Ray Ballantyne was born into an aviator family as his father was a WWII CG-4A Combat Glider pilot who met his mother at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, TX while she was training to be a WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilot). Ray earned his pilot’s license before he got his driver’s license. “I thought I was cool in high school giving friends airplane rides,” he says.
He was hired by the FAA as an Air Traffic Control (ATC) specialist in 1977 and assigned to the small Flight Service Station in Cut Bank, Montana. His first flight into Schafer Meadows, MT the summer of 1979 started a lifelong love of backcountry flying. His 34 year ATC career included several towers in Alaska – Bethel, Fairbanks, Anchorage and Merrill – while also doing some part time commercial air taxi flying at Bethel and Fairbanks; and Colorado Springs. Moving from Alaska in 2000, he was the Terminal Hub Manager for Oregon working at the Portland ATCT/TRACON.
