Goodyear blimp floats over Minnesota for 3M Open

If you see a strange object floating in the sky around the north metro: don't worry, it's not a UFO. The Goodyear blimp is in the air all weekend as PGA Tour golfers take to the greens in Minnesota.

BLAINE, Minn. (FOX 9) - If you see a strange object floating in the sky around the metro: don't worry, it's not a UFO.

The Goodyear blimp is in the air all weekend as PGA Tour golfers take to the greens in Minnesota. The blimp is providing aerial coverage for the 3M Open that is underway at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine.

There are actually three Goodyear blimps stationed across the country. The one in Minnesota is called "Wingfoot 3." Its home base is in Akron, Ohio.

On Friday, the blimp made a trip to Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prarie to honor the 50th year anniversary of Youngstedts Tires.

"When we do passenger rides like we are today, everybody is excited to be there," said the blimp pilot Joe Erbs. "It's not like, you know, getting on a cross-country airline trip. Nobody shows up to the blimp saying, 'Oh, man, I got to get on the blimp today.' Everybody's happy, everybody's excited, they're asking questions and we feed off of that. You know, we get excited and really, it makes us enjoy our job a lot."

The Goodyear blimp was also kind of a kick-off to the Wings of the North Air Expo taking place at Flying Cloud Airport this weekend.

Next week, the blimp will fly across Wisconsin heading toward the Big Air-Venture Airshow in Oshkosh.