraiser helping clients value their aircraft.
Kevin Shepard | Instructor
Kevin is one of our career-change educators. He started flying in 1988 and in 2001 began teaching. When he is not working at his full-time job for a large aviation company he brings his joy of teaching and flying to the IA team. Kevin comes with a bonus: He can also help you fly radio control models which is his other aviation passion!
Bud Sittig | Instructor
Bud’s broad aviation career includes the USAF where he was a Top Gun pilot, 31 yrs in the Air National Guard flying F-16’s, 28 yrs with Delta Airlines as a Captain, G.M. of Flight Operations, Chief Pilot, and then Director of Flight Safety. He was inducted into the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame, is on the Board of Trustees for the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, OH, he is an FAA Flight Examiner, and currently flies one of a handful of B-17’s still in operation!
Jim Tiemann | Instructor
Jim’s jubilant demeanor makes even the dullest of training days absolutely fun. He brings with him decades of experience that includes managing corporate flight operations. Despite the excitement of flying jets he finds the excitement of flight instructor too good to walk away from. Book Jim for a flight today!