Neil A. Bratney wrote:

Could anyone give me some reviews of FBOs at Crystal (MIC) and Anoka
(ANE), specifically regarding aircraft rental?


I trained at Crystal Shamrock from spring to winter of 2002. I enjoyed
it. Nice people, good service, and an OK selection of planes, mostly
Cessnas. The only Piper they had at the time was a Seneca. Some of the
152's and 172N's were getting pretty worn out but they kept up on
maintenance. They had a couple of newer 172's also. Rates were
reasonable - pretty much the norm. No online scheduling.

I enjoyed flying at Crystal because it's Class D - I like radio work and
it helped when I started instrument training. It was actually quite a
switch for me when I moved to Fleming Field over in South St. Paul to
finish my private (job change moved me to the other side of town).
Having to announce all my pattern legs really had me mixed up for a while!

Fleming is a good field, too, by the way. They have a CAF wing out
there so don't be surprised if you end up in the pattern with the B-25
"Miss Mitchell". Great plane. And you can get your seaplane rating at
Wings, Inc - they share facilities with Wipair, maker of Wipline floats.
(Check out the Fire Boss at
http://www.wipaire.com/partners_fireboss.html - very cool.) Oh, and
Wings has a pretty nice online scheduler, too.

Never flew out of Anoka. Like Crystal, they do a lot of flight training
so it can get pretty hectic. ( BTW, Crystal has *two pairs* of parallel
runways and they frequently run 14-32 right and left at the same time.
Don't overshoot the turn to final.

Good luck and if you see Roger Gayle at Crystal, tell him I said hi.

-Scott