Alaska’s Cub Training Specialists

ACTS’ 2024 Season is open for new hires!

ACTS is undergoing some exciting new additions this year, to include a brand new schoolhouse/hangar, a new 185 to our fleet, and hopefully YOU as a new team member!

Please spread the word and feel free to inquire for more information. Blue skies ahead for 2024 😎

🇮🇱 Have you ever flown with your altimeter reading less than zero? We have! The Dead Sea sits at -1,410.8 ft elevation, in 2019 we had the amazing opportunity to tour Israel with our friends from Tel Aviv and ACTS alumni via . Awesome to see the above the Dead Sea and to land in the Negev Dessert!

🌍 Where’s the furthest place your have taken you???

Employee spotlight

🌟Chantel Baldwin - ACTS Owner/Administer🌟

“Sometimes it feels like I was born to be involved in the aviation world. Maybe even “in my blood” - Grandpa Joe served in the Air Force and also worked for Boeing in Florida during the space launch in 1969 with top secret clearance to all of NASA. Of course I thought that was cool! And my Grandpa Wes would tell me about his float plane lessons at Kenmore Air on Lake Washington when I was a little girl.

Since I was 6 my siblings and I travelled multiple times a year to and from our Dad’s house in Palmer, Alaska – and our Mom’s house on Whidbey Island, Washington. We flew as unaccompanied minors and you can imagine it was sometimes tough on us to say goodbye to either parent - I have vivid memories of the flight attendants that would assist us on those flights and they made a huge impact on me by making my transition from parent to parent run a little smoother. Often that looked like an extra handful of pretzels, but the times that meant the most were when they kept the Kleenex boxes full while I cried through the flight.

Being a flight attendant wasn’t ever my life’s biggest aspiration, but being kind to people always has been. Naturally, because of my own positive experiences with the flight attendants, I associated that job as an opportunity to be in positive relationship with others, but was even more appealing because it coincided with my interest in flying. I always had the FA thing in my back pocket but ended up pursuing a career in cosmetology after high school to love on people that way. I attended Paul Mitchell the school in Utah in 2011 and after graduating moved back to my hometown to work in the salon. 4 years into doing hair I still loved using it as an avenue to make positive relationships but I happened upon an ad from Alaska Airlines posting that they were hiring flight attendants. Next thing I knew I was through 4 stages of interviews and 6 weeks of training in SEA & on the line.

My time at Alaska Airlines was short and sweet. I learned big lessons in being brave enough to not just pursue a dream, but also in being brave enough to admit that it wasn’t the right thing for me and know when to leave it behind. I left flying because I wasn’t able to make as meaningful connections with the people I met and I felt called to being home in Palmer to cultivate connections in my own community. I quit Alaska Airlines in 2015 to return to the salon – coincidentally the same summer that Steve had to move home to Palmer and take over ACTS after he lost his dad, the founder of ACTS, Jay Baldwin.

Steve and I met 6 months later in January of 2016 - even though he had promised himself he would never date a flight attendant and I had promised myself I would never date a pilot, haha. The irony was not lost on us, but there was clearly enough of a pull toward each other that we set our prejudices aside. And my history with Alaska & aviation proved to be essential in being plugged into a life with the one and only “akskyguy”. Our first summer dating I watched Steve juggle the flight school and his job oversees and tried to help however I could while I worked at the salon- Somehow amidst our busy schedules there was still room for Steve to make me fall in love with him and the new “alaskan airline” called ACTS.

After our wedding in June of 2018, Steve and I not only became husband and wife, but also became business partners. (Not a small feat, in case you were wondering, haha) We realized that juggling his new airline career, the flight school, my salon schedule, and a new marriage was not sustainable and we knew something had to give. I chose to leave the salon for a few years and become a full time operator and administrator at ACTS because we felt strongly that ACTS needed to be a priority. After 2 years I have since returned to the salon part-time but continue to perform my duties at the flight school to keep things going. My duties include scheduling, billing, payroll, marketing, merchandising, lodging coordination, morale expert, and drip-coffee barista at the hangar. 😉

I can’t stress enough how grateful I am to have been given an opportunity with my husband to continue his father’s legacy. It is not lost on me how fortunate we are and how important it is that we rise to the challenge and allow ACTS to ascend to its highest potential. I can’t wait to see where the years to come will take us!

Blue skies ahead 💛”

Havin a real dog of a day out here... Quarantining Bush pilot style 😎

🌟Employee Spotlight : Delaney Best 🌟

ACTS Certified Flight Instructor

“I've been around aviation almost my entire life in one capacity or another. Having two uncles who are airplane mechanics/pilots helped me to get hooked early on. I spent most of my summers around the airport helping with maintenance and soaking up as much as I could. After taking my first flight lesson at age 12, I had caught the flying bug continuing on to solo at 16 and getting my private pilot's license after that. Since I was a kid I had dreamed of getting to fly super cubs in Alaska and in 2017 when my wife and I moved up here, I decided it was time to leave my former career of being a Paramedic and Law Enforcement Officer to pursue that dream. This is my second season at ACTS and I'm very grateful to be part of the team. I get to work with some pretty incredible people and am thankful for everything I learn from them. I'm looking forward to what's in store for the future of ACTS and this coming season!”

So happy to have you with us on the ACTS team Delaney!

The Piper-Pup in his natural habitat. 🐾

⚠️Caution : Men at Work ⚠️

Daniel and Delaney, two of our trusty CFI’s prove they can pull their weight on and off the ground. 😎

🌟Employee Spotlight: Steven Baldwin🌟

ACTS Owner/Operator

“I fell in love with aviation at three years old when my dad gave us a flyby in the F-16. My little three year old mind was blown that my dad could fly, and from that point on it was no question to me that I was going to become a pilot too.

I grew up around airplanes my entire life and was blessed to have a father that ran a flight school, allowing me to start flying at 14. I owe it to him for giving me the foundational techniques that have kept me alive in the Alaska bush... not to say that I haven’t had my fair share of trial and error on how to NOT bend airplanes. 😅 I soloed on my 16th birthday and got my pilots license on my 17th birthday. I decided the military was the next step toward my aviation career so I joined the Alaska Air National Guard two months before graduating high school.

My work at Alaska‘s Cub Training Specialists began in 2005 as a certified flight instructor. (CFI) I knew it was a good place to build experience and flight time until graduating from UAA with a Bachelors degree in Aviation Management in 2007. Out of college I was able to land a job in the regional world right away with the hours I had racked up at ACTS. I flew for a commuter airline based in Denver for three years before I was able to “broaden my horizons” and begin flying overseas.

In 2011 I took a job flying special forces missions in Afghanistan. I flew all over the country doing work with many three letter agencies, and After 4 1/2 years, as all good contracts do, it eventually fizzled out. I saw it as perfect timing to switch gears and start flying Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (ISR) missions with a new outfit in the sandbox. As much as I genuinely enjoyed the new job and being involved in the mission, I never lost sight of my goal to fly heavies and was excited to move toward flying a new type of aircraft.

My career goals went on hold in 2015, when my dad went home to Christ. It was not a circumstance I could have foreseen, but even through the pain of losing Dad I felt blessed to be the one to continue his legacy and run his flight school.

Fast forward a bit, and I now find myself flying the 747 for Atlas Air Cargo, with a wife/business partner that helps me operate ACTS when I am away on work trips. We have grown and expanded our super cub fleet and now provide float training along with minor king air operations in to austere runways. Most of the techniques we teach at ACTS can be applied almost anywhere when dealing with unimproved runways and mountainous terrain, and that has opened us up to working with many agencies and clients from around the world.

We have high hopes for the future here at ACTS and truly couldn’t do any of it without our stellar crew who is able to share the vision that this school was founded on. I look back and am extremely humbled by the road that was paved before me by my parents that led me here and I look forward to what opportunities the future will hold for us.”

-Steve Baldwin

How are you supposed to choose if you prefer skis or wheels when they’re ‘polar’ opposites? 😎

Ski season is in full swing cause it’s been snowin’ cats and dogs around here! Meet the ACTS mascot, Benelli - the noble hangar guard dog. ❄️

Meet 82Alpha, Queen of Land and (salt free)Sea. 👑

Felt cute, might delete later. 💁🏼‍♂️😆

Can we all take a moment to behold this beaut from the ACTS fleet? And as usual, big thanks to our stellar CFI/Master Photographer, Daniel Holman for snapping this awesome photo.