Author Archive for: jimconn

Jim Conn’s first memory of flight was with his father in 1947, soloing in 1963, and then flights aboard B-52 F & G models as a USAF Hounddog Missile Systems Analyst during the Cold War. Empathetic towards anything airplane related, Jim figured out how to get other people to pay for his aviation passion while amassing 6,000+ hours of incident-free flight. As Airport Commission Chairman, he was instrumental in the creation of a safe, new airport at Rice Lake, Wisconsin, and its globally-renowned TBM service Center. Using his company’s TBM 700, he then embarked on “PolarFlite” setting 11 FAI/NAA world sanctioned records in 1994. Named Wisconsin’s Aviation Person of the Year in 1995 and designated as a Wright Brothers Master Pilot in 2017, Jim retired to the lake country in Minnesota and now flies N1375C, a 1978 Cardinal Classic, over 100 hours per year on volunteer compassion flights in the Upper Midwest.