North/North Central Fly-In

mgooderum

mgooderum

BAC Webmaster
Staff member
Now that we're creeping up to 6-8 BAC members in the Twin Cities area or near by I think we're getting due to host something North of the 40th parallel.

I've had a bug to try to figure out if there's somebody that would have the space to keep a few mice warm for a "Never too cold to fly" fly-in in January or February up here in snow land.

Failing or in addition to that it might be nice to have a celebrate Spring fly-in somewhere with some trees and a lake. Any thoughts or recommendations?
 
I think Famous Dave's Ribs has a fly-in in Hayward, Wisconsin every winter. They clear a runway on the lake and you land there in front of the restaurant. I've never been there, but I've always wanted to go. Maybe BAC could piggy-back on that. I haven't seen anything on this year's event yet, but I just checked the web site and last year was the 7th annual event held on Sunday January 15th, 2006. I realize it's in the East Central Region, but it still sounds like fun. I'll co-sponsor it if you want to make it an 'inter-regional' event.
 
This sounds interesting and for those too timid to land on ice or if it's IFR Sawyer County has 5000*100 and a LOC/DME approach (which was due to get a glideslope for ILS this year with a waiver for no full taxiway) and GPS/LPV approaches to both runway ends. Catch is surprisingly nobody rents a car in town _except_ the FBO (as we found out when our Durango committed suicide by fire there this fall). That would be KHWR (KHWD will lead you about 1400nm astray).

I suppose next step might be to call Famous Dave's or Grand Pine and see what is up with the 8th Annual Fly-In.
 
ICE

All I could think about when you guys starting posting about landing on an iced over lake was my uncle who lost a cadilac in a lake in Minnesota while trying to take a shortcut. So, would that be a soft-field landing preferred? I would be terrified. I'd rather sit through a good California earthquake.

However, it sounds like a fun fly-in.

Dan Jonas
Napa Valley
 
Last year was unbelievably crappy ice due to lots of early snow and rain as the ice was forming.

This year is shaping up to be dry and cold. I've been on Lakes where a 48" ice auger wasn't able to reach liquid water. But I've also worked ice fishing contests (10000 holes in a square mile area) where you can watch the ice sag during the day and liquid water end up several inches over the ice (remember ice is really still a fluid of extremely high viscosity).

Personally Candy might make us land SuperMouse on the 500k sq ft of asphalt down the road at KHYR.

Stopping could be interesting depending on how much they plow. The Round Lake lake is about 2mi accross but Sqaw Bay by Famous Daves and Grand Pines is only about .5 * .8 mile.

Now a plus side of landing on glare ice is crosswind landings become a non-issue - you just land in the crab and straighten out as you slow ;-).
 
Hi All,

As a new Musketeer owner I too would like to have a get together in Jan or Feb. If no one picks up the torch I may have a place to get together in the Brainard area.

Please keep me posted.

TIA

Todd Giencke
[email protected]
 
Hello Everyone-
As I'm from Detroit Lakes I cued right in on the vote for the Brainerd area. Just a hop and a jump to a nice airport, great people,and a wonderful area with many activities to choose from. I'll keep an eye on this. To all who aren't aware of it; Central Minnesota has a LOT to offer! Everyone fly safe...
..Eric Johnson
 
I'm game to help out. I tried calling Famous Daves and Grand Pines and got a "huh" at one and a not sure at the other when asking about the Winter Fly-In for 2007. I'd say scratch that from the list as a primary fly-in. If dates re-appear we can put it on the calandar as an "affiliated" (my term) fly-in for people who go anyway to get credit. For us the wife has absolutely verboten on landing on the lake and I'm not too keen on it either. Driving when it's January and you can personally see and assess ice conditions is one things. Landing ice unseen is another. Plus it's unclear if that would be covered by insurance, so we'd end up going into Sawyer County anyway.

So I'd guess I'd say let's start to plan for a North Central BAC fly-in in February. That will still be a nice "winter" Fly-In but with slightly less of the near and sub-zero cold that complicates winter flying but early enough to stay clear of the low and mid-level icing we get Spring/Fall. Somewhere "up North" would be interesting. Start with suggestions for airport and timing. Tie-in with a local event helps make the day interesting but isn't required.

Aitkin Airport at leasted used to have an annual Valentines Day Fly-In. There is an old web page at http://www.aitkinaviation.com/valentinesflyin.htm.

We could follow through with a Metro-located event in the summer. KMIC had an open house on Father's Day last year that is supposed to become a regular event. Other local aviation events in the metro or near metro every year are Wings and Wheels in Osceola, WI.

MN DOT Aeronautics division maintains a Minnesota Fly-In page at http://www.dot.state.mn.us/aero/avoffice/events/fly-ins.html and offers downloads of airport manager addresses to send out fly-in flyers for posting. The listing is sparse but usually fills in as the year gets moving.

The Anoka EAA chapter has a more complete list of EAA sponsered fly-ins at http://www.eaachapter237.org/flyins.html, including their own. It's a 2006 schedule but gives some starting points for searches.

We should probably steer clear of late July and Early August to to avoid Oshkosh and BAC to OSH if it comes together.
 
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