The pursuit of the $100 hamburger is an aviation inside joke passed on from generation to generation. It's code for making up a reason to fly, because flying is just a little bit more fun when you've got a destination in mind. The $100 comes from adding the price of your aircraft rental or maintenance to the cost of the meal. This usually pushes the hamburger cost to somewhere in the neighborhood of $100. The best hamburger runs involve the local airport greasy spoon, because the food is typically decent and it's within walking distance of the tarmac. This way you don't have to bother with finding other transportation.

These little cantina's aren't always well known, typically they're hole in the wall joints with a couple of airport bums on staff. So the only way to find out about them is to (a) stumble onto them yourself or (b) hear about them from a fellow pilot. Enter my new favorite site fly2lunch. These innovators have compiled a list of great purveyors of pilot food and matched it to airports around the country. This way you can type in the identifier of an airport nearby and it will pull up the directions to the local hamburger joint.

The website interface is no frills, and includes options for adding your favorite stop into the database. There's even a feature for finding local fly-in's and pancake breakfasts. Let us know what your favorite stops are in the comments!!

fly2lunch