Jim Kirvida proudly reached 25 years of ownership of N911CF, a 1980 Beechcraft King Air F90, earlier this year. The president of Custom Fire Apparatus, Inc. in Osceola, Wisconsin, has previously owned and operated a King Air 200 (BB-843) and a King Air C90A (LJ-1198) as well as two Cessna 425 Conquest twin turboprop aircraft.
“I typically tell my fellow aviators that I fly the Cessnas and I ‘wear’ the King Air,” Kirvida said. “It’s the level of comfort that I have with N911CF. It fits me well: the alure, reliability, performance and cost of operation are all in line with our business operations, plus it is a real joy for me to fly. Charlie Fox and I have been through nearly every kind of aviation challenge one can experience as an aviator, except a catastrophic failure.”
How it started
Kirvida purchased N911CF in April 1998. It wasn’t his first airplane, or even his first King Air; we’ll have to go back further to get the full story.
Kirvida’s grandfather Elmer Abrahamson was a small town blacksmith in Minnesota who in 1931 transitioned from smithing to building fire trucks. Kirvida’s father Mitchell was Elmer’s son in law, and he joined the business when he was discharged from the Navy after World War II. Eventually Mitchell ran the day-to-day operations, and Kirvida joined him after active duty training to maintain the Navy’s aircraft followed by college.
In October 1982, Kirvida left the family business to grow Custom Fire Apparatus, Inc., a side business he had established four years earlier in Osceola, less than 50 miles from the Twin Cities and near the Minnesota/Wisconsin border.
The business began as a manufacturer of grass fire-fighting equipment and mobile water tankers, then moved into building high quality and creative brush trucks (designed to assist in fighting wildfires), tankers and light rescue apparatus. They also became known as a refurbishment destination of other makes of fire apparatus, which gave them insight into how apparatus should be built to resist the effects of time, action and the elements.
Today, CustomFIRE has nearly 40 employees and custom builds several trucks every month, from light rescue squads and brush trucks to the most elaborate heavy rescues and pumpers. The company designs each apparatus with Pro-E engineering software and laser cuts each part to ensure a technologically advanced precision fit and quality. Their custom designs combine the best of modern technology and the personalized traditions of the historical fire apparatus industry, Kirvida said. In recent years, they’ve used their engineering and manufacturing capabilities to branch into Specialty Vehicles and Industrial Fire Protection product lines.
“Now, 40+ years later, both of my sons, Wayde and Ryan, are carrying on the tradition of manufacturing fire apparatus,” said the 75-year-old Kirvida. They also are carrying on a family legacy of flying.
Kirvida said his passion for aviation came from his father, who grew up on a farm in Gackle, North Dakota, and told his son of being thrilled every time he saw an airplane. Kirvida started flying while on active duty in the Navy, just nine months out of high school. He was assigned to training at the Naval Air Reserve Training Unit-Memphis in September 1966, and on the weekends he would take flight lessons at the Navy Memphis Flying Club, not possible on his airman recruit’s income but with the financial help of his father. He first soloed in October 1966, flying a Piper Colt, and once he had a job and money, he received his private pilot’s certificate in 1972.
“My father was just as excited as I was,” Kirvida said. “Only a year later, he purchased N4919B (a 1955 Beechcraft Bonanza F35), and a few years later my wife and I gifted him his first lessons. In 1979, my father and I flew N4919B to Wichita and ordered a new A36 Bonanza, and we had Olive Ann Beech assist with color selections.”
Kirvida’s father purchased the F35 for the business, and since Kirvida was the only pilot in the family at the time, he earned his instrument rating in 1974 in order to fly the aircraft on sales and delivery trips. A year later Kirvida earned his multiengine rating so he could fly the company’s new cabin class Cessna 411 twin-engine, allowing for all weather operations and bringing prospective customers to Minnesota for factory visits.
“In 1979, after becoming a pilot himself, my father purchased the A36 Bonanza to replace the C-411,” Kirvida said. “Tragically, in 1991 my father died in an icing accident while piloting the A36.”
After leaving the family business in 1982 to focus on his own business, Kirvida continued to fly recreationally and to grow the CustomFIRE business by building relationships with customers and suppliers around the world.
“In 1983, the first aircraft CustomFIRE operated was in partnership with two other business pilots,” he said. “It was a 1969 Piper Comanche C model. In a perfect partnership, I flew its wings off and the others shared all expenses!”
CustomFIRE’s first solely owned and operated aircraft, a booted Beechcraft Baron B55, was purchased in 1986. A few months later, the first pressurized aircraft, a Cessna 414, was added. The company and Kirvida have owned many aircraft through the years. In 1992, Kirvida transitioned to multi-turbine, training in the company’s Cessna 425 Conquest, then acquiring his first King Air – a model 200 (BB-843) in 1994.
“In 1996, I sold the King Air 200 and purchased a new Cessna Caravan 208,” Kirvida said. “I wanted a new aircraft and thought the Caravan would suffice for business travel as well as recreational (on floats). It only took a few flights in the weather to realize I had made a mistake, as I sorely missed the speed and over-the-weather pressurization of the King Air. The Caravan was sold and the decision was made to purchase another King Air 200. Unfortunately, this was 1998 and the 200s had increased in value by more than a half million dollars. On the rebound, I purchased an F90, which provided similar performance in a smaller and easier to hangar package.”
That was the beginning of his long relationship with N911CF, a 1980 Beechcraft King Air F90.
“The lower purchase price of the F90 allowed us to own and operate a second turboprop, which at first was a C90A and later became another Cessna 425 Conquest,” he said. “In 2018, the Conquest was sold and the company purchased a Cessna Citation 560 (V/Ultra). Now, some 22 years later, with the jet experience and a type rating accomplished, I was ready for another Caravan Amphib to replace the jet. The F90 has survived trade-off every time. Neither the 200, the C90A, nor the F90 have ever left me stranded for mechanical reasons; I can’t say the same for the other multiengine turboprops we’ve operated.”
How it’s going
Three years ago, Kirvida had EFIS avionics installed in the F90, and he plans to purchase new 5-blade props before the end of the year. He also wants fresh exterior paint; the current paint job was completed in 1996 by the previous owner, NASCAR driver Bobby Labonte.
Besides N911CF, Kirvida currently owns and operates a 1949 Piper PA-11-115 Cub Special, 1955 Bonanza F35 (the one his father purchased as the family business’ first airplane and has been in the Kirvida family for 50 years now), 1978 PA-18-150 Super Cub on floats, 2000 American Champion 7GCBC-160 Explorer and 1999 Cessna Caravan 208 Amphibian. The aircraft are based at the neighboring New Richmond Regional Airport (KRNH).
Kirvida has been an active pilot continuously now for 57 years. He has slightly over 15,000 total hours, which includes more than 12,000 of multi – nearly 5,000 hours flying King Airs. He’s accumulated all of his hours as a private pilot with airplane single engine land & sea, airplane multiengine and instrument ratings, and a CE560 type rating.
“I owe much to aviation, for how it has helped grow our family business and, of course, without the business one could not have warranted the variety of aircraft I’ve had the joy of piloting,” Kirvida said. “There were years when I flew in excess of 400 hours, but saved thousands of hours of driving and dozens of nights in a hotel. With the King Airs came far more comfortable travel, fewer trip hours and the ability to be home every night.”
CustomFIRE has grown from a one-person, part-time business operating from a 1,600-square-foot converted hangar on the L.O. Simenstad Municipal Airport (KOEO) in Osceola to employing nearly 40 people and set to begin construction on a 24,000-square-foot fabrication and assembly building, which will bring the total footprint to 75,000 square feet of space for offices, inventory, manufacturing, training and delivery. Most of the company’s facilities were previously used to manufacture Bellanca Champion, Citabria, Scout and Decathlon aircraft.
“Explicitly, since 1986 CustomFIRE’s sales outreach and resulting growth is linked to its use of corporate aircraft,” Kirvida said. “At the start, our factory-direct sales of fire apparatus required that the same person(s) engineering the fire trucks during the day, needed to travel and work jointly with the purchasing committees, wherever their location, and usually during the evenings. In my own situation, aircraft have allowed me as owner to make sales visits to and develop personal relationships with fire chiefs throughout the Midwest and East Coast regions. This was a distinct advantage that the competition could not duplicate.”
Even with the convenience of emails, Zoom meetings and Dropbox services to exchange information, Kirvida said there are situations when the aircraft are vital to operations: from same-day emergency parts deliveries to sudden-notice repositioning of sales and service representatives and factory visits to their many component vendors. Most recently, he said, CustomFIRE has been engaged in the marketing and manufacturing of industrial fire apparatus, requiring frequent trips to the refineries and terminals of Texas and Louisiana.
The aircraft also are used for personal travel and humanitarian missions.
“My entire family, all 17 of us, have enjoyed the rewards of personal air travel for more than 30 years now,” Kirvida said. “Both of my sons are active pilots, and on many occasions, we have mobilized two or more aircraft in order to have sufficient passenger seats.”
Over the years, there have been many instances where the aircraft were used for charitable purposes, and Kirvida said among the most rewarding were the many years of flying the WWII 8th Airforce Pilots and Bombardiers on a day trip, with destinations ranging from Charles Lindbergh’s home and museum in Little Falls, Minnesota, to the EAA Aviation Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and beyond.
In 2020, Kirvida earned the Federal Aviation Administration’s Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, awarded to those with 50 or more years of piloting experience. He credits three of his closest pilot friends for writing nominations on his behalf.
“This award is pinnacle of my accomplishments, a recognition I wish could have been shared with the person who inspired my passion of aviation – my father Mitch Kirvida,” he said.