Alan Uhler, President

Alan graduated from Penn State in 1997 with a BS in Engineering and is now the second-generation owner of a local engineering company, Uhler & Associates. Alan was introduced to flying at the age of five when his father purchased and restored a 1947 Stinson 108. Alan still owns and flies that plane, which is also the plane in which each of his own kids received their first airplane rides. With 25 years as a pilot and based out of the Piper Memorial Airport in Lock Haven, Alan feels strongly the Sentimental Journey Fly-In is an important part of the heritage of Clinton County and the history of aviation in general. His goal for 2025 is to build on the fly-in’s many successes of the past and to grow the event for the future.

Mitch Haubert, Vice President

Mitch literally has been flying since he was two days old. Today he owns an aircraft maintenance company at the Mifflin County Airport (RVL) and a metal precision machining company, but his heart is in airplanes. Mitch’s dad was a Navy pilot in World War II. As a kid, Mitch and his dad would fly an antique Stinson to Sentimental Journey for the pancake breakfasts. When Mitch was 14 he told his father he wanted to learn how to fly. His dad found a derelict Cessna 150 that had been abandoned in a barn for 25 years. Mitch bought it and spent the next year and a half getting it airworthy. His personal collection is impressive: two classic Stinson V-77s, a BT-15, a Cessna 140, and a Navion are just some of his favorites. “I fly airplanes and I fix airplanes,” Mitch said, “Airplanes is pretty much what I do.”

John Machamer, Treasurer

John had his first airplane ride in 1969 and quickly was hooked on the science and skills of aviation. In college he worked as a flight instructor at Hampton Airfield in New Hampshire, as well as, towing banners, gliders, and flying freight. Anything to build flightime!  After graduation he went to work as an Engineer for Boeing on the B-747 program. Not wanting to spend his career in an office he returned east and began a fish-spotting business, flying 200 miles east of Nantucket in a Piper Supercub in support of the commercial swordfish harpoon fishery. He earned his first “true” airline flying job with Provincetown Boston Airlines (PBA) in 1982, flying DC-3s, and soon moved to American Airlines. He spent 37 years with AA, flying many different types of Boeings and finishing his career as one of the airline’s elite "B787 Check Airman/APD.” In retirement he restores antique airplanes and received a Bronze Lindy award at Oshkosh in 2016 for his 1930 Davis restoration. He currently is working on the restoration of a 1930 Pitcairn PA-7S Super Mailwing biplane.

Dr. Mike Jones, Secretary

Mike Jones spent forty years growing a small industrial business in Connecticut from three employees to more than 200, with offices in four countries and distributors in sixty countries. Based on his business career, Mike is an expert in planning, sales, marketing, and organizational design. These days he consults with small airports on business development and their strategic plans. When not working on airport issues, he enjoys gardening, cooking, and golf. He is a 4,000 hour commercial-rated pilot and also is a well-known aviation writer who has been published in Cessna Pilots magazine, Mentor magazine, Professional Pilot magazine, and other journals. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, is a graduate of Columbia University, and has a doctorate in airport governance from the University of Florida (Go Gators!).

Clyde Smith Jr

Clyde graduated from Williamsport with a degree as an Aircraft Mechanic. His career focus has been on the mechanic and technical aspects of flying. Following in his dad’s footsteps, Clyde worked at Piper for 17 years, first in Lock Haven and then in Florida. He taught the maintenance service school at Piper for eight years. Since 1994, he’s helped the owners of older Piper airplanes with maintenance advice, such as procuring hard-to-find parts. He also offers seminars on restoring and maintaining the vintage “rag and tube” Piper fleet. Today he flies a Piper 180 Comanche, which he likes a lot, but his true love is any classic taildragger. In fact, Clyde is restoring the original P-16 prototype, Serial Number 1, that his dad flew as a test pilot.

Mark Stewart

Mark spent almost his entire career as an executive GE Corporate Research and Development center in Niskayuna, NY. He soloed in 1972 in a Piper J-3 Cub and was the 2024 recipient of the Wright Brothers Master pilot award. Mark has a passion for antique aircraft and currently is flying a 1935 Taylor E2 Cub, a 1936 Taylor J2 Cub, and a 1946 J3 Cub which he has owned for 54 years. All three aircraft are based at the Bay Bridge airport, W29.

John Buchan

John and Betsy Buchan have a long history in Lock Haven; he was the postmaster here for decades. He became involved with Sentimental Journey because of his job and his passion for stamp collecting. Back in 1986, the stamp collecting club in Lock Haven lobbied for a post office at the Fly-In, and any commemorative letters sent from the Fly-in were hand- cancelled with the insignia, “Mailed from Cub Haven, PA.” They both have been volunteering since then, a legacy of 37 years. He also volunteers with the Piper Museum, and has been doing so since before the museum even had a building. Since 2002, John has been the flying director at Sentimental Journey.

Cal Arter

Avuncular 87-year old Cal Arter has lived in Lock Haven most of his life. Cal was a classic “airport brat” who would ride his bike to the airport just to watch the planes. As a teenager, he washed planes in exchange for flight instruction. Once he completed his cross-country solo flight, Piper loaned him a plane to subcontractors to pick up the airplane parts they needed, building flight time even before he formally had his license. He went to college in Miami, FL and commuted in a slow but reliable Piper TriPacer. After graduation he got a job flying passengers and cargo to the Bahamas in the 1950s. He returned to Piper to enjoy a stellar career: first, as a test pilot in 1960, then the Northeast regional sales manager, then the entire Southern region, and eventually all of South America. He’s just stepped down as president of Sentimental Journey after 38 years, but he hopes it retains the philosophy of being family-oriented and affordable.

John Spencer

John comes from an aviation family; his father flew Boeings for USAir and his stepfather was a test pilot for Piper. John was raised in Pittsburgh but strong family ties moved him back to Lock Haven as a young man. He earned an associate’s degree in aircraft maintenance from Pennsylvania Tech in Williamsport. John has a day job with Frito Lay but in addition to his addiction to aviation also he is a superb amateur musician. John modestly reports he plays a “half decent” guitar. He’s continuously studying music theory and is an aficionado of the acoustic guitar legends of the 1960, ‘70s, and ‘80s as well as classical music. In terms of aviation, his favorite general aviation ride would be the Cessna 310 light twins, and among the Piper family the Comanche 250 and the Aztec are his favorites. Today he lives minutes away from the Lock Haven airport, right under the base leg to Runway 27.

Jae Gettig

Jay was raised in Salona, here in Clinton County. When he graduated from High School in 1969 the Vietnam War was raging, so he enlisted and choose aviation as his specialty. He spent a year in Vietnam working on helicopter maintenance. After the war he returned to Pennsylvania and worked for the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in Washington, PA. He repaired "Huey" helicopters (the famous Bell UH-1), Blackhawks, Apaches, Cobras, and Jet Rangers, and retired out of the Guard in 2010 as a First Sergeant. He’s been volunteering with Sentimental Journey for fifteen years, mostly working in the Blue Building helping visitors find hard-to-source replacement parts for their antique Pipers. Jae also has been on the Board of directors for the Johnstown Harley Owners Group, served on the local sewer authority board, is the treasurer of the local coin collectors club, and is into his third year of being the commander at the American Legion Lock Haven Post 131. His favorite plane is a Harley-Davidson, but if that doesn’t count he’d chose a Piper Aztec or a Pawnee crop-duster.

Brandon Payne

Brandon is 28 years old and has been on the board for three years. He lives in Lamar, just 20 minutes from the airport with his wife of four years and a three-year old daughter. He’s a stone mason and works for local company called Bairs Masonry. He’s been involved with Sentimental Journey since 2019: he started at the all-you-can-eat breakfasts and then worked his way up to bartender. Right now his big project is getting his private pilot’s license with Nick Fascia out of the Tech Aviation Flight School at State College Airport. Other than flying, he and his wife love to fish, hunt, and hike. He said, “We are outdoors people, so if there's a season, we hunt it.” But Sentimental Journey is pretty much the biggest community thing he volunteers with.

Neil Baughman

Neil is from the Hershey area, about an hour southeast of Lock Haven if he flies in his 1943 Taylorcraft. He’s accumulated 4,000 hours of flying in more than 90 different airplanes, most of them antiques. He is a Master Sargeant in the Air National Guard and supervises an air-to-ground practice bombing range. He’s been coming to Sentimental Journey since he was ten years old. Neil started flying lessons at age 14 and soloed on his 16th birthday. He’s a volunteer at the Golden Age Air Museum and on the board of directors for Wings of War air museum. His favorite airplane is the famous de Havilland DH.82 “Tiger Moth” which is a British biplane from the 1930s. His ambition for Sentimental Journey is to keep it going and growing. “It’s just a fun flying event for any age. I bring my son, he’s ten. It's always a great flying event, a vacation for my whole family.”

Mason Breiner

(Bio coming soon)

Eric Lunger

(Bio coming soon)