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Umatilla Flight School Has New Owner

    Fly Umatilla, LLC, the pilot training school based at the Umatilla Municipal Airport, has a new owner.  Ryan Benaglio in recent weeks has taken over the helm of the company with the goal of continuing, and expanding, the company's success in creating new pilots.
    “Every guy has a dream,” Benaglio said this week.  His was to own a flight school, and when the opportunity to purchase Fly Umatilla from John Matusik came, he was ready to jump at the chance.
    “He had an interest in selling local,” Benaglio says of Matusik, and as the former had a history at the school and at the airport, it was an easy deal to make.
    The business features two planes, with plans to add another.  Benaglio, a Lake County native and US Navy veteran, says he sees the business as a place where locals can learn to fly in an environment that they might find more relaxing.
    Benaglio comes to the business with a history of flying, having started his training while in college.  In the Navy, he served as an aviation rescue swimmer, never lost his love for flight forged as a younger man, and likes that Fly Umatilla is also staffed with pilots who found aviation as youngsters.
    David Pearson and Jacob Graff serve as instructors at the school, and both came through the EAA Young Eagles program, which provides flights and scholarships to young people.  Longtime Umatilla aviation enthusiast and professional pilot Michael Lengemann also supports the school.
    "It's a little more of a hometown feel," Benaglio says of the school's attitude of treating customers like people, not numbers.  "It's very hands-on."
    Fly Umatilla can be reached at www.flyumatilla.com, at 352-931-0265, or on Facebook.