App serves pilots who plan around food
Fly-n-Eat app expands gastronomical awareness
Treating food as an afterthought when traveling by general aviation can turn a smooth flight into a turbulent misadventure. Whether embarking on a long cross-country trip or a morning out-and-back jaunt to a favorite breakfast spot, meal stops should be planned as carefully as other elements of the flight.
A new app called Fly-n-Eat seeks to ease the integration of food stops into pilots’ travel plans. The app can identify airport restaurants within a certain radius distance of your home field, which is ideal when seeking new destinations for the old $100 hamburger. For cross-country travel, Fly-n-Eat shows restaurants along your route, plus menus; hours; contact information; and other critical details including airport locations, identifiers, websites, and time zones. Fly-n-Eat even fills users in on restaurant décor and other amenities.
Rick Rzepka, a dentist and private pilot who created the app, said he got the idea after asking an airport staff member for advice about where to eat.
“She handed me a piece of paper with a few suggestions, typed, like it had just come off a typewriter,” Rzepka said. “I thought, ‘wow—how 1950s is this?’”
Rzepka and his wife, Vikki, are passionate about flying and food, and looked for ways to combine airport and restaurant information in one place. “I kept thinking that there must already be an app for that,” he said. “But it just wasn’t there, so we are doing it ourselves.”
Fly-n-Eat is available for Apple and Android devices monthly for $4.99 or yearly for $49.99. Rzepka continues to build the Fly-n-Eat database of restaurants and asks users to share their dining experiences and recommendations. He also said he is considering other types of destinations that fit the platform, including a concept he calls Fly-n-Museums.
“I’m not done,” he said.
Restaurant information is also available in the AOPA Airport Directory.
