Most beautiful place to learn flying?

Sac Arrow said:
Norcal gets my vote. FYI Japan Airlines used to run their training center at Napa County Airport (KAPC). Every element was covered - water, terrain, fog, IMC, Bravo airspace, winds, etc....
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....And nothing beat hearing a thick Japanese accent announcing entering the pattern at Willows!!!! :rofl:
 
JimNtexas said:
Hawaii hands down the most beautiful place with an active GA community.

The Pacific Northwest isn't quite as beautiful, but is probably a much better place to learn to be a pilot, since they have such varied terrain and micro-climates.

ETA: I learned to fly at Bird's Nest Airport, Manor Texas.
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While I took my initial at a place called Pensacola, my time stationed in Hawaii, (two tours...go ahead and hate :D ) was without doubt the most beautiful flying locale I have ever experienced. It can be windy for beginners perhaps.
 
Well, the prettiest places aren't necessarily the best to learn.

Best scenery along a route I flew: Boulder City, NV, over the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, then east toward Canyonlands and the San Rafael Swell, past Montrose, over Aspen, land at Leadville, then up toward Silverthorne, through Loveland Pass and into Denver as the sun was setting. Amazing.

But, while there are plenty of lessons to be learned in that area, for your flight training you're going to be concentrating so much on flying the plane that scenery isn't nearly as important as having access to good weather as well as many different situations regarding things like airspace, terrain, etc. Go find the fun scenery AFTER you're done training! After all, most of your training will probably happen within a pretty small geographical area - 80% within maybe 25 miles of the departure airport, and the rest within 100 miles. After you're done, you can go anywhere you want to see the sights. :)
 
SkyHog said:
I did not learn in Florida, but I have flown a number of times out of KSRQ. Absolutely gorgeous area to fly, and the sky is so damned smooth anyone should be able to finish their training without much difficulty....it won't make you a "good stick" by any means, but it will certainly get you there quickly and beautifully.
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+1 keep my airplane at SRQ six months of the year,guess witch six.
 
flyingfox said:
Thanks for all the replies. My OP was about what you guys thought was the most beautiful place to learn to fly, not where did you learn. :yes:

In any case, great diversity. I am in a position where I can almost choose where to learn, I am a foreign student and will take few months off my schedule and go over the US to get my license.

I also understand the the most beautiful places or not necessarily the best places for other reasons, right? like Juneau or Seattle for their weather aren't the best places, how do people do to learn over there? just takes time I suppose.
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Yep.

For what you're trying to accomplish, you want good VFR weather the vast majority of the time. Where that'll be depends on the time of year - While Arizona has lots of VFR weather, I sure wouldn't want to learn to fly there any other season besides winter or you're going to be dealing with a lot of heat and associated thermal turbulence.

Also, if you're going to keep going and get your instrument rating, you might want to train for that somewhere other than where you get your private. When working on the private, VFR is good - When working on instrument, you want to have a chance to get as much actual IMC as possible.

The west coast, as stated before, is probably good for both depending on the season and time of day - But California is also stupid expensive. Oregon or Washington might be better because of that, but you'll have to go at the right time of year up there (I would guess July-October would be the best, but you'll want to consult with someone who flies in that area a lot more than I do).

Oh, and there is lots of nice scenery out there, too...
 
SkyHog said:
I did not learn in Florida, but I have flown a number of times out of KSRQ. Absolutely gorgeous area to fly, and the sky is so damned smooth anyone should be able to finish their training without much difficulty.
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Ugh. Sky in Florida is not really all that smooth for a good chunk of the year.

You want smooth, try flying around Wisconsin in the winter... I can go hours without a single bump.
 
Santa Barbara, CA. Trained there a bit. Mountains (well, 4000' hills), ocean, marine layer, Class C airspace, and a LOT of places you can go on one tank of fuel..Vegas, Phoenix, SFO, San Diego for starters. And it's beautiful.
 
Once I get ready to move away from San Jose, and back to the Rockies (hopefully in a year from now), I'm giving serious thought to moving to Bozeman, Montana, and learning to fly there.

Having lived in Colorado before, and also flying in (commercially) to Montana and then hiking in Yellowstone, the Rockies are magic to me.

I stumbled across this picture a flight school in Bozeman has on their Facebook page (Summit Aviation). I don't know how to embed it here, if that's possible, so will just post a link to it:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...041034.-2207520000.1383362982.&type=3&theater

That is absolutely BEAUTIFUL to me (also doesn't hurt it's a DA42, which is a future contender if I ever buy something myself).

I would love to spend time in a place like that, learning to fly, going down to Yellowstone, and just decompressing for a couple years. It would be like heaven on earth to me.
 
Geico266 said:
Nebraska. :rolleyes:

The most beautiful thing to see when training is a place to land if the engine quits! :yes: The whole state is a runway except for a few cows and tractors. :rofl:


;)
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Plus you'll really appreciate going home when you're done...:rofl:
 
flyingfox said:
Thanks for all the replies. My OP was about what you guys thought was the most beautiful place to learn to fly, not where did you learn. :yes:

In any case, great diversity. I am in a position where I can almost choose where to learn, I am a foreign student and will take few months off my schedule and go over the US to get my license.

I also understand the the most beautiful places or not necessarily the best places for other reasons, right? like Juneau or Seattle for their weather aren't the best places, how do people do to learn over there? just takes time I suppose.
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Yes, time. My advice if you're here on limited time but want affordable flying, nice weather, and beautiful scenery is to check out flight schools in the Southwest, particularly Arizona. Hawaii is nice but $$$.

AuntPeggy said:
Absolutely. Hawaii first. Northern California and Central Virginia are OK. I've never flown int the Bahamas, but assume they would come in nearly as good as Hawaii.
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The water in the Bahamas is beautiful but none of the islands rise up from the ocean like the volcanic islands of Hawaii. I beleive the higest point in all of the Bahamas is less than 400ft. Farther south in the Caribbean you do see islands with volcanos and mountainous terrain.
 
LoneAspen said:
I stumbled across this picture a flight school in Bozeman has on their Facebook page (Summit Aviation). I don't know how to embed it here, if that's possible, so will just post a link to it:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...041034.-2207520000.1383362982.&type=3&theater

That is absolutely BEAUTIFUL to me (also doesn't hurt it's a DA42, which is a future contender if I ever buy something myself).
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Nice! I met those guys when they were ferrying their newly-purchased DA42 back home several years ago. Glad to see they've done well enough to purchase a second one. :)
 
LoneAspen said:
Once I get ready to move away from San Jose, and back to the Rockies (hopefully in a year from now), I'm giving serious thought to moving to Bozeman, Montana, and learning to fly there.

Having lived in Colorado before, and also flying in (commercially) to Montana and then hiking in Yellowstone, the Rockies are magic to me.

I stumbled across this picture a flight school in Bozeman has on their Facebook page (Summit Aviation). I don't know how to embed it here, if that's possible, so will just post a link to it:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...041034.-2207520000.1383362982.&type=3&theater

That is absolutely BEAUTIFUL to me (also doesn't hurt it's a DA42, which is a future contender if I ever buy something myself).

I would love to spend time in a place like that, learning to fly, going down to Yellowstone, and just decompressing for a couple years. It would be like heaven on earth to me.
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Agreed, the Rocky Mountains is the most beautiful place to live and to learn to fly...... IMHO

It is even nicer when you have your own private airport amongst the Tetons and the Wind River range that is located in the most tax friendly state in the country...... I might even be able to talked into selling it to a future pilot.:yes:;)..
 

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flyingcheesehead said:
Nice! I met those guys when they were ferrying their newly-purchased DA42 back home several years ago. Glad to see they've done well enough to purchase a second one. :)
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Yeah, they seem like a great group of people. After looking at many flight schools' websites over the past few weeks, and seeing so many that aren't kept current, I was very impressed they seem to actually keep theirs updated, with new pics, current events, etc. Once Yellowstone opens for the summer season next year, I think I'll take a week off and head out that way for a discovery flight with them, and do some hiking in Yellowstone. I like that they have Diamond aircraft there, as Diamonds are contenders (especially the DA42) if I ever buy something down the road. I'd like to learn in them (and throw in some Cessna training, too).

My family was never into the outdoor thing, so my first real visit to a national part, hiking, and the mountains was to Yellowstone in 1991. A couple months later, I moved sight unseen to Denver, I fell in love with the mountains so much I just had to get there.

N801BH said:
Agreed, the Rocky Mountains is the most beautiful place to live and to learn to fly...... IMHO

It is even nicer when you have your own private airport amongst the Tetons and the Wind River range that is located in the most tax friendly state in the country...... I might even be able to talked into selling it to a future pilot.:yes:;)..
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That is a beautiful place! Private airport in the Tetons...magic! Maybe if this company I'm at does REALLY well... :)
 
I learned at monmouth executive in belmar nj a few miles west of the beach, everytime I took off I had beautiful views of the ocean, great sunsets and sun rises.. Fly fown to atlantic city have great views or look north and see NYC it wasn't bad to learn here id say.
 
rbridges said:
I think somewhere western United States. Southern California maybe. Close to oceans and mountains inland. Great variety of stuff to see.
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I learned in Reno - got to fly over the Sierras to Sacramento, over Tahoe and over lots of great high desert. I grew up there so I am biased but Northern Nevada is one of the most beautiful places to me.
 
I'm learning to fly out of KEDU (Davis California). It's pretty close to being in the middle of the valley in NorCal. In the last 6 weeks since I started my PPL, I've only canceled once due to rain (last week). The mornings are crisp and plane flies pretty good.

The practice area when I was just getting started doing slow flight, stalls, steep turns, patterns, my CFI had me fly between Mount Diablo and the Sutter Buttes (which is a small mountain range 10 miles across) along the Northern Coast Mountain range. Talk about a beautiful practice area. Level ground below, ~80 MSL but looking out the window at the mountains. And easy too.. "Ok, do a ~500 degree steep turn to Mount Diablo....don't climb....don't descend...don't climb too much". Later, he would change a heading # and I can now hold altitude, but to get started, that was great!

I'm still presolo at about 11 hours, but I think I'll be doing solo soon. My CFI didn't give much instruction in the last few T&G patterns on Sunday...just feedback on what was good/needs work. I have another 2 hour session tomorrow, then on Friday, and Sunday. He said that he will be giving me less and less instruction/input and only feedback. The weather forecast for the next week...sunny to mostly sunny. :)
 
Mt. Diablo is a geodetic "initial point" -- the starting point for most land surveys in California and Nevada -- for good reason. You can see that thing WAY off, and unlike most mountains, it is very distinctive.

I spotted it as I left for home on my solo cross-country. From Gustine. Made for really easy pilotage all the way to Livermore.

It was once the penultimate beacon of the transcontinental-route lighted airway (and the beacon is still on the summit, though it is not lit). In those days, the major airport in the region was OAK.
 
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