Cliff Buchan
News Editor

As a kid, Bruce Hanson would climb trees to get a better vantage point to set sail toy wooden airplanes.

He was no more than 13 when he and a buddy rode their bikes seven miles into Alexandria for their first ride in a real airplane.

ìIíve always had this passion for flying,î Hanson said. ìI made model airplanes and always liked planes.î

Now, at 74, the owner of the Surfside Seaplane Base on Rice Lake in Lino Lakes, is set to receive one of the top honors possible in Minnesota aviation.

On Saturday in Bloomington, Hanson will be inducted into the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame. It will be a crowning moment for Hanson who has spent parts of five decades owning and operating the seaplane base which is one of the largest in the lower 48 states.

Hanson will join an elite group of 117 state residents previously voted to the hall of fame. The Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame is a nonprofit state corporation recognized by the state as a means of honoring its historic aviation pioneers in a significant and lasting way.

Hanson says he is awed by the award that he has been selected to receive from his peers in aviation.

Hanson said he believes there are other equally deserving but says he is proud that the seaplane base is also receiving the recognition for its importance to aviation in the state.

Trucking, flying

That Hanson has been able to succeed in aviation wouldnít have been possible without another vocation ó trucking.

Born in Fergus Falls, Hanson was raised on a farm in East Moe Township, seven miles west of Alexandria. He was 5 when his mother died and spent his youth under the care of relatives in East Moe.

He graduated from high school in Alex in 1949 and spent the next year farming. He was too young for World War II and was not taken in the draft during the Korean War when his wife, Mim, was pregnant.

The Hansons moved to the Twin Cities in 1951 and Hanson worked a number of jobs before landing with Berger Transfer in 1953. He logged 43 years of full-time duty with Berger driving over-the-road as an owner-operator, running the Berger warehouse and serving as the head driver trainer.

ìI still pull a trip for them every once in a while,î Hanson said. He owns a tractor and will make an occasional long distance trip hauling cargo.

Flying since 1963

It took Hanson more than a decade to secure his pilotís license after moving to the Twin Cities area and Forest Lake in 1962. He purchased a Piper PA-12 with a friend for $2200 in April of 1963. By fall of 1963, he was licensed to fly.

ìI still had the desire to fly,î Hanson said, thinking back to his early years and the desire of wanting to fly. ìI would get an occasional ride in a plane.î

He picked up his private pilotís license, but never went beyond that level.

Seven years later Hanson teamed with three partners to buy the seaplane base and the 25 acres on the shore of Rice Lake.

ìWe were thinking of the land as an investment,î Hanson recalled.

The seaplane base lost five acres to a county park in the mid-1970s, but later purchased 18 acres to improve its ability to develop lots on the lake for seaplane owners.

By 1980 Hanson had bought out his three partners to become sole owner of Surfside. The ownership under Hanson and his early partners marked a time of major growth for the facility.

Founded in the mid-to-late 1940s, Surfside was a bare bones operation that housed no more than 15 airplanes in 1970.

In 2006, Surfside is home to 50 to 60 planes, offers flight instruction and float training taught by Brian Schanche, has complete mechanical and maintenance services for planes and has an 1800 foot grass landing strip to augment the lake surface landings.

Surfside is the only seaplane base in the Twin Cities and serves as the site for the annual Minnesota Seaplane Pilots Association picnic each August.

Family help

Hanson says any success he has achieved with the seaplane base wouldnít have been possible without the support of his wife, Mim, and their six children. The Hanson kids, all Forest Lake grads, have spent time working at the base and daughter Cheri Burger works full-time with the operation today.

ìCheri and I are the maintenance crew,î Hanson jokes.

As a pilot, Hanson says he has logged some 5000 hours of air time. While that pales to the hours many pilots have in the cockpit, he says his time has been spent with another job and the time needed to run the seaplane base.

ìWhen I should have been flying, I was devoted to my trucking job,î he says. ìThat trucking company has made this all possible.î

Still, his ability to fly and enable the Hansons to make annual fishing trips to the Northwest Territory in Canada and to get to their summer retreat near Detroit Lakes. They continue to have a home at Surfside where they have lived since 1980.

Hanson said his goal is to continue to make improvements at Surfside. Although he could have quit the business and developed the property, such a thought was never seriously considered, he said.

Looking back on his 37 years at Surfside, Hanson wonders how anyone with a love for float plane flying could want anything more.

ìCan you imagine?î he asks. ìWeíve got a plane on the water. Weíve got everything right here. Float flying is the best flying there is as far as I am concerned.î

The one time farm kid who once climbed trees to fly toy planes has come far.

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Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
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