Page 10 - Volume 14 Number 4

in college and earned his private certificate in a 1968 Cessna 150 that he and a friend bought from a farmer for $4,200 in 1977.
“I was taking ground school at the University of Minnesota and flight lessons at Anoka County Airport, and drooling out the window looking at cool Barons and other planes that I thought ‘Geez, one
Forty years later, Baker has owned more than 100 airplanes. Not only did he get that Beechcraft Baron he drooled over, he has owned 13 different Barons – “basically every model made” – including two he has owned on two different occasions and one he’s owned three times.
of these days...’”
His first job allowed him to put the Cessna 150 to use and he’s been mixing business and recreational flying ever since.
“I know about half a dozen F90 owners who are friends and all really like the model,” he said. “It’s an airplane with a kind of cult following.”
He’s also shared his love of aviation by encouraging many within his family to learn to fly. Baker was in the left seat for his grandfather’s first plane ride and he helped his dad get his pilot’s certificate when his dad was 63 years old. He’s also persuaded his son, sons-in-law, a brother and a sister-in-law to become pilots.
His first King Air
Of those 100 airplanes, many were chosen based on the work he was doing at the time. That included seven or eight Cessna Citation jets for commuting to work from his home in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. In 2008, a position as chief operating officer for Scotts Miracle-Gro Company based in Columbus, Ohio, finally made Baker a King Air owner.
“I’d been in King Airs a lot and flown them quite a lot but this was my first time owning one,” Baker said. “I had gone up to the Citation world for a while because of the range I needed. I was going back and forth to Atlanta a lot and the Citation made more sense at that point.”
He helped a friend shop for a King Air when the friend needed an airplane that could land on gravel airstrips in the western U.S. When that friend later was ready to sell, Baker traded for the 1975 King Air C90 to use to commute between the Twin Cities and Columbus once or twice a week.
“Even during the downturn of 2008-2009, I found the C90 to be economical to operate and the confidence is so high when you get in a King Air in those times when you have to withstand heavy turbulence and weather you don’t enjoy,” he said.
Jobs change, which leads to mission changes, which affects the fleet needed. Baker’s career in retail ›
“I grew up with a company called
Knox Lumber in the Twin Cities and
two of the three founders were aviators,”
Baker said. “One was a B-17 navigator
and another was a flight instructor
during World War II. They mentored
me along and allowed me to use my
little 150 to run up to stores in Fargo
or Sioux Falls, South Dakota, or over
to Billings, Montana. When we sold
the company to Payless Cashways in
Kansas City, I was getting my instrument rating and I belonged to a flying club out of the Twin Cities. I would go back and forth every week between the Twin Cities and Kansas City, initially in a Warrior, then an Arrow.”
8 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
APRIL 2020