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Flying from Milwaukee to Duluth Minnesota to visit the Cirrus factory

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To add a bit of spice to our week at Oshkosh AirVenture 2024, Brett Sylvester and I managed to arrange a flight from Milwaukee to visit the factory where Cirrus aircraft are built in Duluth, just over the border from Wisconsin in Minnesota. It was an “out of the blue” opportunity that started with us talking to the Cirrus reps at Oshkosh. Initially they said they didn’t organise visits to the factory in the AirVenture week because they’d be overrun with requests but after a bit more poking we were accepted for a visit on the Wednesday, so midweek of AirVenture. The next challenge was to arrange someone to fly us there. Luckily we ran into Ben Retzlaff from Pilotsmith who we’d hired for our flight to Chicago and Green Bay the previous week. He was spending a day at AirVenture and after some arm twisting his manager gave approval for him to accompany us from Timmerman Airport at Milwaukee out to Duluth in the SR20.

It was about a 90 minute drive to Timmerman from our AirBNB north of Oshkosh and was overcast when we arrived. Not as good as the day we’d flown the previous week.

However it gave us the chance to see how IFR works in the US. Taking off at 9:30 I flew us IFR with Ben taking charge of the radios as he’d done the previous week so I could focus on flying the plane.

The clouds gradually cleared so we could see something of the ground below.

It was partly IMC abeam Oshkosh, where between the clouds we could see numerous planes flying in for AirVenture. It was quite a procession!

Our midway stop was Taylor County where they had a very friendly caretaker but a somewhat less salubrious FBO. We made his day by being the first Australians he’d ever met!

Brett flew us to Duluth mostly in IMC and flew the ILS into the more than 3000 metre long runway (it’s a military base). The factory is adjacent to the GA apron so very handy to visit and for them to delivery planes to customers.

We learned quite a bit about the manufacturing process at the factory tour before heading to lunch at a nearby grill bar.

Climbing back into the Cirrus we had a bit of a wait for traffic to land and take off.

I flew us over miles and miles of forest, lakes and pasture in clear skies to Marshfield for another switch.

After a short break we took off again and Brett flew us back to Milwaukee.

Departing Marshfield

There wasn’t a lot happening at Timmerman and was dead calm so the tower guy told Ben we could land which ever direction we wanted to so we’d have the shortest possible taxi to the hanger. How kind.

Turning base for RWY 04L

After parking the plane and collecting our things we bid a final farewell to Ben and climbed into the car for the one hour drive back to Oshkosh for the Wednesday evening airshow.

Flying Cirrus in Wisconsin, Chicago and along Lake Michigan

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Brett Sylvester and I arrived in Wisconsin a couple of days prior to the 2024 EAA AirVenture and wanted to go flying. Specifically I wanted to fly along the shore of Lake Michigan past the Chicago skyline and up along the shoreline to Green Bay and maybe even over the top of Oshkosh itself. We didn’t have the time or inclination to obtain a US licence so decided we’d look for a local instructor who could accompany us. So we could fly under his watchful eye while he could sit back and enjoy the ride.

I contacted a couple of flight schools in and around Chicago in the months leading up to AirVenture and was keen on flying in a Cirrus. I received a positive response from Pilotsmith, a company that fly Cirrus and that’s based in Green Lake north of Oshkosh but has a second based at Timmermann Airport in the north of Milwaukee. That would be easy to access on our way into Oshkosh so I signed up for a day with one of their instructors. Brett was keen to fly as well so we agreed to go half half with him flying part and me flying part. Closer to the date Ben Retzlaff from Pilotsmith contacted me by WhatsApp and we arranged to meet at the airport around 6:30 on Friday 19th July. He said we’d be flying in an SR20 which was fine with us for the scenic flight we were planning.

We arrived on Thursday 18th July and checked into our AirBNB. The weather forecast for Friday was good with some cloud but generally fine. Ben confirmed we’d meet at 6:30 and gave us some directions. We headed off to a nearby sportsbar for dinner.

On Friday 19th we arrived at the airport and Ben had already preflighted the plane and was pretty much ready to go. After brief introductions when we explained our individual experience in Cirrus aircraft we discussed our flight plan and who would fly the different legs. The main difference between flying in the US and Australia are some of the radio procedures so we asked Ben to look after the radios so we could focus on flying the plane. We didn’t want to learn to fly solo in the States anyway so what use was there in confusing ourselves with their particular radio procedures. As it turned out there wasn’t a great deal of difference but it certainly made the flying easier and I’d recommend it to anyone else who wants to have a similar experience.

After tossing a virtual coin, we agreed that Brett would fly us out of Timmerman to the shoreline and past the Chicago skyline to Gary Indiana and I climbed into the back seat to enjoy the view.

Timmerman

It was very quiet at Timmerman with no other activity on the airfield as we taxied and lined up for take off to the south. The first thing we noticed climbing out was the sheer size of Lake Michigan. It’s really like an ocean and at 3000ft despite great visibility we couldn’t see the other side. I’d never been to Chicago so was impressed by its layout on the shore of that gigantic lake.

Chicago skyline

Continuing south along the shoreline to Gary, we landed for a short break at the FBO. Gary was home to US Steel’s largest steelworks back in the 1980s and was also the first plant to buy a licence for the OBM steelmaking process developed in Sigi’s hometown in Bavaria. I’d heard about it a lot in the 80s while I was working in the Bavarian steelworks .

Descending into Gary past the steelworks

The FBO (Fixed Base Operator) facility at Gary was impressive to say the least. They really do things to a different level in the US. I suppose that’s what you can do when you have so many light aircraft flying around the place.

Gary FBO lounge

We swapped over piloting duties for the next leg so I flew us back up along the shoreline past Chicago and into Waukesha, another airport not that far from Milwaukee. There are so many airports around there and they all have these amazing FBOs.

Approach into Waukesha
Waukesha FBO

Brett climbed into the left hand seat again and I got back into the back seat for the next leg up the coast to Green Bay where we landed at Ephraim to refuel and have a for lunchbreak. As we passed abeam Oshkosh we could hear various aircraft on the radio practising their routines for the airshow.

We were able to borrow a car from the FBO there (another amazing place) and drove into town for lunch at a pleasant waterside hamburger joint.

Ephraim is a very picturesque village nestled into Eagle Bay at the northern end of the peninsula that separates Green Bay from Lake Michigan. It was the perfect place to stop for lunch and something told me that Ben had already taken a few other people there!

After lunch I was back in the left hand seat and we headed back to Timmerman passing about 20 miles east of Oshkosh. Although I’d originally hoped to fly over the top of Oshkosh Ben had sensibly advised us to stay well clear of it to avoid the heavy traffic there. Oshkosh is the world’s busiest airport for the week of the AirVenture each year so it’s best to avoid unless you’re actually flying in or out. On the way back we spotted various formations practising their routines for the airshows at AirVenture anyway.

Arriving back at Timmerman we had another smooth landing and bid farewell to Ben, not knowing that we’d actually see him at Oshkosh and arrange to fly with him to the Cirrus factory in Duluth MN a few days later. But that’s another story.