A pg pilot soaring Inklers Point
Our new USHPA Chapter, Mountain Air Soaring Association, welcomes paraglider and hang glider pilots to join in on the fun and help us add more flying sites to our quiver! MASA has 3 levels of USHPA Pilot membership: Visiting Pilot, Associate Pilot and Full Member. Visiting Pilots will be introduced to as many of our sites as they have the time for and conditions permit. Pilots may get to help pioneer the new sites we’re developing! Our sites range from supervised P/H2 to P/H4 for piloting skills and knowledge. Our most popular sites being Inklers Point and Steptoe Butte. Please view our Flying Sites Map on our Main Page to see where our Eastern Washington flying sites are located.
NOTES: Inklers Point is a USHPA Insured Flying Site. MASA requires that all members be USHPA members. When you join MASA you may need to check your email's spam folder for the confirmation email.
Who is MASA? Scroll down to visit our Pilot Bios below!
All new members please download, fill out and sign the MASA Chapter and Inklers Point Waivers.
Kim Smith – President
In 1994 I lived in Issaquah and would watch the hang gliding and paragliding pilots flying Tiger Mountain from my yard. My son wanted to try paragliding but none of his friends were interested so he asked if I would go to take a beginner course. I was a little reluctant but said yes. By the time I had experienced 4 flights on the first day from Tiger Mt. I was hooked. All I wanted to do was fly, but funds were short to buy gear and lessons. Finally, I started my lessons in July of 1994 at Tiger Mt. I logged 25 hrs. airtime by my 25th flight! Over the next 32 years I had earned my Tandem rating, P-5 and my Advance Instructor rating. In 2022 I lost my wife of 51 years and later that year I met and married Shauna. Shauna lived in Chewelah, so I packed my bags, sold the farm, retired from building homes and moved to the golf course in Chewelah. I thought that I would give up paragliding until I realized that I had moved into a wonderful paragliding area. Shauna taught me to golf three years ago and I am enjoying it. Golf early in the day and then head out to fly if conditions are looking good. This last year several of us formed a new soaring club for Hang gliding and Paragliding in Chewelah. I’ve met many wonderful people in the flying community. I am looking forward to flying the area for many more years to come. Loving it!
Steve Baran – VP
I was an impressionable 23-year-old at Spokane’s High Drive in the summer of 1975 when I saw hang gliding conducted impressively for the first time. Pilots foot launched easily from the steep slope along the road and landed exactly where they wanted alongside US Hwy 195, over 500’ below. I was hooked! Took my first, and only, lesson the following weekend off dunes near Mead High School. Only made one flight as I did not get off the ground on my other launch runs or ran the glider into the sand on the others. Still undaunted, I ordered a 20’ Standard Rogallo at the end of the lesson! I was living/working in Montana at the time. Took the Standard there and proceeded to find hills to practice on. 51 years later and I’m still finding new hills to practice this amazing sport from! You never quit learning! Sky Out!
Chris Cashion - Secretary
My jam is surfing waves of air as they crash into mountains. No engine, no mechanicals; just a wing and some wind. My background is in mechanical and electrical engineering. My name is Chris, I'm a paraglider pilot from Eastern Washington.
Mark Finley - Treasurer
Took a Tandem in Joseph Oregon in 2019 and I was hooked! In 2020 I was signed up for pg training but COVID intervened. 2021 attended School in Cashmere WA, at Aerial Paragliding. Since gaining my P2 fall of 21’, in addition to local flying at mostly Inklers and Tekoa Mtn I’ve had the joy of flying in chronological order: Thailand 10 days, Sundance Mtn (Coolin ID), Iqueque Chile (8 days 2x day), Woodrat Mtn OR, Sand City CA, Apache Maid AZ, SIV #1 Riffle Lake WA, PGNW Valle de Bravo MX
(8 days 2xday) (P3 sing-off), Santa Barbara CA, Lake Garda IT (SIV #2 LetFly PG, Bassano de Grappa IT (8 days 2x day) and Bali Indonesia. I am currently working on my P4. Have been a 4x volunteer at the Chelan Ozone open and US Open of Paragliding each June. Highly recommended!
I'm a son, brother, father, grandfather, college gymnast, long haul bike rider, accountant and lacrosse coach plus the current Treasurer of MASA.
Bart Ransom - Safety Coordinator
I began my free flight journey in the inland empire with Dale Sanderson around 2013. After a year of tracking him down, I caught him in the last years of instruction. I was able to get a couple of lessons in. I purchased a falcon 1 from Steve Baran on Dales recommendation. After several years of training stagnation I was able to connect with Eric Ollikainen. After a couple of years of beach training at Kiwanda Dunes, OR I progressed to my first high launch at Dog Mountain. I flew there for a couple of days and had to retire due to bent down tubes on bad landings. I have been a 19 year fire fighter and a 31 year AEMT for Chewelah Rural ambulance and have the privilege of being the safety coordinator for MASA.
Chris Ogden - Public Lands Director
Director at Large (Public Lands
Coordinator)
Jimmy Culler
Toward the end of 18 skydiving seasons I used my 9 cell parachute to do my own paraglide pioneering, but wanted bones in my wing. I started flying hang gliders in 1995 at a training hill in Marysville Washington and the Cape Kiwanda dunes. First altitude flight was off Blanchard Mt. which eventually became my home site. In 1996 I started pioneering anything I could find that looked like a launch site. Many of which I have kept secret all these years except for a couple close pilots most of which have stopped flying. Uncle Joe Culller said there was some open Hill space up on Grampa Oman’s land and I should go check it out (as kids we ran all over that land). I launched off what we now call “Pioneer” launch and enjoyed the privacy & serenity of flying off that mountain alone for 16 seasons until I met Steve Baran (now you know the rest of the story). That weekend I four wheeled it to the top & discovered the upper launch now named “Jimmy’s Launch”. I had always seen it from the air and was curious. Ta dah!
Jonathan Fleming
I got my P2 in April 2023 from Andy Macrae of Bozeman Paragliding and have since flown mostly around Spokane. I grew up by Yosemite rock climbing and watching the base jumpers go past me on the walls, always dreaming of flying myself, so paragliding has fit me very well. SIVs made all the difference in my flying in 2025 and I look forward to many years of airtime ahead of me. My biggest paragliding goal is to thermal up with the Bald Eagles that nest on my property.
Joseph Ferraro
Grandpa, USAF Aviator, Ski/Lake resorts management, contractor and retiree. Hang 2, with 30 years of freeflight. Totally love the Chewelah and Tekoa area flying. Learned to HG in Northern California with the Chico Hang Gliding Club. Love the outdoors, ski patrolling, and water sports! Let go flying!!
Barry Levine
Organic Chemistry, H4/P2, Longtime Northern Californian, New York born Learned HG In 1995 with the Berkeley Club, Seebass, Karlak, Lee, Andronaco, Larsen instructing.
Learned PG in 2000 (Jody Lucas).
Became HG instructor in 1997. I'm no Rob McKenzie, but I've taught a couple of thousand HG pilots to fly!
Isaac Dalton
I’m here to do bird stuff with my bird friends... Let's go fly!
Tim Coahran
I grew up in Pullman/Moscow in the '60s. My Dad flew small planes and would let me steer at altitude. I wish I had done more of it! In 1973 we bought an old "Dyna-Soar" hang glider at a yard sale - it was a different time then! We worked our way up through the wheat field hills, onto Bald Butte - and Steptoe has been my home flying site ever since. Self-employment displaced all other life for a few decades, but I finally returned to Freeflight in 2014 with paragliding in Alaska. Recently I'm trying to resume some hang gliding skills as well. I occasionally add motors, but generally find Freeflight more fun!
Alicia Sam
I'm Alicia Sam from Northway Alaska! I moved to Anchorage in 2003. Got introduced to paragliding in late winter of 2012, my P1 in the spring 2013 and a P-2 in 2014. Afterwards I earned my P3 rating. I have a H3 Hang Glider rating as well! I enjoy hang gliding. I really love paragliding! I was first introduced to Inklers Point in Chewelah by Steve Baran in 2018 and got my first few flights when the top launch was first opened. It has since been a special place to me and a place I like to visit each year when I’m not too busy. It's been a dream for me to fly and a dream come true experiencing this wonderful sport of foot launched flight. I enjoy flying each year because I can hike up a mountain and launch off to enjoy flying with the eagles and other birds - all while being outdoors, getting good exercise and breathing in mountain fresh air!
David Lariviere
I’ve been paragliding since 2021. Cut my teeth at Point Of The Mountain in Utah and have had a wonderful few years flying mountain sites around the Western USA. When I’m not throwing myself off mountains I’m flying an Embraer 175 for Mesa Airlines.