(mellow music) - You know, flying is definitely a passion thing.

Since I can remember being a little kid just staring at airplanes, loved airplanes.

I got my first airplane ride from a friend of my dad's and remember it like it was yesterday.

There's a lot of people that go into aviation for the career and then you'll find those people that just love the pure joy of flying.

(airplane engine rumbling) - We're currently in Bemidji, Minnesota at our Moberg Air Base for our Moberg Flying.

Our flying here is a gathering that gets our EA chapter together and allows people around the state, Minnesota, North Dakota, whoever wants to come in and fly with us.

- So this would be the 15th year of the Moberg fly-in.

Typically, a fly-in is just like a car show.

It's just a way to get common interest airplane guys together, whether they can fly to it or drive to it.

It's a good time to converse and hang out with fellow pilots and see different airplanes.

We've had everything from $4 million Kodiaks come in to experimental, one-man, Volkswagen powered Ultra Lights.

- So the under wing camping is what it means under the wing.

They'll use their wing as their rain cover essentially, and so if it rains, the wing will wash the water away from their tent stuff.

A lot of the older people that started aviation many years ago have stories that you can't believe are true.

Their knowledge and experience that they've done in 40 years of flying, it's been a great experience of learning of what they used to do back in the day with no GPS.

Now the younger generation is teaching some of the older generation of the new electronics that they have in the aircraft and it makes these flying a lot easier.

- Our event here, the years that it's been good weather and landed on good times, we've had up to 47 airplanes, half of them being speed planes, half of 'em on wheels, and that's the joy of this location at Moberg Air Base is we have a nice 2,000 foot grass runway and then we have a mile of lake.

- It's not too often that there's a grass strip and a water landing at the same place, so it opens up to both wheel aircraft and float aircraft for one single fly-in.

So it makes it pretty unique, especially in Minnesota.

There's only maybe two other airports that have a little bit of water nearby.

- Float planes in general, locally about float planes is, as you would imagine, it's fun to go flying, but you can't just pull over and visit people unless they have a runway.

So with a float plane, you got the lakes and there's a lot of people that have lakes.

There's restaurants on lakes up here in Northern Minnesota, so it becomes a lot more social.

You can go places, visit people, stop.

The reason I love float planes, two reasons.

My family likes to go to Canada and we have a camp up there and they're remote, so it takes, you know, five, six hours to get there on land where we can be there in less than two hours on the plane.

And just that freedom of not having to sit in line at the border.

You do a quick land on the water and check in and it's usually five, 10 minutes.

And the nice thing about a float plane is you're always landing into the wind.

So you don't have to fight those cross winds you would on a hard surface runway - Going up in the air and flying, it's so hard to explain in words.

It opens up new vision to life.

When you fly a little GA airplanes, you're flying between a thousand to 3,000 feet above the ground versus 35,000 feet.

You can see a lot more.

You can still see the ground, you can see the terrain, you can see the people driving in their cars, people outside walking.

It's a pretty cool experience that yeah, you can fly in a big airliner, but it's never gonna be the same of hopping in a little airplane.

Advice that I'd have for people getting into aviation.

No matter how old you are, how young you are, you can start at any time.

People have started when they've hit retirement and they've gotten their license and start another job, or just the passion of just flying around.

It's never too late to experience it.

- We're trying hard to keep it alive and grow it each year.

We've been doing this for 15 years and hopefully to continue for another 15.

It's always gonna be the week or two after Oshkosh.

We like to put a little time span in there for people to get home and settle in and look for another adventure.

(mellow music) - [Narrator] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008.

And by the members of Prairie Public.