AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2020 - 18

WAYPOINTS

Roads less traveled

BY THOMAS B. HAINES
Editor in Chief

Inspiring pilots to fly

Editor in Chief
TOM HAINES has
flown GA airplanes
in 48 states and on
five continents, but
still relishes breakfast flights with
friends across the
Chesapeake Bay.

18 | AOPA PILOT March 2020

SOME ENJOY AEROBATICS. For others, it's teaching student pilots. And for others it may be banging around
the pattern or criss-crossing the local region to favorite hamburger haunts. For me, it's utility and travel. I
enjoy using general aviation airplanes to go to places
that I otherwise would not.
You'll see the theme of GA travel throughout this
month's issue. The goal is to inspire pilots to fly more
and to explore with their airplanes. In fact, the effort
is just a small part of the overall strategy at AOPA to
remind pilots about the joys of flying and provide
examples of places to go.
Our airport directory online has been revamped
to help you find all sorts of destinations. You can leave
ratings, comments, and even photos about airports,
FBOs, and other businesses on a particular airport.
From the main search page (aopa.org/destinations)
you can search for airports that offer camping or "restaurant on field," for example. The "Explore Places to
Fly" tab allows you to use a Google map function to
locate golf courses, ski slopes, fishing spots, museums,
lodging, amusement parks, and other activities near
GA airports. The Advanced Search feature goes even
further in helping you to find events and activities relative to airport locations.
In addition, every two weeks AOPA produces
Travel Pilot, an email newsletter dedicated to GA flying
destinations. Each free issue showcases several locations easily accessible by GA airplanes and links back
to dozens more we've written about in recent years.
Click on or hover over the Travel tab at the top of every
page on our website and then the Travel Stories option
to see examples.
Keep track of all your GA travels using the AOPA
app and its Pilot Passport function. Check in at GA
airports as you go, collect badges, and be eligible to
win prizes for the different types of airports you visit.
Two plaques on my home office wall are constant
reminders of a couple of memorable GA flights for me.
They include small models of a 200-pound blue marlin
and a 50-pound dorado I caught on two separate trips
to Punta Pescadero in Baja California, Mexico, in the
early 2000s. The fisherman's point, as the name translates, includes a small inn next to a paved runway on
the cliffs of the Sea of Cortez. On several occasions
in that era, a group of aviators from the West Coast
would pile into a wide variety of airplanes and trundle

south over the stark peninsula to the inn for a few days
of fishing and fun. I would rent a Mooney out of Van
Nuys, California, for the journey. The first trip was my
first time flying in Mexico, which turned out to be no
big deal. Returning to the States was often the more
challenging and frustrating experience-but created
memories too, such as three of us prancing around
inside the yellow box at San Diego's Brown Field
Municipal Airport awaiting the arrival of a Customs
inspector while anxiously eying the restroom sign at
the terminal after a four-hour flight up Baja.
I will never forget our flying safari in southern
Africa. Two couples in two Cessna 182s hitting four
lodges in three countries in a week and being mesmerized by the access to the animals. Lions, leopards,
giraffes, rhinos, hippos, elephants, Cape buffalo, impalas, kudu, hyenas, and countless species of birds and
other wildlife were close enough to fill our camera
lenses day after day. It was a trip in a timeframe that
would not have been possible via any other means of
transportation.
I have other incredible memories of flying in places
like New Zealand, Australia, Europe, Russia, Greece,
Egypt, and beyond. But trips need not be to exotic
places to be memorable. I have a vivid memory of my
young daughter stopping in her tracks at a small airport in South Carolina where we had paused for fuel
en route to Disney World. She looked up in wonder at
a tall palm tree and asked, "What is that?" She'd not
seen anything quite like that in Maryland.
Another memorable flight a few years earlier was
from the Poconos area of Pennsylvania back to home
base at Frederick, Maryland. It was a short flight after
a weekend getaway for my wife and me, but I had spent
an inordinate amount of time planning it because of
the overwhelming sense of responsibility that I suddenly felt after my wife told me on that trip that she
was pregnant with the daughter who a few years later
would discover palm trees.
GA airplanes are not just time machines, they are
memory makers. I hope these stories in this issue and
on our website will inspire you to plan a few trips of
your own this spring and summer. When you do, let us
know how it goes. We're inspired by your comments
and successes.
AOPA
EMAIL thomas.haines@aopa.org

http://www.aopa.org/destinations

AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2020

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