Canine Interest Stories

Crew Who FlewFlying Shelties

Rosemarie shook her head and kept saying, "All this for a dog", as we drove from the Red Wing airport to Rosemount, MN to Dakota's new home. On Friday, July 30, 1999, Bandit's dad, Guy Schlak flew from Lakeville, MN to New Holstein, WI to pick up Lisa, Rosemarie, Dakota and Sammy. Lisa and mom were heading to the Mall of America for a little shopping, Dakota and Sammy were going to new homes in Rosemount (with Bandit) and Bloomington, MN.

Guy has a private pilot license and for the sheltie and shopping fly-in weekend, he piloted a Piper Archer, a single-engine 4 seat airplane. It had just enough room for 3 adults and 2 dogs - it was a 5 seater that day! If you ask Rosemarie who sat in back with the dogs, her opinion on leg room and seat room may differ.

Friday was a sweltering day. Guy was up by 6am to check weather and do some flight planning. The original plan was to pick up Lisa, Rosemarie and pooches at 5pm, but Guy decided that storms were due in the Twin Cities by 5pm, he better be in the air at New Holstein by 2pm. His flight from Lakeville to New Holstein took just under 2 hours, they were off the ground again by 3:15pm. In the meantime, storms blossomed in central Minnesota, a little hook came around to pummel Dakota County (location of Red Wing and Lakeville).

Since Guy requested flight following from Air Traffic Control, he was on MSP and Green Bay radar for the entire trip. Halfway between New Holstein and Lakeville, it became apparent that they would not be able to land at Lakeville. The MSP tower gave Guy the correct headings to dodge t-storm cells and land at Red Wing. "Impressive" and "Surgical" were two words Guy used to describe the job done by the guys at ATC. Red Wing airport called Guy's wife, Julie, to let her know they were landing at Red Wing and would need a ride home. Julie was very relieved to hear from Red Wing, she had been trying hard to not watch weather all afternoon. "All this for a dog".

The flight was fine, it was about 25 degrees cooler at 6500 feet. Lisa even slept for awhile during the flight. The dogs weathered the flight just fine, but on the car ride from Red Wing to Rosemount, Dakota barfed in the car. "All this for a dog".


Links of interest: