Understanding strange people like private pilots is not easy. We fly for fun, not for travel. When we land at a nearby airport to eat a $100 hamburger, the best part is not the hamburger, but the flight. I once flew to Guernsey just to have it in my logbook. After landing there, I had coffe and cake, and left for the leg back home. I even envisaged landing in London Gatwick – extremely expensive – but this plan did not come true.

On another day, I took my wife to eat some fish in a beach restaurant in Montpellier and we flew back same day. 3 hours of flight for a lunch. Does it sound crazy to you ? If not, you’re probably a pilot or at least a serious aviation enthusiast. If yes, consider that: would you ask a marathon runner why he’s doing it ? Runing 42.195 kilometers, usually in a loop. Does that make sense ? No one asks that to the 40.000 participants of the New-York marathon.

Pilots flying for fun find their pleasure and satisfaction in the act of flying. For sure, some are using that for business travel or holidays, but the vast majority do it because they like it. Those of us flying aerobatics are the perfect example. Short flights, same departure and destination, and some aerobatic manoeuvers in the middle. Lot of fun.

My personal favorites are IFR flights with complex approaches, preferably with low ceilings but no icing. Geneva was a perfect base for that. In February the combination of lake and mountains often produces low and thin stratus layers. Getting through and reach the sun after two minutes of flying or slowly diving in and see the runway few seconds before landing was really exciting and rewarding

A short look in my logbook confirms it – most of my flying is done on same-day basis. I never flew out for holiday trip because it’s not reliable enough. Some do, but I’m not one of them. Each aviator has his own version of aviation…

But like sportsmen or performers, the best part is not to go somewhere, but the way you go. Got it ?