Leadership

Kimberly Nagel was born and raised in the St. Louis metro-east area. Her education has been focused on management and accounting. She was on the Dean’s List and a member of the honor society. Kimberly started at Ideal Aviation in 2012. She was offered a position at FlightSafety International in 2019 which she accepted but returned to Ideal Aviation in 2022 to be closer to home. Although not a pilot, she has had the opportunity to fly many aircraft including Maul, Cessna 150, 172, SR-22 Turbo, Piper Arrow, Pilatus PC-12, Cessna Citation 1SP, and an airship! She also has several simulator hours in Embraer 145, 170, and CRJ 200.

Bill Houska comes from a family of aviators. Bill is a Helicopter CFI with over 20 years of experience with over 15,000 hours of flight time. In 1970 his father, Bill Houska, Sr. founded Metropolitan Helicopters, St. Louis’s first helicopter flight school. Growing up around the business his first helicopter ride was when he was 6 months old and then around the age of 12 he got his chance to start “hold the sticks”. After high school he became a Commercial helicopter pilot and a Flight Instructor eventually stepping in to run the family company after the untimely death of his father. In 2002 he was offered the opportunity to become the Newschannel 5 Pilot/Reporter for Chopper 5. During the next 18 years he worked his way through the company holding the different job titles from Line Pilot to Check Airman to Director of Training to Chief Pilot. Bill is excited about getting back to his family roots in the Helicopter Training Industry to help move Ideal Aviation into the future.