Celebrates 30 year aviation career
Jim Groebner flies what is surely one of the fastest and certainly
the sexiest civilian aircraft ever built. Lear Jet is the airplane
and Jim is the captain. His current ride is the Lear 45XR. That's
definitely pretty cool.
Bill Lear invented his namesake aircraft, but he sold the type
certificate to Bombardier who still call it a Lear Jet. The original
Model 23 was a little hot rod. The one Groebner flies is
much bigger with nine very spacious passenger seats, a gross
weight of 21,500 pounds and 2000 Nautical Miles for range.
Previous Lear Jets were based on the 23, but the model 45 was
a clean sheet design although its ancestry is obvious.
He'd much rather sleep at the airport under the stars
Captain Groebner takes his passengers to places like Baha
and the Caribbean, often spending several days at the beach
or fishing on somebody else's dime. Being a business jet pilot
means he also gets to fly to Detroit and El Paso so it's not all
milk and honey. In any case, Jim isn't a big fan of hotels.
He'd much rather sleep at the airport under the stars.
Originally Jim's ambitions were in engineering. After graduation
from college, he went to work for a firm that designed
and built stuff for airports nationwide. It happened they
needed a construction supervisor for a major runway project
at the St. Paul Downtown Airport so Groebner walked into an
aviation career through the back door. He learned to fly and
earned his private pilot's certificate in 1984.
Being the son of a game warden led Jim to his principal avocation
which is the great outdoors. His next career stop was
Short Elliot Hendrickson Inc. where he excelled at airport
construction work and surveying. The outdoor skills proved
valuable. He did projects at places like Cook, Ladysmith,
Tower and Two Harbors. While work was underway, Jim
camped on the airport. Sometimes he
towed a camping trailer to the site, but
often he slept in a tent and once dug a
snow cave to sleep in.
Since he was hanging out at an airport a
lot, he used his spare time to add to his
flying qualifications, soon earning a commercial
certificate and instrument rating.
On weekends he fattened his log
book by borrowing airplanes and flying
home. Eventually he earned multi-engine
and seaplane ratings then added a
Certified Flight Instructor to his resume.
Part time flight instructing added more
flying time and the necessary experience
to fly the SEH Beech Baron and Piper
Navajo Chieftain. Groebner used one part
time job and one full-time gig as a co-pilot
to get the jet time he needed to be a Pilot In Command.
His current employer got him his Airline Transport Pilot
Certification and type rating for the Lear.
Jim's more mundane flying usually involves a King Air 90 or 200.
Staying diversified is a key to success in aviation. Jim did that
by getting a certificate to fly drones commercially. The drone
he flew wasn't one of the little plastic jobs that sounds like a
Cuisinart. Groebner flew an industrial strength Matrice 600
that's used for things like crop and land surveys. Of course, it
can't lift a human pilot, but if the Hobbits had an air force,
they could fly it to attack Mordor.
Captain Groebner still dabbles in engineering occasionally,
most recently taking some time to build a new runway in the
great little town of Fertile, Minnesota (where he slept at the
airport). With his wife Carla, Jim owns a hunting preserve in
Southeast Minnesota that he graciously offers to wounded
veterans and first responders so they can pursue game or just
enjoy some peace in a private place.
Jim's more mundane flying usually
involves a King Air 90 or 200
For over 30 years Jim had a very "satisfying" career working
on airports, but he felt like he needed a change. Now he flies
an airplane that has a service ceiling of 51,000 feet at speeds
measured by Mach Number. Mission accomplished! As the
guys in the beer commercial said when the "Swedish Bikini
Team" joined them on a fishing trip, "it just doesn't get any
better than this."
After 30
Reader Comments(0)