The annual fly-in breakfast and fundraiser took place on Saturday, September 27, at the Cook County/Grand Marais Airport. All photos by Tryg Solberg 

By Tryg Solberg - Boreal Community Media - September 30, 2025

The Arrowhead Eagles Aviation Club hosted its annual fly-in breakfast on Saturday morning at the Grand Marais/Cook County Airport in Sawtooth Aviation’s hangar. The event includes a pancake breakfast, a raffle for a remote control plane, and flights from Sawtooth Aviation.

Rodney Roy is the Vice President of the not-for-profit Arrowhead Eagles club. Roy talked about the importance of the event in the community for exposure to their organization, the public Grand Marais/Cook County Airport, and as a fundraiser. The proceeds from the event go towards scholarships for local students to attend aviation-related post-secondary programs. Last year, they offered $5,000 in scholarships. Roy mentioned that they typically have good attendance at the event, and the 2025 iteration was no different.

Roy said that they typically have 10-12 planes flying in for the event, but it really depends on the weather conditions from their departure points. If it’s poor weather in the Twin Cities, they may have fewer attendees from there. There were already guests from Thunder Bay and Ohio who had flown in the day before, with anticipation of more planes coming in.

In addition to breakfast guests flying in, Sawtooth Aviation gave attendees discounted $40 flights in their Cessna 172 Skyhawk. On a beautiful, high-visibility day, they took a 20-minute tour of the local fall colors that were nearing peak. One of the organizers said that the flights typically filled up through the afternoon in years of the event with fair weather.

 The Sawtooth Aviation hangar filled up with breakfast attendees at the Grand Marais/Cook County Airport on Saturday morning.

 One of the planes was on display for visitors to look at.

 The remote control plane, which was being raffled off to one lucky winner.

Loading up the airplane that Sawtooth Aviation took for the local flight tours.

 The $40 special flight took off with several passengers who got to enjoy views of the fall colors.