Seaplane Float Manufacturer - Trip to Wipair

Trip to check out to see how the annual process is going 

on our Cessna 208 Caravan Amphib.

Located at Flemming Field (KSGS) in Inver Grove Heights, a township in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area of Minnesota, Wipair, Inc. is the world leading premier float manufacturer for seaplanes.

Ben always had a strong interest in aviation long before he began working on Wipline floats. As a child, he built his own glider in the backyard of his parent’s home. Out of concern for his safety, his parents dismantled the aircraft before he could take it on its maiden voyage.

Ben eventually moved to California to work for Douglas Aircraft for a period of time. He was drafted into the Army Air Forces of the United States before Pearl Harbor and spent time working in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he developed a pre-oiling system to help the performance of the bombers. He was awarded several decorations by the military for this engineering contribution.

After WWII, Ben returned once again to his roots in Minnesota and continued his career in aviation, with empasis on innovation, and then founded the company in the 1959 by putting all of his ideas for improvement together and built a new revolutionary float design. 

Ben’s son Bob began working at Wipline Inc. in 1970 after receiving his aeronautical engineering degree from U of M and spending a few years working for Honeywell.In 1974 Bob expanded our range of services by founding Wipaire, Inc performing maintenance as a certified Cessna service center at Fleming Field.

Wipline Inc and Wipaire Inc came together in 1979 when Bob purchased Wipline Inc from his father. The 80’s kicked off with the introduction of the Wipline 6000 Float for the de Havilland Beaver and they skyrocketed from there to many more makes and models.  Wipaire celebrated 55 years of building Wipline floats in 2015. 

Today Wipair dominates the world as the top float manufacturer in the world.

Cessna 208 Caravan Amphib Trip To Grand Geneva Resort Airport

Day adventure flight - Cessna 208 Caravan Amphib departing from Waukegan Airport, Illinois (near Chicago), short encounter flight to Grand Geneva Resort Airport, in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. 

Turbine Engine Wash & Final Inspection

A day at Wipair, Inc. in Invergrove Heights, Minnesota. 

Trip to the Dick Proenneke Museum

Richard Proenneke followed his ultimate ambition beginning in the 1950’s by setting out to explore and then settle into an area within the untouched wilderness of Alaska. This area is located within a general region which is now called “The Lake Clark National Park”. 

Dick, as he was called, was dropped off by seaplane at an otherwise inaccessible place called Twin Lakes. He arrived in early spring - and during that summer and fall, he built from scratch his own log cabin, elevated food cache cabin and later a woodshed / workbench structure with other details. 

And there he lived alone with just the animals for 40 years. He possessed only the most basic essentials - and a canoe. He lived his life’s dream. And he in turn inspired thousands of people to go out and find their true wilderness and live the experience.

This video is my day trip to visit his museum, in the town adjacent to where Dick grew up. The museum has a partial replica of the actual log cabin, along with many of Dick’s artifacts. Definitely a trip worth taking. The museum is located in the new Donnellson Public Library, in Donnellson Iowa. One of the other prominent features shown in this video that is on display in the exhibit area is be the Richard L Proenneke Timeline - from his birth at Primrose, IA, in 1916, to his death in 2003, and his final resting place on Proenneke Peak, Twin Lakes, AK.

Today the log cabin at Twin Lakes, along with all of the structures that go along with it, are all preserved and guarded by the Park Service staff of The Lake Clark National Park. It is somewhere you can still visit by seaplane, and see it as it actually was when Dick was there.

We will be going there in our Caravan Amphib next time we go up in Alaska. Stay tuned.