2026-06-27 Flatland Flying 1. Duluth and the Twin Cities

Flatland Flying 1. Duluth and the Twin Cities
For Saturday, June 27, 2026
Michael MacKuen

This afternoon we shall explore parts of the American Upper Midwest. Starting in northern Minnesota, we fly from Duluth south over the Wisconsin-Minnesota land of forests and lakes to the Twin Cities. Changing to helicopters, we take a look at the new photogrammetric “TIN” cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Then fly aircraft again south to the Mayo Clinic and east to La Crosse on the Mississippi. Not many mountains today.

Won a Free Sample on the Cirrus Factory Tour

We begin with Duluth on the western shore of Lake Superior. This city was a fur-trading center and frontier town until the last half of the nineteenth century. The explosion of mining in the Iron Range and increased lumbering combined with the opening of the Great Lakes passage to the Atlantic and the arrival of the railroads. Duluth became an almost instant success as a port that carried iron ore, coal, lumber, and grain to the Great Lakes region and to the broader world overseas. Nowadays, with diminished mining (due to exhaustion of the richest ore deposits and the decline of the US steel industry), commodity shipping has become more a steady enterprise rather than a booming industry. The city remains the main center for commerce and tourism in the region.

We start at Duluth International [KDLH] which is especially important for the local economy as it is the main headquarters and production plant for Cirrus Aircraft. The SR series has been a great success and Cirrus is the largest producer of piston-powered aircraft (since 2013) and now the world’s third largest aviation manufacturer by unit-volume. For our flight, we have a free use of an SR22T if we like. You can go to the delivery office near GA Parking 15 in the freeware scenery. (The Cirrus is not required for this flight. Please fly what you like.) On the northeast side of the airport is a Minnesota Air National Guard unit that includes the long-distinguished 179^th Fighter Squadron flying F-16s.

After takeoff we fly south to the St. Louis River and fly along the docks and harbor that made Duluth famous. At the new aquarium, we turn to fly over (or through) the Aerial Lift Bridge and the Duluth shipping canal. Then south along Minnesota Point and Superior Harbor before executing a touch-and-go at Sky Harbor Airport [KDYT]. We then proceed south over the forests and lakes of northern Wisconsin with stops at the beautifully-sited small airfields at Voyager Village [9WN2] (a fly-in golf resort) and Shell Lake [KSSQ]. And southwest to the Minnesota border to land at Osceola Simenstad [KOEO]. We complete this portion of our trip by visiting the Twin Cities northern suburbs with a touch-and-go at Blaine’s Anoka County-Blaine [KANE] and then a full-stop landing at Brooklyn Park’s Crystal [KMIC]. These are two very busy General Aviation airports with many businesses and many locally-based aircraft.

At Crystal, we switch to helicopters (or low-and-slow aircraft) in order to explore the Twin Cities in more detail. First is Minneapolis, the larger and more corporate and better-resourced of the two. When we approach the Mississippi River, we see the newly designed Lowry Avenue Bridge, and then Target Field (MLB baseball) and the Target Center (NBA basketball). Next we fly between the tall skyscrapers of downtown, with waypoints for Target’s Corporate Headquarters and the government center. On down to the Mississippi River where we get a sense of city’s past. The prime real estate of Nicolette Island, once rundown, has been preserved for limited development. Then St Anthony Falls which was once the center of the growing 19^th century town where it supplied power for the flour and lumber mills that made the city a success. We circle back at the Univ of Minnesota steam plant to see the modernist Guthrie Theater (a leader in the national movement to revive local theater). A short distance south is the US Bank Stadium, the new and massive indoor NFL football stadium. Next is the optional helipad at the Henepin County Medical Center [9MN9].

We continue southwest to pass the Minneapolis Convention Center and then pivot at the Walker Art Center, a national treasure of modern and contemporary art. Next is the locally impressive Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia). Heading toward the river, we pass over the West Bank of the University of Minnesota (UM) and its social sciences buildings. Crossing the river, we can land at the helipad at the University of Minnesota Hospital [MY65]. Next is the large central campus of the University of Minnesota and then the NCAA basketball arena and football stadium. We continue east over railyards, highways, and residential neighborhoods, passing Alianz Field (MLS soccer), before getting to St. Paul, the second of the Twin Cities.

In quick succession, we pass over St. Paul Cathedral, the Grand Casino Arena (NHL ice hockey), and the St. Paul RiverCentre (the convention center that just hosted the 2026 Flightsim Expo!). We pivot a half-mile north to see the State Capitol (and the state government buildings) and then back to look at the substantial St. Paul downtown. (On the edge is a marker for the downtown Fitzgerald Theater, not well-modeled, which for 40 years hosted live public radio performances of Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion.) We pass over CHS Field (St. Paul’s tiny minor league ballpark that surprisingly leads the nation in minor league attendance.) Then we cross the river to land at St. Paul Downtown Holman Field [KSTP]. This is mostly a GA airport for local businesses and pilots as well as the Minnesota Army National Guard. It is named after a 1920’s barnstormer/stunt-pilot/airmail-pilot/airline-pilot who once set a world record of 1,433 consecutive loops in an airplane during five hours over the St. Paul airport.

After a moment, we continue southwest along the Mississippi River to historic Fort Snelling, on the bluffs of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, which was the early nineteenth century attraction that caused the Twin Cities to spawn here. We now use our special contacts to fly directly over Minneapolis-St. Paul International and request permission to “buzz the tower” to salute one of the distinguished members of the AVSIM community. We divert south to circle around the Mall of America – the largest shopping mall in the United States and the western hemisphere (but only 12^th in the world!). We land at Minneapolis-St. Paul [KSMP] to transfer to fixed-wing aircraft.

We reconvene at the Signature Aviation FBO just south of the intersection of Rwys 12-30 and 04-22 – near GA Parking 170 in the freeware KMSP. Our next leg is along the Mississippi to Red Wing Regional [KRGK] in Wisconsin across the river from Red Wing in Minnesota. This is home to Red Wing Shoes and the world’s biggest boot [size 638½]. Then south 34nm to fly over Rochester and the center of the Mayo Clinic – the hospitals and research facilities are scattered over the city and constitute one of the very best medical facilities in the world. The Clinic draws patients from around the world. We land at Rochester International [KRST]. Our final destination is just east of the Mississippi in Wisconsin, La Crosse Regional [KLSE]. This riverboat town lies in a flat valley surrounded by 500-foot bluffs. This is the Driftless region, composed of high ridges dissected by narrow valleys. Early French explorers named it after the game that Native Americans played with sticks resembling a Bishop’s staff, la crosse in French. During the 19^th century, the city grew as it developed two industries, lumber mills and breweries. Nowadays La Crosse is a fair-sized regional city whose residents delight in their friendly small town atmosphere.

Documentation
The flightplan can be found here.

Aircraft
This route runs 319nm and is designed for GA aircraft. We want planes that can fast-cruise at about 155-160kts. I shall probably fly the Asobo/WT Cirrus SR22T in the default Baja Turquoise livery. The Twin City tour is best flown in a helicopter. I’ll take the Huey. As ever, fly what you like.

Additional Scenery
All of the airports are in the default simulator. For some local color, I recommend the following freeware addon airport packages. Thanks to these fine authors for their talent and efforts.

Recommended:
Duluth International [KDLH]. 2024.  MNSceneryDesign
Sky Harbor [KDYT].  MNSceneryDesign  [touch-and-go]
Voyager Village [9WN2].  spidermanMN
Shell Lake Municipal [KSSQ].  Windhover
Simenstad Municipal [KOEO].  spidermanMN
Anoka Co-Blaine [KANE]. 2024.  NoseNugget71 [touch-and-go]
Crystal [KMIC]. spidermanMN
St Paul Downtown Holman Field [KSTP]. 2024.  MNSceneryDesign
Minneapolis-St Paul International [KMSP]. 2024. connomar 
Red Wing Regional [KRGK].  spidermanMN
Rochester [KRST]. 2024.  MNSceneryDesign
La Crosse Regional [KLSE]. 2024.  BullfrogSim
Minneapolis St Paul Heliports for MSFS2024. flymidwest

You can get the freeware package here. The package also includes freeware creations that are difficult to find. (Please check for duplicates of previously installed packages.)

There is an excellent payware Minneapolis-St. Paul [KMSP] by Flightbeam. (It is currently on sale at Orbx.) That said, the above listed freeware is perfectly fine for our purposes.

Time and Weather
For takeoff on Saturday, set the simulator at 16:00pm local for June 27, 2026. We typically prefer real weather.

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Saturday, June 27, 2026. 1900 UTC (2000CEST, 1400EDT, 1100PDT)
Where: RTWR Multiplayer Discord Channel
Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: South-East Asia server.

If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!