8 Blade Aero

8 Blade Aero is a small aircraft management and pilot services company in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area of Minnesota. It manages and flies aircraft for private owners only, with no charter operation, and its current managed types are the Pilatus PC-12, the Piper PA-46 family and the Cirrus SR22. The company is an NBAA member and says it grew out of owners it flew for asking it to manage their aircraft as well. Managed aircraft are based at airports across the Twin Cities metro, including MSP, Flying Cloud (FCM), Anoka County (ANE), Crystal (MIC), St. Paul Downtown (STP) and Airlake (LVN).

Services

• Buyer's agent: finding candidate aircraft, evaluating condition and taking the purchase through to closing, with a reduced fee when the aircraft will be managed by the company
• Aircraft management: maintenance coordination, insurance, scheduling, FBO and trip logistics and hangar management
• Pilot services: type current crew for owners whose aircraft are managed elsewhere, working with the owner's insurer
• Software: a flight operations suite the company built for itself (trip sheets, crew and passenger logistics, dispatch and fatigue risk tracking), offered to other flight departments by subscription
• Part 91 dry lease introductions between owners and prospective lessees, at no charge

Operations are modelled on NBAA aircraft management principles, with an operations manual structured around the Certified Aviation Manager domains and pilot duty and rest tracked in a fatigue risk management system.

Team

Chief pilot Ken Reily has flown since 1996, with over 3,000 hours in PA-46 variants and nearly 3,000 in the PC-12, and is a flight instructor; he previously spent about twenty years in software at Cargill, Microsoft and 3M. Pilot and director of maintenance Ellen Quist has 3,400 hours, single and multi engine land and sea ratings and instructs in aircraft from the SR22 to seaplanes. Ann HS runs scheduling.

Work on Cirrus aircraft

The Cirrus SR22 is one of the three types the company manages and flies for owners. Its chief pilot gives insurance approved initial and recurrent SR22 training through the sister business Twin Cities Malibu, and the site names Premier Jet Center as its preferred service provider for PC-12 and SR22 maintenance. 8 Blade Aero is a management company, not a Cirrus Aircraft service center. For the factory network and other Cirrus specialists see the Cirrus hub.

Contact

Email: info@8blade.aero
Description from the company's website (October 2026). Not a Cirrus Aircraft authorized service center. Is this your company? Claim this page to add photos and keep your details up to date.