Ultimate vacation

astanley

astanley

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Andrew Stanley
Had a lovely dinner last night with a fellow PoA'er and we spent a lot of time talking about travel... which is typical for us, it seems.

We talked a great deal about our favorite vacation destinations. We are both in near violent agreement that Italy is the creme de la creme, but I completely discounted adding in anything aviation related. Which, of course, is the seed that started this post...

So, PoA'ers, what's your dream vacation? Only one rule: it has to include aviation ex-airline travel. Balloons, helicopters, vintage, GA, bizjets, even the ATOPs experience all count.

Right now? Mine would be 15 days without my BlackBerry, in Italy, split between Liguria and Toscana, with an open-cockpit Fiat CR-42 (the sexiest biplane in history...) ride at dawn just before the end. We'd go just around the olive harvest, work for our friends in Levanto, and then spend the last half relaxing in Siena and exploring Chianti, Umbria, and Toscana.

I think returning to the real world would be painful after such a trip.

What's your dream?

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
I like Scotland. I was able to get 3 hours last year over some very pretty coastline and country. Next time, I'd like to fly from airport to airport instead of just Edinburgh. It's also a quick way to get over to the western islands. At about $350 an hour and a landing fee (at Edinburgh) of $108, I'd have to win the lottery to spend more than a few hours flying.
 
Flying boat to Hawaii or another tropical place.

Alternates:
Hawaii flightseeing tour
Fly yourself Africa safari, Alaska, or Australia
 
To heck with a destination, the journey is the important part of travel: Supercub, Continental US (all 49 states) and Canada, absolutely no pavement at all, short runways only. Avoid airports of any kind whenever possible especially for overnight stops. No time limit.

Destination related: Flight to the Magnetic North Pole.
 
That's a tough question.

A good friend of mine just asked me about flying to Africa. That's obviously not exactly a quick vacation, but in the spirit of "it's the journey not the destination", that's at the top of my list. US-Canada-Iceland-Great Britain-France(?)-Africa or something like that. Maybe next year!

-Felix
 
Andrew: As you probably know, each year I take my nieces on a trip in the Baron. Last year was to the Bahamas. Flew from Dallas to get them. SC to see my Daughter. Out to the Bahamas for ten days. Back to FL, Texas, and Wisconsin. We've gone to Cozumel, several places in the States and Hawaii. For the Hawaii trip, which we're doing again this year, I fly up in the Baron to get them and bring them back to Dallas. We go commercial from here. Then take a couple trips in the Baron and I fly them home.

We seem to always have a great time and have stopped to see some fellow POAers on the way.


Best,

Dave
 
fgcason said:
To heck with a destination, the journey is the important part of travel: Supercub, Continental US (all 49 states) and Canada, absolutely no pavement at all, short runways only. Avoid airports of any kind whenever possible especially for overnight stops. No time limit.
Click to expand...

I'm with Frank. I still figuring if I have the range to make it to an airstip in Nunivik. Also, I'd like to get all the 'EST airports--FarthEST north, south east and west, HighEST, LowEST, you know, those kind.

Barb
 
One Short said:
I still figuring if I have the range to make it to an airstip in Nunivik.
Click to expand...

If you don't have enough range, establish a few fuel caches.
Hide enough fuel along a route and you can go anywhere.

There are a lot of islands North of mainland Canada that look like fun to explore.
 
astanley said:
What's your dream?
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I always thought it would be interesting to visit... oh wait, we need an aviation angle? How about this? I want to see this view out the front window of the airplane I'm flying. I can pretty much guarantee it's never going to happen but it's nice to speculate...
 

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I'd want to do a world tour, hitting every continent, including Antarctica. The plane? Well, I suppose if I had my way I would want to do it in some pressurized twin. If I wanted to think about something I could actually ever potentially afford (mainly due to gas prices expected along the trip), a Lancair 360 is a lot more likely.

Countries and/or places? Oh, too many to list. But I'd want to do as much of it VFR as possible. We're talking a trip that's more time than I can afford to take off, and more money than I'm ever likely to be able to afford to spend. But what a neat idea...

Mari, I'd love to see that view, too. Where is it?
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Where is it?
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It's someplace I've been intrigued with for a long time but I never thought of it in relation to aviation until I read this thread. I never even pictured getting there by airplane although I'm sure that's the easiest way. Let's just say that it's probably never going to happen for both political and practical reasons. In fact, I'm surprised I could even find a photo like that on the internet.
 
etsisk said:
Ed, did you sit on a lemon as a child? You can be one sour-a$$ed sonofagun! :D
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Not Ed, but beyond the desire to visit some WWII sites in Europe, I have no desire to go there either. The beauty and grandeur to be seen in this country is enough. Now, I'd jump at the chance to visit...and dive...Micronesia or the Red Sea, or the GBR, or.....
 
Having had the pleasure to fly a small plane (Commander) from Linate up over Bellagio and Lake Como, thence over to Lugano, then back, I'd still rate Italy pretty high (except for the prices!). LIkewise ballooning in Tuscany.

And getting there in a G-IV or G-V would be even more fun.... :yes:

Alaska is very high on the private-plane list for me. King crab and fresh salmon....
 
Well, y'all know that Alaska is high on our list too. However, the best aviation-related vacation we've HAD so far has been the week flying with Matt & Jo in New Zealand! (www.flyinn.co.nz). Not sure what the ultimate vacation would be, but NZ will be hard to top!
 
etsisk said:
Ed, did you sit on a lemon as a child? You can be one sour-a$$ed sonofagun! :D
Click to expand...

I don't like anyplace where I feel like a sardine. Narrow streets, way too many people packed into an area they shouldn't be. Europe has lakes, so does every other continent. There's nothing natural in Europe that can't be found elsewhere. The only difference is it might be more easily accessible in Europe because it's so small. At one time I thought it might be cool to see Venice, then I realized that if I want to see a city underwater I can always go to New Orleans, or last month, anywhere in the midwest. I'd much rather lake-hop through the Canadian Rockies, fly the length of the Yukon or Amazon in a sea-plane, or cruise over the African savannah than to put up with all the avio-political, fee-laden bullcrap that Europe has.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I'd want to do a world tour, hitting every continent, including Antarctica. The plane? Well, I suppose if I had my way I would want to do it in some pressurized twin. If I wanted to think about something I could actually ever potentially afford (mainly due to gas prices expected along the trip), a Lancair 360 is a lot more likely....
Click to expand...

Ted, one of my airport bum friends at ADS has landed on every continent in his 210 (non-turbo). He has flown that sucker *everywhere*!
 
A trip to France through Greenland in the Viking, With some rich girl that just wants to pay for everything.

On the sim I flew to Reunion Island that trip was way cool.

Dan
 
Frank Browne said:
The beauty and grandeur to be seen in this country is enough.
Click to expand...

That comment reminds me of a true story involving my Cushing, ME longtime neighbor, artist Andrew Wyeth. Andy was being feted, many years ago, at some large gathering of the arts world. A young journalist had at-hand the moment of his career and asked, "Mr. Wyeth, how did you like Europe?"
When Andy responded, "I've never been to Europe," the cub reporter was rather surprised and said, "Why?"

When he heard the reply, "There are still too many places in Maine and the United States I haven't seen," the scribe was at a loss for words.

HR
 
For me it probably would involve going to the French/Italian Alps, and cycling over some of the famous mountain passes followed by a week (at least) of mountain soaring and XC flying through the alps.

I know that this could be as easily accomplised in the rockies, but this is a dream vacation after all :-)

foto-05-04.jpg
 
I need a kick in the butt to get myself to
Alaska
Bahamas
Mexico
the Blue Spruce route as Felix posted

...before my health/interest/money runs out!
 
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