Captain Groebner

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