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Aviation Travel

Whether you're flying to one of your favorite vacation spots, or to a remote airstrip high in the mountains, aviation travel is an experience unto itself. Browse our aviation travel section and capture the atmosphere of adventure flying.

Logbook Love Affair

Confessions of a type hunter

You don’t have to have lived very long to realize that some moments stay with you forever. A few airplanes are like that: As with a first kiss, you replay those flights over and over in the theater of your mind. For instance, it seems as if only 15 minutes—not several decades—have elapsed since my first takeoff in a Grumman F8F Bearcat. I was researching a school article on warbird pilots—the Bearcat wasn’t on the list to be flown. The Vought Corsair that was on the list, however, blew a hydraulic line, so the owner, Jr. Burchinal, proprietor of the wildest flying school in history said, “Come on, fly the Bearcat.”

Cavanaugh’s Flight Through Time

What started as a private hobby has grown into a serious collection

Jim Cavanaugh has a habit of starting small and building big. An integral part of his formula is his desire to share his passions with others so that, in the end, everyone wins.

Fabulous Fall Flying

Take advantage of favorable weather and crowd-free destinations

It’s no secret to pilots that fall is a great time of year to fly. The temperature is crisp, the air is clear, and there’s an overall decrease in convective activity. Summer travelers have returned home, and kids are back to school, which means that your favorite vacation spots can be enjoyed without the crowds.

It's Aerotrekking

Coming to America in a big, big way

Out the window, there’s not a hint of light on the horizon. Inside, the room is dark except for the glow of the computer screen on John McAfee’s face. “Winds aloft out of El Paso are from the northeast at 22,” he says with a crinkle of his nose that pushes his glasses a little higher on his head.

Fly Chile

From mountains to oceans and deserts to glaciers, Chile is an aviator’s dream come true

I squinted as I scanned the horizon from the Cessna 210’s window. “Just over there,” my guide Jaime Hernández pointed into the distance. “The lake at 10 o’clock is actually in Argentina.” My eyes scanned the Andes, but the snowy peaks and turquoise water blended together to form one massive, remarkable mountain range rather than two distinct countries. We continued at 9,500 feet over waterfalls, volcanoes, black-sand beaches and mile after endless mile of roadless, inaccessible terrain. Several low passes and steep turns thrilled the shutterbug in me, and Fleetwood Mac, playing through our headsets, seemed like an old friend. “Relax gringa,” Jaime said, “you’re in Chile.”

All The Way To South America

Escorted adventures make big intercontinental fights available to everyone

Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to inform you that in this river, there are no cocodrilos,” our guide smiled as he related the information to us. Just hearing the word made our adventure more exciting. Cocodrilos (a.k.a. crocodiles)—I said it over and over again, letting the syllables twist back and forth between the tip of my tongue and the roof of my mouth. “KO KO DREE YOSE,” I repeated, trying to perfect that Spanish rolling “r” that eludes most gringos. “There are, however, many jaguars,” the guide added.

The Aviation Storyteller

Preserving tales from the Golden Age

For Greg Herrick, collecting airplanes seems to be more of an addiction, less of a hobby. His eclectic assortment of more than 40 aircraft spans eight decades, with a focus on the period between World War I and World War II known as the Golden Age.

Ghosts

The Great War, aviation in World War I

Just a few years after the Wright Brothers took their groundbreaking first flight, war broke out in Europe. The scant supply of airplanes that were on hand when World War I began quickly evolved into military machines, and for the first time in history, battles took place in the sky.

See Italy By Seaplane

Talk about fantasies on floats…

Cesare Baj dropped the first notch of flaps on the Lake Buccaneer as we circled Castelli di Cannero, a castle from the 13th century. The amazingly intact structure was built on a rocky outcrop in the middle of a lake 600 to 700 years ago as a means of discouraging unwanted visitors. That philosophy can be evidenced today as this late-medieval castle remains virtually inaccessible to almost all tourists who visit Italy.

Racing Bobby Unser

“I will go fast until the day I die.”—Bobby Unser, three-time Indianapolis 500 champion

There were surprises. It only took one question to kick off a discussion that took nearly three utterly fascinating hours to unravel. And some of the statements he made were truly outside the image and expectations I had brought to the interview.