Meet the instruction team.
Bob Stedman | CSIP Instructor & President
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.
Rhett Kamm | CSIP General Manager
Rhett has earned many of his ratings under the watchful eye of IA’s leader, Bob Stedman, before leaving Denver for new adventures. When we learned he was returning to Colorado, we did everything we could to persuade him to join us and take the pledge to do things “the IA way.” Fortunately, he accepted our offer – and while he was getting used to our way, he taught us a few tricks of his own. We are very pleased to have Rhett’s years and breadth of experience available to us and to IA clients.
Chuck Gensler | CSIP Chief Instructor Emeritus
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!
Matthew Carrigan | CSIP Chief Instructor
Matthew’s love for flying began at a young age and eventually led to his first lesson at age 16. He went on to graduate from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, AZ in 2010 as an Aeronautics major with a Business Administration and Meteorology minor. He started working for Independence Aviation right out the gate, but was recruited by Cirrus Aircraft for a number of years before coming back to IA!
Doug Abramowitz | Assistant Chief Instructor
Doug has been hooked on flying since he began his aviation training at the age of 16 in New Jersey where he grew up. He has since earned a B.S. from Purdue University in Professional Flight with a minor in Business Management. He came to I.A. to be a part of a world class flight school and to be near the mountains to fuel his other passions, hiking and snowboarding.
Colin Prenger | Instructor & Media
Colin fell in love with aviation at the age of 13 when his parents gifted him a discovery flight in Scottsdale, Arizona. In the summer of 2011, Colin traveled to Independence Aviation to start his aviation career. He got his Private Pilot Certificate in just 4 weeks! After several years as an IA customer, Colin became one of IA’s instructors, and is an accomplished photographer and videographer.
Bud Sittig | Instructor
Bud’s broad aviation career includes the USAF where he took the Fighter Weapons Instructor Course (AKA: Top Gun), 31 yrs in the Air National Guard flying F-16’s, 28 yrs with Delta Airlines where he was 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, and currently flies one of a handful of B-17’s still in operation!
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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 flying a Challenger 350, but his love of general aviation has also been keeping him busy with the Civil Air Patrol, flying for a skydiving company, Pilots N Paws missions, as well as teaching others how to fly here at IA!
Vivien Wu | Instructor
Vivien comes to us after retiring from the US Air Force after over 20 years of service. She graduated from the US Air Force Academy and then flew and trained pilots in 6 different aircraft ranging from trainers to Special Operations. With a passion for flying and instructing, she brings a fresh perspective to IA as she enters into GA as an experienced Cirrus instructor.
Ron Redden | Instructor
Ron’s desire to fly started at the age of 6. Out of college, even though he had his Private Pilot License, he spent 22 years as an Electrical Designer in the industrial fields. It wasn’t until he was 47 that he finally made the plunge to change careers into aviation and started instructing in 1997. In 2001, he joined SkyWest and retired as a captain in 2018.