Crystal and Sean Schimmelman, co-owners of Advantage Aviation, plan to bring their business to Blue Earth. Sean is pictured above.

A new business is taking flight at the Blue Earth Municipal Airport this year.

Sean and Crystal Schimmelman, owners of Advantage Aviation Services, LLC, have informed the city of their intent to build a commercial hangar at the airport to facilitate their business’s arrival in the Blue Earth area.

“We intend to use the building as an aircraft maintenance/avionics facility in support of a pipeline surveillance company and the local aircraft owners,” the couple informed the Blue Earth City Council through written correspondence in December of last year.

In layman’s terms, the new hangar would provide Advantage Aviation Services a location in Blue Earth from which to perform their services for area aircrafts.

According to Advantage Aviation’s website, those services include providing quality aircraft maintenance, routine and mobile maintenance, annual inspections, aircraft restorations, aircraft ferrying, fleet maintenance and management, and aircraft sales.

“We would like to build this spring, with an early summer occupancy,” the Schimmelmans added in their letter to the council.

Advantage Aviation Services was initially established at Fleming Field in south Saint Paul, just minutes from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.

Upon learning that the Schimmelmans would like to relocate their services to the Blue Earth area, however, Blue Earth Municipal Airport manager Luke Steier was happy to hear that community aviators would be gaining access to local services they had lacked previously.

“Right now, we have no licensed maintenance at the airport,” Steier observed last December. “Right now, we do have a void in the community. It would be a nice asset for our community to have that back.” 

The Schimmelmans initially established Advantage Aviation in 2014, after observing a need for quality aircraft maintenance in the Twin Cities, and in the surrounding areas.  

The couple states on their website, “We’re so much more than a just a place to get your annual inspection completed. We want you to feel like family from the minute you bring your airplane to us.”

Sean and Crystal Schimmelman both share a passion for aviation, which has fueled the growth of their business.

Advantage Aviation president Sean Schimmelman has been airborne for years, ever since he first received his private pilot certification in 1987.

“I love airplanes and tools. Engines and avionics are my favorite,” Schimmelman says.

Over the past three decades, Schimmelman has added Instrument and Commercial ratings to his professional portfolio, and he has traversed the United States as an aerial application pilot, flying Cessna 206s in Alaska, hauling skydivers in a Cessna 208 Super Van, and everything in between.

In 2011, Schimmelman obtained a job as a full-fledged pipeline patrol pilot for Eagle Sky Patrol, an aerial pipeline and powerline patrol company.

After joining Eagle Sky Patrol, Schimmelman diligently studied the pipeline business and developed a passion for aerial inspection, which eventually earned him a position as director of operations at Eagle Sky Patrol.

He managed a fleet of over 40 aircrafts and pilots, while also keeping all of their policies and procedures up-to-date.

Now, as president and co-owner of Advantage Aviation, he stays busy applying the skills he gained through his years of experience at Eagle Sky Patrol to his own business.

Advantage Aviation co-owner Crystal Schimmelman, meanwhile, performs administrative services for the company.

A native of the Blue Earth area, she early cultivated a love of aviation while growing up near the Blue Earth Municipal Airport.

As such, expanding her business to that same airport represents something of a homecoming for her.

Though Schimmelman initially studied to obtain her private pilot license in her senior year of high school, she ended up putting that dream on hold for several years.

Now, however, flying has returned to her life in full-force, both in the form of a private pilot’s license and ownership of an aviation-based business.

“What started to feel like an unlikely pipe dream – being a private pilot – has now become a reality for me. It’s amazing,” she says.

Schimmelman adds, “I love aviation and I love to learn. This work environment is perfect for both.” 

To complete the realization of her childhood dreams, Schimmelman finally has her very own airplane, a Cessna 150 Taildragger, which has benefited enormously from Advantage Aviation’s avionics services via a full avionics upgrade.

Aviation is the Schimmelmans’ work, but it is their play, too.

The Advantage Aviation co-owners like to fly for fun whenever they can, and they also like to support other aspiring pilots.

As the Advantage Aviation website states, Sean Schimmelman “likes to take the time to inspire and assist other enthusiasts with their own aviation dreams.”