A Lifetime Chasing the $100 Hamburger

As author of  the yearly resource, “The $100 Hamburger: A Guide to Pilots’ Favorite Fly-In Restaurants,” he has three decades worth of experience, $100 at a time.

He also knows that making that trip every so often is a needed thing for pilots to do.

“The $100 hamburger [the pilot’s term for a meal traveled to by aircraft] isn’t about flying away for breakfast, though that is the way we think about it,” he said. “It is instead an opportunity to practice our skills by leaving the pattern and flying to an airport we’ve never been to before. 

“Do this twice a month, and when vacation time rolls around, you’ll have the skills and the experience to safely pile your family into your ship. Burger runs are the most important flights safe pilots make. They keep us current.”

The offerings in on-airport restaurants can include anything from barbecue to Mexican and everything in between. But Purner says one genre is more common than others.

“The good ole American casual diners seem to be the most prevalent.” 

The three best in Purner’s view?

Purner says that roughly five percent of airports have fly-in restaurants. There’s an ongoing competition over which state tallies the most operational ones. 

“It is a constant contest between Texas and California. Most months it’s California,” Conversely, “the mountain states have smaller populations. That is reflected in the number of [fly-in] restaurants they have.” 

Overall, the website and book list around 1,670 restaurants that are easily accessible by aircraft in all 50 states and the Bahamas. The 269-page book last published in 2019 (an updated version will be available in 2022) highlights only restaurants that are on a public-use airport. The website also reflects eating establishments that are adjacent or nearby (with some a little further than that) to these aerodromes. 

The site also includes a list of various aviation attractions, as well as golf courses, camping spots, and hotels that are close by to airports. 

“I retired early, moved from California back to Houston, Texas, into a home I had owned for years but never lived in,” he said. “Once there, I opened the next chapter of my life, which gladly included flight. I bought a Cessna 150, hired a CFI to teach me what I had forgotten and all the things I never knew I never knew. 

“Soon I had [a private pilot certificate], but no place to fly as I was no longer working—I had no real mission. I knew about eight fly-in restaurants around Houston, which I would fly to over and over and over again.”

As Purner was getting started, the content business started to change and a community was born.

“The internet and the world wide web were just starting to catch on,” Purner said. “Having spent many years in the computer business, I decided to launch a website about fly-in restaurants. It was premised on an invitation to others to swap information about the fly-in restaurants my followers knew about. It became a community.”

Purner himself has been to most of the fly-in restaurants that are featured in his book. And having maintained a dedicated first-person viewpoint on the on-airport eatery scene over the years, he has witnessed the ebbs and flows of the business. 

“I have been surprised by their success,” he said. “I have expected fly-in restaurants to become mere memories. They haven’t. Most thrive as the winners learn the secrets of addressing their market, which includes more non-flying locals than visiting pilots. 

“The planes in the pattern provide the central characters for the theme of airport restaurants. The locals come to see the free airshow and rub elbows with the characters that crawl in and out of their flying machines. 

“Airport restaurants provide fertile ground for the dreams of those that one day may fly.”

These restaurants’ continued history parallels that of the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that Purner nor anyone else could have expected. But it seems that overall, they have fared better than one would have initially suspected from the resulting negative economic impacts. 

“Very few restaurants have permanently closed,” Purner says. “The number [that have closed] is highly variable. A few have changed hands and names. Most soldier on.” 

“In an odd way, many restaurants were helped by COVID as business flyers went from commercial travel to personal aircraft. The same was true for recreational flyers. Private aviation was simply safer. It still is. Restaurants at reliever airports around big cities that serve business aviation traffic saw marked increases. 

“How about that? It is after all an ill wind that blows no good.”

Of course, there is still good in aviation and the freedom to fly oneself within the country. Highlighting this taken-for-granted fact is one of the positive side effects of the pandemic. And with this increased personal travel, and restaurants once again opening their doors, aviators were eager to dive into their favorite on-airport meals.

And one would be remiss not to ask the author who has spent many years of his life focusing on fly-in eateries which one is at the top of his personal list. 

“I love them all and couldn’t possibly name a favorite if I had one.”

 Instead, he defers this test of favoritism to the masses of hungry pilots who continue frequenting their favorite places and trying new ones. 

“We will put out our best of the best list in April 2022. That lets us know what our subscribers think.”