Thunderbird Aviation, Eden Prairie

Since 1962, Thunderbird Aviation has nested at Minneapolis’s Flying Cloud and Crystal airports, sending on-demand charters skyward, offering aircraft repairs and parts, and training new pilots. Composed of Cessna planes, the aviation agency’s fleet runs the gamut from light, sport aircraft to twin-engine Seminoles, and encompasses one of the state’s largest selections of instructional aircraft. Certified flight instructors accompany student pilots on their journeys. As novices approach pilot certification, they can augment their hours in the cockpit with time in an FAA-approved flight simulator, which is more useful than its unapproved counterpart, jumping on your bed while cawing.