2023 Summer Hangar Flyin' and Lunch

Saturday, July 8th, 2023 - eatin' starts at noon

Bernie and Pete's hangar at Anoka Airpoirt (KANE)

Put those nightmares's of winter's crummy weather away and join us for our annual get-to-together at Anoka!!  Show up around 1100 or so and we'll plan to eat around noon.  Bring along a camp chair for your sitting pleasure.

For fly-ins:

You can park at the north end of the hangar line (ask for taxi instructions to “Fox Hollow” at the west end of the airport (taxi lane “India”)) or on the grass on India Lane opposite the hangars.  

For drivers:

From Rte 65:  Turn east on 93^rd Lane NE.  Turn left at airport entrance (gate code 12185).  Turn right at T intersection then immediate left on India Lane.  

From I35W and Rte 10:  Go west on Rte 10 and exit on 93^rd Lane.  Turn right and take second airport entrance to the right and follow directions above.

Please park on grass or hard surface clear of hangar doors!!!!!! 

Questions:  Call Doug at 651-398-1184  

Video of our 2023 Spring meeting at Lake Elmo.  Guest speakers Eric Janssen and Pete Howell.

Enjoy....

Here's the video of our January virtual meeting with Guil Barros.   Enjoy...

Eleven "antique" issues of the newsletter have been added to the "RVator's Log" page.  They range from the March 2007 to the December 2005 issues.  The graphic format on some of the issues did not convert properly so you may see some issues with photos not displaying but the content is there.  Enjoy.......

The September issue of the RVator's Log is now available HERE.....

The June issue of the RVator's Log is now available HERE.....

The March issue of the RVator's Log is now available HERE.....

The December issue of the RVator's Log is now available HERE.....

The September issue of the RVator's Log is ready for your reading pleasure HERE......

Mark Owen's RV-12 has been flying for several months.  Every RV that takes to the air has a back story that is unique.  Here's Mark's story...........

Several weeks into the Covid-19 lockdown.....   RV-14 builder/pilot Tim Olson shares his version of "Social Distancing".  Enjoy........

The March issue of the RVator's Log is ready for your literary pleasure.  Click HERE....

The December issue of the RVator's Log is now ready for download HERE......

The September issue of the RVator's Log is now ready for download HERE......

Most of the club was at our Summer hangar party where we honored RV-guru extraordinaire Tom Berge.  We presented Tom with a commemorative book with a ton of "Tom" photos and testimonials from club member on Tom's impact on their projects and planes.  Here's a link to the publisher where you can page through and enjoy the book!!  You can enlarge the size of the page for better viewing.

The June 2019 issue of The RVator's Log is now ready for download HERE........

Every time I make a trip to Hibbing to visit Midwest Aircraft Refinishing, I usually find some reason to marvel at their artistry with a spray gun.  Monday of this week, I flew the RV-7 north to meet up with Frank Huber who was taking his RV-7A back for some minor touchup work.  His RV is painted in Bud Anderson's "Old Crow" paint scheme and is flawless, as I would have expected by any paintwork coming out of Hibbing.

The big news is their completion of a major addition to their facility.  Their new hangar is more than doubles the size of their other buildings.  One half is a sterile dust free space where they can do their final polishing and vinyl graphic work.  The other side is a state of the art paint booth big enough for a King Air.  Brightly lit with LEDs, the north wall is one big filtered air inlet and the south wall is the exit.  All the air is filtered and captured so no bad chemicals escape into the pristine Minnesota north woods nearby.

Most of their work is Cirrus restorations and repair, but their reputation is spreading among the RV community.  If you want the best, book early, as they are usually scheduled 8 to 12 months out!

- Doug

For more details on how Midwest Aircraft Refinishing came to be, here's an article in Business North magazine from last fall.

Frank Huber's RV-7 in front of Midwest's new paint hangar

This is the detail side of the new hangar.  Final finish work is done here before delivery.

The paint "booth"...  filtered air comes in through the entire wall

George Virnig explains the "exhaust" side of the hangar to Frank

Their bread and butter is Cirrus repairs.  This one in the process of recovering from a chute recovery with major composite repairs.  

This is a recent Cirrus restoration (it's a 2004 model). The carbon fiber effect is painted not vinyl graphics.  It's a secret how they do it, but they do it!!!!

Our resident tech counselor Tom Berge recently returned from Austria where he reassembed Joerg Pfeiffer's RV-9A.  Joerg's RV had been based at the Lino Lakes, MN airpark for a number of years.  He splits his time between the U.S. and his home in Austria managing his company JP Powersports Engineering.  This fall Joerg decided he wanted to move the airplane back home to Austria.  In late November, he and Tom took the airplane apart, crated it up in a standard shipping container for the trip to Europe.  After it arrived, Joerg contracted with Tom to come put it all back to together.  So in March, Tom and his wife Karen spent two weeks in this most beaitiful part of the world splitting time between RV "work" and sightseeing.

Here's a short clip of the engine start on March 17th.  Keep in mind the battery has been sitting in the airplane since the end of November and traveled on trucks and ships for all of this time with no attention whatsoever.   The Odyssey PC680 is a pretty robust battery and will hold a charge a LONG time without human intervention!

Here's a couple shots of around the local area in Nuziders, Austria (about an hour's drive east of Zurich.)

Driving to St. Moritz

This is certainly not Minnesota!

Pretty impressive place to fly your RV!!!

The December issue of The RVator's Log is now read for download HERE........

14 RVs attended our Fall Fly-In Breakfast at Anoka last Saturday.  Thanks to all who flew in and those who drove as well.  EAA Chapter 237 did a great job in hosting us and we thank them for their efforts to make it a fun morning.

Here's some photos........

RVs on the ramp in front of the old University of Minnesota aeronautics building.

DAL captain Kevin Knutson and his RV-6.  A beatiful example of an "old-school" RV.

RV-7A builder Frank Huber (yellow vest) shows Peter Fruehling his newly finished machine.  It's heading to the paint shop in Hibbing next month.

Pat Halama (R) flew in from EAU in his RV-9A.  Pat's co-pilot was Reynolds Tomter, who at age 101 loves to fly with Pat!!!

Breakfast at Chapter 237's hangar.  

Chapter 237 cooks up their famous breakfasts every other month.  Yum!!!!!

Our June summer hangar party (aka Anoka Extravaganza) is history.  Go HERE to check out the photos......

Tom Irlbeck tribute page

RV-10/14 builder Tim Olson and his family took a trip this August to Oregon to view the eclipse.  What makes this really cool is that they took BOTH of their airplanes with his wife Andrea and daughter Colleen flying the RV-14 and Tim and daughter Danielle flying the RV-10.  You can read all about the trip HERE......

Before their trip, Tim (who is a CFI) gave his daughter Danielle some dual in short field operations in the -14.  Check out the video.........

Our 2017 RV Fly-In and Picnic is in the books.  Attendance was down somewhat perhaps because of a rather windy day.  But regardless, it was another great time of eating and talking RV talk.  Here's a shot from Peter Fruehling of his daughter Teagan delighting in Nancy Burkholder's RV-6 roaring overhead.  Click on this link to see the Photo Gallery....

Tom Irlbeck reflects on his  57 years as a pilot, 71 1⁄2 years of flying....

RV-4 pilot John Field recently took his niece Mono for a ride in his beautiful yellow -4.  She wrote him this REALLY COOL thank you note...  You'll love it!!! (make all that labor worth every minute!)