Ivan joined the Classic team in 2015 and is the lead rotor wing pilot at our Cortez CO base where he is also the regional public relations and marketing representative.
Born and raised in Cashmere WA, Ivan’s career in the sky started during a summer backpacking trip to Alaska when he was in college. After taking a mountaineering course, he began his first of five seasons working as a heli-hiking guide. By his fourth summer, he’d already started flying.
Over the next few years, Ivan fell in love with helicopters, leading backpacking and ice climbing trips in Alaska during the summers and ski instructing in Sun Valley ID during the winters. He graduated with a degree in aeronautics from Utah Valley University before moving back to Washington for flight school.
From there, Ivan worked as a flight instructor in Olympia before joining Era Helicopters, flying offshore oil in the Gulf of Mexico and utility and tourism flights in Alaska. When an opportunity presented itself to enter the air medical field, Ivan took it, and has been helping others in and around the Four Corners area ever since.
Ivan is passionate about helping others in their greatest times of need, something he calls both the toughest and most rewarding part of the job. At Classic, Ivan says he’s found the “best little company I’ve ever worked for,” and he’s impressed with the team’s ability to maintain its small family feel, even as it has grown.
When he’s not flying, Ivan lives in Durango CO with his nine-year-old son Ryder. They enjoy skiing, mountain biking, and camping. During the pandemic, Ivan has even picked up a few video game skills, and it doesn’t take much arm twisting for him to join Ryder in playing some Minecraft.