St. Cloud Airport's Fly-In Aims To Educate People About Aviation

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- A St. Cloud facility held the first of what it hopes to be an annual event on Saturday. The St. Cloud Regional Airport held its first Fly-In from 12:00 - 4:00 p.m. The Fly-In was to encourage pilots to come to the airport and see what it has to offer, but it was also for community members to drop by and check out the planes, talk with pilots, and learn more about the airport.

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Paul Habstritt, WJON

St. Cloud Aviation Line Manager Mark Schwichtenberg says people who were interested in flying could go up in a plane for $40:

"Its actually an intro flight so they actually can log that time you are going up with a flight instructor and they are showing you the ropes, just doing a quick little lap to get you introduced to flying."

Paul Habstritt, WJON

Schwichtenberg says they already have plans for next year to include more people and make the Fly-In even bigger. He says they want to get more people involved in aviation:

"We kind of just wanted to test the waters and see the interest and definitely want to get it out to the public so that they get to know a little bit about what this place is out here and the big thing is we want to promote flying and discovery flights and that is kind of what our goal was to get people interested in aviation and teach them a little bit about it."

Paul Habstritt, WJON

Schwichtenberg says the St. Cloud airport is one of the few local airports in the state that has a control tower so the Fly-In was also a good experience for pilots to learn how to interact with airport tower operators. He says the Fly-In was a great learning experience for all who attended.

Paul Habstritt, WJON