Welcome to EAA Chapter 54. We speak aviation!

From its beginnings in the late '50s, Chapter 54 of the Experimental Aircraft Association has served aviation enthusiasts, dreamers, aircraft builders, pilots, would-be pilots, and individuals interested in helping young people become aviators in the East Metro of Minnesota's Twin Cities. 

We hold a gathering on the second Monday of each month at the Chapter House at Lake Elmo Airport (21D) to talk aviation and socialize.  We provide Young Eagles rides and aviation scholarships. We help people who are building airplanes.  But you don't need to be a pilot to participate in our activities.

Please come to our next gathering as our guest. Let us know you're coming so you can be properly greeted and introduced to the chapter.

Latest Chapter News

October Board of Directors agenda posted

The Board of Directors of Chapter 54 meets on Monday October 6 at 7pm. Chapter members are invited to attend. Chapter president Marlon Gunderson sent out the invite with a link to the Google Meet session. Please check your email. You can find the agenda here.

From the Editor
Our Biggest Challenge: Breaking through the noise

Back during in my first run as an editor of the Chapter 54 newsletter -- around 2000 or so -- we were just in the infancy of electronic distribution of our work. I would lay out each month's issue in Microsoft Publisher and then convert it to pdf and send it to the members who were adopting the newfangled way of communicating such things.  For an additional $10 a  year, the ones who wanted a paper copy in the mail could get one.

So, after producing an issue, I would print it out and bring it to Art Edhlund, who took it to the library and ran off copies, addressed and stamped each one and tossed it in the mail. Of course, we were using digital imagery by then so the folks who got third-generation printouts weren't getting a particularly high-quality product except in the content. Back then, people with specialization in aircraft were contributing articles - Bill Schanks and Jim Montague, primarily - that remain relevant today if you can find them in our archive.

I've been thinking about those days a lot lately as I continue to analyze the marriage of our website and newsletter, with the former becoming our dominant means of relaying information and the latter mostly serving to steer people to the former.

Some months ago, I started embedding code into the website pages to help figure out what people are reading and what sort of things they favored.  What I found was startling: they weren't reading anything and they weren't favoring anything.  Increasingly, our audience is people who aren't members of the chapter at all. Read more >>

Chapter video magazine: October

In this month’s Chapter Video Magazine, Charlie Becker gets you up to date on EAA happenings: Chapters Update; Welcome Grace Yakuber; Chapter Leadership Training; Young Eagles Update; Mission 2.5; Young Eagles Credits; MOSAIC; Museum Update; and Spacewalker

President's Message
From the Flight Deck: Pancakes, elections, and the addiction we hold dear 

Thanks to all of your efforts at our August Pancake Breakfast fundraiser, we are able for the first time to send 3 motivated and deserving young people to the EAA Air Academy next summer in pursuit of their aviation dreams: Ben Rehnelt (Forest Lake), Blake Karnuth (Woodbury), and David Phernetton (Hudson). All three of these candidates submitted compelling applications describing their hopes to pursue careers in aviation ahead of the September chapter board meeting where scholarships were awarded by vote.

Despite a foggy morning that limited fly-in aircraft attendance (see the photo gallery of the event), we had good drive-in attendance and served just over 550 breakfast meals. This was short of our hope to serve 800 meals, but net profits were still great, at about $3,500 thanks in part to additional income from sponsorships that Jay Schrankler had lined up including Lake Elmo Aero, Lake Elmo Bank, KwikTrip, St.Croix Sportplanes, and (Jay's own) Perceptive Avionics, and from donations that Craig Mueller's book table sale generated. The Mankato EAA Chapter 642 also helped us out by purchasing all of our left-over supplies (at our cost) for their breakfast the following weekend. Read the entire article >>

Events
Gary Powers Jr. speaks to EAA 54 on December 1

The son of the famous U-2 pilot shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960 while flying a CIA spy mission will be speaking at the 54 Chapter House on Monday December 1.  Gary Powers Jr., has written a book about his dad, Francis Gary Powers.  He has lectured on the Cold War, U-2 Incident and the need to honor Cold War veterans, preserve Cold War history, and educate future generations about this time period for over 35 years. His book Spy Pilot: Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 Incident, and a Controversial Cold War Legacy, is intended to "set the record straight in regard to the fake news that surround the U-2 Incident and tarnished my father’s reputation," he told member Jeff Hove, who is arranging the presentation. "It gives an overview of what it was like to grow up in the shadow of a famous Cold War figure, my search for the truth after my father’s 1977 death in a helicopter when I was 12 years old, and how my research led to the USAF and CIA posthumously awarding my father the POW Medal / Director’s Medal and Silver Star in 2000 and 2012."

The event is not the December chapter program and is being funded at Hove's expense, so a donation is being requested by Hove from attendees. The presentation is expected to last one hour.

"My 1-hour program consists of showing a few short video clips and a PowerPoint presentation from a flash drive. During my talk I discuss the Cold War, U-2 Incident and what it was like to be a consultant on Spielberg’s 2015 Cold War thriller, /Bridge of Spies/, that depicts my father’s shootdown and eventual exchange with Pryor for Soviet spy Rudolph Able in 1962 at the Glienicker Bridge in Potsdam, Germany."

While registration is not required, doing so will aid in planning the evening. Please register here.

Welcome 2026!
Order your discounted World of Flight Calendars now!

Here's your chance to get your new calendar at a steep discount. The regular price is $16, the regular EAA member price is $14.40, but do we have a deal for Chapter 54 members. Assuming we can get at least 10 members,  the calendar is yours for only $10. Enjoy the best of aviation photography throughout the year! This 16-month calendar begins with September 2025. Large Writing Squares: From January - December, write down important notes, birthdays, anniversaries, appointments, and more with each month's ample writing space. Professional Images: Enjoy stunning, full-color photographs of various aircraft every single month. Each month highlights unique facts about the featured aircraft. Key Dates and Holidays: All major holidays, moon phases, and key Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc dates are listed. Yeah, that includes Oshkosh.

Reserve your calendar by signing up here.

All chapter news and stories >>