by Ben McQuillan
Following the mighty Mississippi River with its incredible scenery, reminds me of one of the reasons I love aviation so much! Photo by Hiroshi Takeuchi
Despite the threat of fog, low clouds, and a couple of last minute maintenance delays, this year’s 7th Annual Flying Cloud Air Tour, Flying Cloud Airport, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, was a terrific success! Twenty-six (26) airplanes and a total of 62 people participated; our largest group yet.
Following our weekly FAA Safety Seminar on Saturday, August 14, 2010 we began the pilot briefing for the most entertaining flying day of the year. The thorough briefing ran one full hour. By the time we wrapped it up at 10:00 am, the sun was shining at Flying Cloud, the low clouds in southern Minnesota lifted, the wind was calm, and all of our airplanes were neatly parked in line, begging to be started. It was time to go flying!
Watching all of your friends come in, not before scoring every landing of course, enjoying a gorgeous day sharing the passion of flying, cannot be described in words! We managed to cover ¾ of a mile of taxiway with aircraft wingtip-to-wingtip. Photo by Hiroshi Takeuchi.
The Flying Cloud Air Tour was started in 2004 to motivate local pilots to break the routine of short, local flights and branch out to the many airports within an hour’s flight of the metro area. That first flight included 14 airplanes from a Taylorcraft to a T-34 that trekked across northern Minnesota and western Wisconsin to four wonderful destinations: Breezy Point, Duluth and Sky Harbor in Minnesota, and Madeline Island and Cable Union in Wisconsin. Since 2004, we’ve grown to 26 airplanes and have visited the Cottage Café in Amboy, Minn.; the Warbird Museum in Granite Falls, Minn.; the Cirrus factory in Duluth, Minn.; the fly-in golf course in Voyager, Wisconsin; Madden’s in East Gull Lake, Minn.; and participated in a Flight Service Station tour in Princeton, Minn.
By the time the last airplane took off from Flying Cloud last Saturday, the fastest airplane in line – a V-Tail Bonanza – had already landed at our first destination, the Fillmore County Airport in Preston, Minn. Along the way, controllers at Rochester, Minn., observed “what looked like a line of ants heading back to the hill in Preston,” which this year consisted of some antiques like Peter Gabrail’s Ercoupe, Craig Nelson’s gorgeous Kitfox, Pete Strommen’s Amphib 182, a Tecnam LSA, a handful of Cessnas, Pipers, and Beechcrafts, and even a couple of Navions flown in formation by Paul Jachman and Dick Bihler. Preston’s airport manager, Larry Tammel, had arranged for the director of the local tourism board to meet us at the airport to promote the local communities and attractions of beautiful southeast Minnesota.
After looking around a bit, we wasted no time departing Preston as lunch was waiting for us in Winona. Particularly for pilots who had never flown into the area, the view of the Mississippi River valley as we descended into Winona’s traffic pattern was among the best in the state. George Bolon and his staff at Win-Air topped us off and let us take over their office for a welcomed break from the heat for lunch.
The route back to Flying Cloud took us north along the river valley and over Red Wing before turning toward home. The bluffs and scenery of the river proved a perfect backdrop for the air-to-air photos that Jason Dotray, a student pilot, toiled over from the back of the Bonanza. See all of this year’s tour photos on the air tour website at www.inflightpilottraining.com.
Thanks to the behind-the-scenes work of Bill Bittman and Hiroshi Takeuchi, and the performance of all of the pilots who flew with us, 2010’s Flying Cloud Air Tour was the best yet.
