5 Things To Do At The Airport This Weekend

Looking for an excuse to head out the airport this weekend? Forget about mowing the lawn or cleaning out the garage, here are 5 airport activities for your Saturday and Sunday:

1.    Fly out for lunch

Pick your favorite spot with a famous $100 hamburger, BBQ, or pancake – depending on the time of day – and make a trip out of it. Round up the airport crew, your family, or fly solo if necessary. Flying and food (when combined responsibly) – is the perfect recipe for a great airport day.

2.    Practice the basics

Hone your stick and rudder skills by simply going up and practicing basic flight maneuvers. Our typical flight profiles don’t include any stalls or steep turns, so take the opportunity to exercise the fundamentals. Add in some turns around a point, practice your slow flight technique, and top it off with some touch and go’s for good measure. Keeping these skills sharp make aircraft transitions and flight reviews a cinch.

3.    Give a friend or family member an airplane ride

General aviation is in critical condition. Not enough pilots are entering the community compared to the number of those retiring. Invite a friend or relative who has never been in a small airplane. Each new person introduced to aviation only helps to strengthen the future.

4.    Wash your airplane

Maybe your airplane is temporarily down for maintenance or the weather isn’t ideal for flying. This might be a good opportunity to detail your ride. If you didn’t have time to clean the bugs from your previous flight(s), or you taxied a little too quickly across that wet ramp, there may be a little work to do. If you’re lucky enough to have a finely polished bird (or unlucky depending on how you look at it), you have that never-ending battle with fingerprints and water spots, requiring constant upkeep. We love to keep our airplanes looking nice, and who knows – after a bath maybe you’ll pick up a few knots.

5.    Look into adding a rating or endorsement

Do a little research on getting an additional rating or endorsement. If you don’t have your pilot’s license, but have been thinking about it for a while, look into your local flight school. Have you been thinking about adding a rating or endorsement? Explore ways to advance your flight skills – whether it's adding an instrument rating or working toward your commercial license, getting a complex, high performance, or even tailwheel endorsement.

#flyGarmin

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