The first weekend of August brought excellent airplanes and aviators to the St Cloud Sky Central airport. After a 16-year absence the skies above St. Cloud welcomed their own hometown aviator back to Minnesota. F22 demo pilot Captain Nic "Laz" le Tourneau was able to show-off the capabilities of the awesome F-22 to friends, family and all Minnesotans!
While "Laz" highlighted the show, airshow fans were treated to a good variety of airplanes ranging from the 81 year old B-25 bomber "Miss Mitchell" to a seven year old carbon fiber Gamebird 1.
If the planes were not flying some cars from Precision Exotics were ripping up and down the runway/taxiway hitting speeds of up to 180mph. The Lamborghini Huracán was a crowd favorite!
The Next Gen Eagles brought their Christen Eagle biplanes flying wingtip to wingtip and some exhilarating opposing passes.
18 November 2026 Minnesota Flyer
When not performing airshows, The Minnesota Wing of the Commemorative Air Force offers History flights in many of their aircraft. I was able to participate in a media ride in Miss Mitchell the day before the airshow.
After the pre-flight briefing and donning flight suits myself and five others walked out to Miss Mitchell. We soon climbed in and found our seats. Three of us were in the front section near the pilots. After a powerful take-off we were able to move up and spend some time in the bombardiers position. My mind tried to imagine what it had be like to fly this plane "in anger" over North Africa and Europe. Not knowing if you would be returning back to base when the mission was complete. Luckily our mission was a gentle flight around the friendly skies of St. Cloud with no flak or enemy fighters chasing us.
After my time in the nose, I returned to the flight deck and was able to watch the Captain and First officer manage all the controls to give a safe, smooth flight around the area.
F22 demo pilot Captain Nic "Laz" le Tourneau making some more clouds in St. Cloud.