The Aero Experience Two Weeks In Review: Behind the Scenes of Midwest Aviation

By The Aero Experience Team 

The Aero Experience looks back on the last two weeks of covering Midwest Aviation with this review of our visits to the three St. Louis area regional airports. We have a flurry of activity ahead of us before winter settles in, so we encourage everyone to enjoy the beautiful autumn flying weather and check back with The Aero Experience frequently for more feature stories! 

Our October site visits began with a visit to Big River Aviation at St. Louis Downtown Airport. One of our earliest sponsors, Big River Aviation has seen significant growth over the last few years as the general aviation aircraft repair station at the airport and recovery crew for aircraft in distress around the region. One such recovery, a Piper Cherokee Six that went off the runway at Washington, MO Regional Airport in February, is receiving significant repairs for return to flight later this year. Another aircraft in the hangar, A Lancair Columbia, known as The New Spirit of St. Louis, was flown by Erik Lindbergh in 2002 to recreate his grandfather's 1927 New York to Paris solo flight. It is being restored to flight status for use by AeroCareers to promote aerospace education at events around the Midwest. At any given day, aircraft from a Piper Cub to a Cessna 400 series twin or even a Citation needing a tire change or oxygen service can be seen receiving maintenance care by Big River Aviation. 

While at St. Louis Downtown Airport, we caught a Delta Airlines jet charter, training flights from Parks College and Ideal Aviation, Air Methods KidsFlight 1 and another look at the vintage Curtiss-Wright hangars dating back to the late 1920s.

We regularly find ourselves at Creve Coeur Airport to visit our sponsors Gateway Flight Training and Piston Aviation as well as our partner organization, the Gateway Youth Aeronautical Foundation (GYAF). The GYAF was popular with the Young Eagle flyers last weekend and has since acquired this working model of a Rolls Royce (Allison) T63-A700 turboshaft engine like the one that powers the OH-58 helicopter now under restoration by the Foundation. Anyone who visits the GYAF and makes a donation can walk away with an aviation art poster while supplies last.

Gateway Flight Training provides comprehensive aircraft maintenance and avionics services along with flight training for all levels from Private Pilot to ATP.  Here we include some views of fleet and customer aircraft receiving maintenance service and the Cherokee, Archer and Debonair on recent flights.

Piston Aviation continues to grow since their grand opening August 6. Here we show their current fleet aircraft, the modern Bristell LSA and a very nicely appointed Piper Cherokee, on flights in recent days. Two more aircraft, a Beechcraft Musketeer and Orlican M8 Eagle, will be joining the fleet in the next few weeks. 

This week we also visited Spirit of St. Louis Airport, home to our sponsors Elite Aviation and Wings of Hope. They are located within sight of each other across the north runway and work together during the twice-yearly Soar Into STEM Program. Elite Aviation added several aircraft to their Cessna 172S training fleet this year and continue to provide aircraft maintenance services as well. This week we visited during the chili cookoff day and caught some training flights as well.

While at Spirit of St. Louis Airport, we also visited Wings of Hope, the St. Louis-based global humanitarian nonprofit whose mission is to change and save lives through the power of aviation. We regularly feature Wings of Hope in our rotation, and here we follow up with a story first announced at the Gala event held in June. Wings of Hope has partnered with Oris SA to produce a Limited Edition Wings of Hope Big Crown Pilot's Watch. Here we feature a preview of our coverage of the watch media and retailers who met this week to tour Wings of Hope and learn more about the organization represented in the new watch.

Fred Harl has been out and about this week. He visited The Space Museum in Bonne Terre, MO last weekend where he met with the Museum's President, Earl Mullins, at the McDonnell factory cart exhibit. The cart shown here was the one used by James S. McDonell to drive President Kennedy through the McDonnell Aircraft factory in 1962. It is currently on loan from the Greater St. Louis Air & Space Museum.

This Weekend Fred Harl is at the Beech Party in Tullahoma, TN where he met up with Matt Younkin and his Beech 18, Magic by Moonlight.

Upcoming aviation events include: