
Fly Before You Drive: Solo on 16th Birthday
For as long as I can remember, I could not wait to become a pilot. I was so impatient to fly that I wanted to be ready to solo on my 16th birthday, the very first day I could legally fly an airplane by myself. This is the story of how I made that dream come true, and the people who helped and inspired me along the way.

Spring Solos
We asked our Instagram followers to tell us their stories from their first solos. We sent each participant a free Flight Outfitters t-shirt to replace the one cut off their back. We’ve had some amazing entries. Read a few stories below.
Julen…

Pilot Your Own Adventure Trailer
Last summer we handed over the keys to the Pilot Your Own Adventure #FOcamper to Josh Flowers from Aviation101films and Chelsea Smith (@highmaintenance_chels) to take it on an adventure of a lifetime. They traveled all over the country before…

Pilot’s Discretion Podcast with Flight Outfitters’ Mark Glassmeyer
Aviation families and rusty pilot dreams, with Flight Outfitters' Mark Glassmeyer.
Our very own Mark Glassmeyer sat down with the John Zimmerman from Sporty's on the Pilot's Discretion Podcast. Learn about his simple plan for his student…

#Osh21 Recap
CHECK OUT OUR RECAP VIDEO

Following the Oregon and California Trails
The PYOA Contest Grand Prize Winning Story
by Peter Shannon
In the pioneer days, Saint Joseph, Missouri defined the frontier. Before the transcontinental railroad and telegraph, it was a natural assembly point for westbound pioneer wagon trains.…

The Mass Mass Airport Tour: A Visit to All of Massachusetts’ Public Use Airports in 24 Hours
The PYOA Contest 2nd Place Story
By Sheera Kaizerman
My boyfriend Reid loves to collect things. I don’t necessarily mean physical things, but for as long as I’ve known him, he’s always had a to do list. Sure, the list has mundane things…

Amphitheatre in the Sky – “Infinite Highway of the Air”: From Alabama to Alaska
The PYOA Contest 3rd Place Story
By Michael Gerhardt
These are the quiet airborne moments, when we look at the endless wonder below and around us. We marvel “…enviously on the birds soaring freely through space, at full speed, above all…

Wings of Friendship
The PYOA Contest 4th Place Story
By Tucker Axum
“You just won the lottery,” my boss said inside our subterranean bunker. “A free trip to Kenya courtesy of Uncle Sam.”
By free trip, he meant a dangerous counter-terrorism assignment…

A Circum-navigational Flight Around the United States
The PYOA Contest 5th Place Story
By Erica Zangwill
After passing my instrument written exam, I figured if we were going to spend the money on an instrument rating, why not make it a bit more exciting than just flying approaches in the local…

PYOA Adventure Series – Meet Charlee
Our newest Flight Outfitters Navigator Charlee was born into a family of aviators. In fact, Charlee and our founder Mark Glassmeyer are cousins, and were each inspired by their grandfather's WWII experiences in the South Pacific.
Charlee…

PYOA ADVENTURE SERIES – FINDING SOLITUDE ON ISLE ROYALE
We’re headed for solitude in this month’s installment of the Pilot Your Own Adventure Blog series. There’s no driving to this destination, in fact there are only two ways to visit - by air or by boat. Book a seaplane flight or take a ride…

BEHIND THE SCENES – PILOT YOUR OWN ADVENTURE CONTEST TRIAL RUN
Practice makes perfect, as they say, so in order to perfect our Oshkosh campground setup for our Pilot Your Own Adventure Contest, we made a trial run. This year, a lucky winner will be provided the use of our unique teardrop camper on a premier…

PYOA ADVENTURE SERIES: TACKLING ANGELS LANDING
In this month’s installment of the Pilot Your Own Adventure blog series we take a trip to Zion National Park in the southwestern corner of Utah for one of the most exhilarating, tightrope walking, don’t look down (or maybe do) hikes in the…

BEHIND THE SCENES OF OUR SEAPLANE DUFFEL PHOTO SHOOT
Docking a seaplane in the Ohio River with 25 knot winds isn’t an easy task. But the Flight Outfitters crew was on a mission to get some shots of our new Seaplane Duffels. Thankfully these rugged bags were made for trips like this. Wind and…

PYOA ADVENTURE SERIES – YURT CAMPING IN BIG BEND
Big Bend is one of the largest, most remote, and as an added bonus one of the least-visited national parks in the contiguous United States. While it lacks five star restaurants and hotels in its surrounding areas, it more than makes up for it in natural splendor.

PYOA ADVENTURE SERIES – CANADA’S BERG LAKE: HELIDROP INTO AN ADVENTURE
While sleeping in the wild alongside grizzly bears may appeal to some, to me there had to be a more appealing option. The target was the phenomenal Berg Lake in Canada’s remote Mount Robson Provincial Park.

MY AVIATION STORY – SYLVIE BOUFFARD
Getting into aviation is never an easy process, but as a nineteen-year-old girl who definitely looks fifteen, I always had to go the extra mile to prove myself. Here is the story of how I finally got to my commercial…

MEET DEON MITTON – PILOT, PHOTOGRAPHER, PROFESSIONAL WEEKENDER
Once I became a pilot
After I earned degrees in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, I spent many years working and saving to obtain my Private Pilot license in 1993. The fascination with aviation and photography came…

FLY-IN FISHING WITH A GOLDEN RETRIEVER
Check out Flight Outfitters Navigator Andrew's latest trip with his dog Maverick as they go on a fly-in fishing adventure at the Setting North Outpost Camp in Northern Ontario. Plenty of Pike and Lake Trout in this deep, no…

FALL FLOATPLANE CAMPING IN ONTARIO
There’s something special about fall camping that I can’t quite explain. There’s about a two-week window where the Canadian wilderness just lights up, and the sheer beauty of it is breathtaking.
The destination of this…

PYOA ADVENTURE SERIES – FLYING THE ALASKAN BUSH
Long before television channels were full of Alaska-this and Alaska-that reality TV shows, my grandparents took a trip there with the Cincinnati Zoo. When they returned, there was the usual childhood excitement of “what gift did…

PILOT YOUR OWN ADVENTURE: DESTINATION VALDEZ
Flight Outfitters, creators of rugged, feature-rich gear for pilots, has launched a new video series to complement the company tagline: Pilot Your Own Adventure.
The first video in the series captures the adventure of flying in and…

PILOT YOUR OWN ADVENTURE: DESTINATION SELDOVIA
Flight Outfitters, creators of rugged, feature-rich gear for pilots, has released its second video in a series that complements the company tagline: Pilot Your Own Adventure.
The second video in the series takes the viewer to Seldovia, Alaska,…

PLANETALK: FLIGHT OUTFITTERS AT AIRVENTURE
Phil Lightstone of PlaneTalk stopped by our booth at Oshkosh this year to interview Mark, our president and founder. Take a listen here, and be sure to check out all of PlaneTalk's podcasts!
The Flight Outfitters booth at EAA Airventure
ABOUT…