The Aero Experience: The Aero Experience Two Weeks In Review: More 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 with some of our sponsors at two of our St. Louis area airports. We still have a flurry of activity ahead of us, and some great feature stories coming to you 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!

We made another visit last week 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. On this visit, we show some of the long-term projects from our previous post along with additional aircraft from the St. Louis Flight Training fleet and individual customers.

We regularly find ourselves at Creve Coeur Airport to visit our sponsors as well as our partner organization, the Gateway Youth Aeronautical Foundation (GYAF). The Foundation hosted a visit of students from Aviation Explorer Post 9032 who enjoyed flying the V/R simulators and posing in the F-4 Phantom jet fighter cockpit. The Explorer post, sponsored by Boeing St. Louis and EAA Chapter 32, provides opportunities for youth to experience aviation through direct interaction with industry and educational organizations. The Foundation looks forward to future joint activities and events with the Explorers in the coming year.

Also at Creve Coeur Airport, 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, including the panel upgrade to the fleet Cessna 172RG complex trainer. We also feature the Cherokee and Archer training aircraft on recent flights.

Piston Aviation continues to grow since their grand opening August 6. Here we show their newest fleet aircraft, the Orlican M8 Eagle, in the hangar with the Bristell LSA and on local flights from Creve Coeur Airport. Along with the Eagle and Bristell, the Piston Aviation fleet also includes a Piper Cherokee and Beech Musketeer.