I am planning a visit to relatives in the St. Paul, Mendota Heights,
Apple Valley area for Labor Day weekend. Any ideas on the best place to
fly into? South St. Paul Municipal seems to be pretty centrally
located, but opinions would be appreciated.

I liked S St Paul (Fleming). Home of the local CAF, self serve fuel,
an FBO, and it is reasonably equipped. It was a WWII training field
where Geo H W Bush learned to fly. Its probably better than St Paul
downtown (Holman field) unless you have some pretty heavy iron or are
cconcerned about cross winds.

("nrp" wrote)
>I liked S St Paul (Fleming). Home of the local CAF, self serve fuel,
> an FBO, and it is reasonably equipped. It was a WWII training field
> where Geo H W Bush learned to fly. Its probably better than St Paul
> downtown (Holman field) unless you have some pretty heavy iron or are
> cconcerned about cross winds.


http://www.macavsat.org/relievers/
Other Twin Cities options - all under MSP Class B

South St. Paul is "NOT" part of the MSP Reliever Airport System. Some say
that explains why South St. Paul is doing so well, with many businesses
located on the field - including Ballistic Recovery Systems - BRS

http://www.navion.com/news.html
....and Sierra Hotel Aero, Inc. (Navions)

http://www.visi.com/~sspairport/businessorganizations.html
List of South St. Paul (KSGS) businesses

LVN - Airlake (south) is close for Apple Valley relatives. Even 21D - Lake
Elmo (east) is something for coloradocamper to consider. Not much of a drive
from St. Paul out to Lake Elmo either. Neither of these two airports has a
tower. Road traffic isn't too bad to either of these.

I would avoid FCM - Flying Cloud (west) because of hideous road traffic
through the area.

But yes, I'd say SGS - South St. Paul (middle) is a good choice.
(I grew up near the refinery, across the Mississippi River from SGS -
approx. two miles from the runway <g>)


Montblack