The 52-Mile Fifty-Dollar Hamburger Run to Albany Airport

The 50-Mile Cross-Country Requirement

• Earning an instrument rating required building significant cross-country flight time (flights landing at an airfield more than 50 nautical miles straight-line distance from the departure point).
• Measuring from Hillsboro Airport (HIO) down the Willamette Valley to Albany Municipal Airport (S12) in Albany, Oregon, the distance came out to exactly 52 miles—just over the legal threshold!

The Classic "$50 Hamburger" Routine

• Albany Municipal Airport had a quaint little diner/restaurant located right at the end of the runway.
• It was the perfect mission: 1. Preflight and takeoff from Hillsboro. 2. Fly south down the Willamette Valley. 3. Land at Albany, tie down the airplane on the ramp. 4. Walk into the diner and eat what pilots fondly refer to as a The 50-Dollar Hamburger. 5. Untie, run up the engine, and fly back to Hillsboro.
• Every single trip logged genuine, legal cross-country pilot-in-command time.

Punching Through the Clouds

• Alongside these cross-country runs, I completed 20 to 30 hours of hood training (flying solely by instrument reference while wearing view-limiting goggles) and several flights in actual wet Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC).
• Roughly six months after getting my private ticket, I passed my instrument checkride.
• From then on, I was officially authorized to file IFR flight plans and "bore holes through the clouds."