Minnesota Flyer - Serving Midwest Aviation Since 1960

John Parker was a pioneer. Growing up on a Southern Minnesota farm, he loved horses, but his fate took him to aviation and the use of aircraft for conservation and wildlife management. From 1949...

More than 375,000 passengers pass through Rochester International Airport in a year, second in Minnesota only to MSP. Lots of those passengers are heading for the famous Mayo Clinic. American, Delta...

"Our mission is to conserve and manage the state's natural resources, to provide outdoor recreation opportunities, and to provide for commercial uses of natural resources in a way that creates a susta...

"Say It Ain't So..." (Chicago Tribune headline after Shoeless Joe Jackson was indicted for fixing the World Series). Non-Directional Beacons (NDB) are being shut off. What will flight instructors use...

Back when "overnight delivery" was exotic, an interesting fleet of airplanes flew "time sensitive" stuff like legal papers and canceled checks. One such aircraft was the Beech 18. Originally a...

Start talking pavement technology and almost everyone else's eyes glaze over. Pavements are fascinating. Discussions about fine and coarse aggregates can go on for hours and of course a great topic...

It would be hard to imagine more interesting times than what our planet has recently experienced. The coronavirus worldwide pandemic and the resulting government responses have very much changed the...

In all the history of aviation, only 99 pilots can claim to have been "Flying Tigers." The nickname was later adopted by the 23rd Fighter Group of the U.S. Army Air Force, but the original Flying...

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had a way with the English language. He also liked the sound of his own voice. Many of his speeches in Parliament lasted so long that some members were nearly...

My blood pressure was about to spike. The youngest daughter had just told me she was going to the Marine Corps Ball. This was a successful and self-assured young woman, who could take care of herself...

Before Sinclair Lewis made it to the big time, he was an aviation writer. His first published book was "Hike and the Aeroplane." He wrote it in 1912 under the pseudonym of Tom Graham. Literary...

Less than seven years after the Wright Brothers first powered flights the air age came to Springfield, Mn. A pilot who called himself Captain Foster (it's true, you cannot make this stuff up) arrived...

Charles Hallock was an author and publisher from New York City. He studied at Amherst and Yale, then edited the New Haven Register. Around the time of the American Civil War he owned the New York...

Like to see stage shows and maybe play a little "blackjack?" How about staying in a nice hotel, having some good meals and getting away for a few days? You could get an airline ticket to Las Vegas...

Ken Bresley was crazy about the bracing cold of winters in Walker, MN. Or maybe he was just crazy. Every February Ken would lead the "plunge." A group would cut a hole in the ice on Leech Lake, then...

Warren is the seat of Marshall County and the home of the "Settlers Square Historical Museum." It's a great museum with all kinds of exhibits including a 1977 Ford LTD. The old Ford is beat up. It...

Brooten is an industrious place. The City's economic success would be great for many towns but is remarkable for a smaller community like Brooten. One of Brooten's more interesting products is wood ba...

There must be a theme here. Piquadinaw is what the Ojibway called the area. That roughly translates as "it is hilly." European settlers saw the wisdom in that name and in 1910 Hill City was...

"Wells to go Dry" is a headline that could have happened. In 1913, seven years before the United States government enacted national prohibition, a local election prohibited consumption of alcoholic be...

Perham Municipal Airport is located just northwest of the city between the old and new versions of US Highway 10. In the "good old days" there was a popular drive-in movie theater on the old highway...

Once upon a time pilots training for their instrument ratings regularly practiced approaches at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. It's true, that really happened. MSP had the only...

Before the arrival of Europeans, the Dakota and Ojibwa frequently disputed who got to use the area around what is now the City of Benson in Swift County. A particularly gruesome chapter in that...

Henry Sibley was having a bad day. He was supposed to recommend a name for the town that was to be the "division point" for the St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad to his fellow directors. General...

Grygla is "The Biggest Town of Its Size." It must be true, the slogan is on the city website and letterhead. It's also true of the Grygla Municipal Airport. Between the small-town ambiance and the...

When Hadrian was Emperor of Rome, a rather rowdy group lived north of the province of Britannia. Called the Caledonii, they were such a pain that Hadrian had a wall built across the island to keep...