Serving Midwest Aviation Since 1960
Serving Midwest Aviation Since 1960
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The fly-in season of 2021 got off to a rousing start with the Sixth Annual TrickAir Ski Plane Fly-In at Jackson Seaplane Base in McGregor. The event was postponed twice, pushing the date to Feb. 20. Low ceilings and a polar vortex hampered earlier efforts to hold the annual event. The morning of the 20th brought blue skies and light winds making the hosts look "Nostradamus-like" in their selection of this day. In previous years, good weather meant lots of arrivals. The anticipation of many...
In Upper Michigan there is a delightful place called the Keweenaw Peninsula. Keweenaw is a Native American word that roughly translates as "portage." Over 7,000 years ago the area became a source of copper originally mined by a group called the Algonquians. Copper taken from the Keweenaw by prehistoric miners has been found as far away as Arkansas and Oregon. By the middle of the 19th Ccentury, copper mining was underway on an industrial scale. In 1885, the "Michigan Mining School" was founded...
At long last we received word from the City of Buffalo that we are welcome to hold the 2021 Great Minnesota Aviation Gathering at the Buffalo Municipal Airport (KCFE) on Friday and Saturday, May 21-22, 2021. Mike Wiskus and I attended the Buffalo Airport Council’s meeting in early February and were very pleased that the motion to recommend holding the event was unanimously passed and sent to the Buffalo City Council, carried by the airport manager, Chris Fredrick. We appreciate the efforts t...
"Blind luck will beat careful planning every time" might be a good theory for managing stuff like your finances. Thousands of authors have written millions of pages about financial planning, most of which isn't very helpful. Talking with "experts" is quicker but likely not much better. However, planning aviation facilities requires a more scientific approach. Fortunately, the FAA has provided several hundred pages of succinct advice on how to plan airports. A few days of fascinating reading shou...
In January, I wrote an article in which I laid out my flying plans for 2021. Fast forward just a few weeks and my, how things change. The 12th of February was to be the eve of my first long cross-country trip. Not the type of cross country that you fly as a student, but my first real cross country – just my wife and I along with a suitcase in our Cessna 182 in search of sun, fun, and freedom in the skies. Mother Nature had other plans. About three days ahead of our anticipated departure date, W...
To get an airplane off the runway you’ve got to pump a lot of unusual fluids into her…avgas, oil, hydraulic fluid, deicing solvent. And let’s not forget the coffee and pop to pump into the pilot! There are many liquids involved in flying and contact with some of them is not completely benign. We usually don’t think much of it if we slosh a bit of Jet A on ourselves, but every one of the fluids I mentioned can cause trouble if they get in the wrong place in the wrong amount. A lot of aircraft, especially the larger ones run some of their s...
It was a warm fall afternoon. Pilots were enjoying the last nice flying weather until winter made its appearance. An incoming aircraft was arriving at an uncontrolled airport from the opposite side of the traffic pattern. In the process of joining the downwind from a mid-field crosswind, and unbeknownst to him, another aircraft was also turning downwind from a prescribed crosswind. Suddenly, there was an audible gasp from the observers in the FBO, as the two aircraft executed evasive maneuvers to prevent an unpleasant outcome. The...
The Army Air Force needed dedicated transports, rather than adaptations of civilian airliners, to support airborne operations. These aircraft would have to carry large, sometimes bulky loads and be easy to load and unload. The wooden Curtiss C-76 Caravan and the stainless-steel Budd RB-1 Conestoga were designed with those needs in mind, but Fairchild got it right with its twin-boom C-82 Packet. Powered by a pair of 2100 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radials, the Packet had a 2870 cubic foot cargo...
When asked recently to write about hangar usage, I immediately thought back to my manager days at a local FBO in the early 2000s. Even then, understanding what was allowed to be stored in a hangar, was a regular question raised by myself and others. To answer that question of proper and allowed hangar use, what I first needed to understand the rules that govern airports. What I discovered then – and still holds true today – is that if an airport is receiving federal funds, the airport manager must follow the FAA’s interpretation of what hanga...
As I write this, temperatures are far below zero and the decidedly non-gopher rodent in Punxsutawney Pennsylvania told me there are weeks of winter ahead. Still, I can’t help but think of spring, new flowers budding, birds chirping, and the smell of road construction in the morning. The warmer weather seems to also warm our Minnesota joy for all outdoor activities, and if this spring is anything like last year, the General Aviation community will again be busy learning to fly or renewing skills, buying gas, and putting more planes in the air t...
I started learning how to fly back in 1981–82. One of the things I remember most was trying to understand weather. I had to understand my personal limits and how weather could determine a decision to fly or not. I recall struggling with the weather information available during flight prep. Back in those days there were only a few FSS weather stations across the state of Minnesota. Pilots had widespread coverage gaps and had to guesstimate the weather conditions they were going to be flying through. Forty years ago, we had less than a h...
The successful landing of an aircraft isn’t usually something to write about, but in December, Minneapolis pilot Craig Gifford made his most noteworthy touchdown. After an engine failure late on the night of Dec. 3, 2020, Gifford guided his Bellanca Viking down for an emergency landing on Interstate 35W. Luckily, no one was injured. Traffic cameras captured the event and Gifford received his 15 minutes of fame. While the interstate is not the best place to land, it certainly isn’t the worst. According to the NTSB database, 62% of general avi...
If you have information you would like us to share please send it to editor@mnflyer.com. We will publish as we have space available. May 21-22: The Seventh Annual Great Minnesota Aviation Gathering (GMAG) is scheduled for May 21-22 at Buffalo Municipal Airport (KCFE). This year’s event will be COVID-19 safe and will feature educational sessions and a variety of aviation product vendors. Visit the Minnesota Pilots Association website www.mnpilots.org and click on the page links for pilot, a...
