Authorities are continuing to search along Minnesota's North Shore for a seasoned pilot who left the Twin Cities area on a one-day flight in his twin-engine plane Friday.
Michael A. Bratlie, 67, of Lakeville, departed from Fleming Field in South St. Paul and was last detected slightly north of Duluth Friday afternoon, according to the Civil Air Patrol.
Searching all weekend failed to turn up a trace of the Piper PA-31 Navajo, and seven aircraft are scheduled to be back in the air Tuesday along the North Shore of Lake Superior in hopes of finding Bratlie and his plane, Maj. Paul Pieper of the Civil Air Patrol said Monday night.
Bratlie was making the nearly three-hour round-trip flight to "season" his plane, an aviation term for breaking in a new engine ahead of much longer travels, said Capt. George Supan, also of the patrol.
Supan said Bratlie has more than 30,000 hours of piloting under his belt, many of those in the cockpit of commercial airliners and with the Navy.
PAUL WALSH
