Gift guide
The one airport only you would know to give
Give a print of the airport that matters to them: their training field, home base or favorite place to fly. Start here to choose the field and format.
01 · A gift with a place in it
Start with the airport they talk about
A print of their airport marks a place in their flying: the field where they soloed, the base a career ran through, or the strip they visit on Saturday mornings.
Think of the airport they mention most or the one in the photograph on the shelf. The guide below helps you confirm the field, find its code and choose a print for their wall.
02 · Choosing the airport
Which field is theirs
The format is the easy decision. The hard one is the airport, and for most pilots there is one right answer. Work from what you have watched them do.
The pilot still in training, or newly certificated
Use the field they are flying from now: the identifier written into the first rows of the logbook, and the place they will still be naming in thirty years. Training fields have a look on paper. Daytona Beach sets a 3,195 foot stub beside a 10,500 foot runway, drawn in proportion rather than tidied away, and Grand Forks added a fourth runway to absorb its training traffic, which is why a field with two passenger gates draws as a near square grid. If that is your pilot, the gifts for a new pilot guide goes further.
The airline or corporate pilot, mid career or retiring
Use the base. Years domiciled at one field leave a pilot knowing its taxiways better than the roads near home, and each of those fields has a shape: Chicago O'Hare as two banks of parallels with a diagonal pair cut across them, Atlanta as five runways stacked east to west in near lockstep, Boston Logan as six runways at competing angles over ground pushed into the harbor. Teterboro crosses two runways twelve miles from Midtown and has allowed nothing heavier than 100,000 pounds off the ground since 1977. If the occasion is a retirement, the pilot retirement guide covers the last flight.
The pilot who flies for the love of it
Use the home field: where the airplane is hangared, or where they rent one on a Saturday morning. Small fields make the most personal prints, because almost nobody else has that airport on a wall. Palo Alto is a single runway, 2,441 feet of it, on 102 acres beside the Baylands. Centennial runs two parallels and a crosswind strip at 5,885 feet, hangar rows combed in between. Oshkosh is the county field a lot of pilots share: quiet ground most of the year, and by traffic movements the busiest airport anywhere during the fly-in.
The one who never flew, but grew up beside a field
Airports hold people who never sat in the left seat: someone who grew up under the approach path, worked a ramp through college, or spent childhood afternoons at the fence of a field like San Diego, where everything works off a single runway. A controller, a mechanic or a gate agent has the same claim on a field.
How to find the code without asking
Asking spoils it, and the answer is usually already in view.
- The first page of the logbook: the identifier of the field they learned at repeats down the rows.
- The airport by the house. A pilot who flies for pleasure keeps the airplane at the nearest field with fuel and a hangar.
- Where the airplane is parked: a hangar row or a tie-down belongs to one field.
- The three letters on the crew bag tag, or on the tag still looped through the handle.
If all you have is a town, search by city and match the name against the story. The catalog holds hundreds of US airports, and a field that is missing can be proposed.
Fields to start from
Browse airports →These cover most of the cases above: the hubs a career runs through, the fields where the training happens, and the small airports where somebody keeps an airplane. If theirs is not here, it is one search away by code or city.
ChicagoChicago O'Hare InternationalORD7 colorways
Los AngelesLos Angeles InternationalLAX7 colorways
AtlantaHartsfield/Jackson Atlanta InternationalATL7 colorways
DenverDenver InternationalDEN7 colorways
BostonGeneral Edward Lawrence Logan InternationalBOS7 colorways
San DiegoSan Diego InternationalSAN7 colorways
HonoluluDaniel K Inouye InternationalHNL7 colorways
Daytona BeachDaytona Beach InternationalDAB7 colorways
OshkoshWittman RegionalOSH7 colorways
Palo AltoPalo AltoPAO7 colorways
TeterboroTeterboroTEB7 colorways
DenverCentennialAPA7 colorways
03 · Formats and prices
Three ways to give the same field
Fine art print
from$35
Heavyweight 100% cotton fine art paper, pigment inks, a smooth matte surface. It is supplied ready for your own frame, which suits a recipient with opinions about framing.
8 × 10 · 16 × 20 · 24 × 30
Framed fine art print
from$79
The same print in a 1.25 inch solid wood frame, with a white acid-free beveled mat and clear acrylic glazing, and the hanging wire already installed. The listed size is the area inside the frame, so the piece on the wall is larger.
8 × 10 · 16 × 20 · 24 × 30
Metal print
from$79
The artwork transferred into coated aluminum with a glossy finish and vivid color, scratch and water resistant. A hidden inset mount floats the panel about three quarters of an inch off the wall; hang it indoors, away from direct sunlight.
8 × 10 · 16 × 20 · 24 × 30
A digital file can be added to any physical order for $10, matched to the size you choose and delivered by email.
04 · Ordering in time
Work backward from the date
Every piece is made to order, so the clock starts with your order. Production takes 2 to 3 business days, and delivery is added on top, depending on the destination and the shipping method. Standard US shipping is free, and express is offered at checkout, priced for the order.
The dates behind this page are the ordinary ones: the winter holidays, Father's Day, a birthday that has crept up. Order about two weeks ahead for those, and take the express option at checkout when the date is closer. The milestone dates have their own guides: a checkride just passed on the new pilot page, a last flight on the retirement page.
When the date is tomorrow, the digital file is the fallback. It is delivered by email, so there is something to give on the day while the print is still being made.
05 · Why the drawing holds up
They will know it in a second
You are choosing a field you may never have seen from the air. They know it from above, from the ground, and from the long taxi out, and that is the test the print has to pass.
What is on the sheet: the runways with their numbers at each end, the taxiways and aprons around them, and below the drawing the identifier, the city and state, the coordinates and the field elevation. All of it is drawn from published airport information, so the runways sit where they sit on the field.
That is why recognition needs no caption. A pilot who trained at Daytona Beach looks for the short parallel beside the long runway. Someone based at Boston reads the crossing angles first. A San Diego pilot counts one runway and stops. To see what they are reading, our guide to how to read an airport diagram walks through it.
Questions
What buyers ask
What do you get a pilot who has everything?
A place, chosen by someone who knows them. Equipment is where a pilot will always shop better than the person buying, so the gift that works is the airport behind the flying: where they trained, the base they worked out of, or the small field where the airplane lives. Whoever is buying usually knows which of those it is, and the print is made to order once the field is settled.
Is an airport print a good gift for a pilot?
It is, as long as the airport is the right one. A generic aviation print is decor; the field they can name every taxiway on is a record of their own flying. The drawing carries the runways with their numbers at each end, the taxiways and aprons, and the identifier, city, coordinates and elevation underneath, so it reads as their field rather than as an airplane picture.
What is a good gift for a pilot in training?
The field they are flying from right now, while they are still in it. Training fields are specific places: Daytona Beach holds a short parallel beside a 10,500 foot runway, and Grand Forks added a fourth runway to take its training traffic. Our gifts for a new pilot guide covers the first certificate and the checkride in more detail.
What should I get my dad or my husband if he is a pilot?
Work from the flying you have watched him do. If he flew for a living, the base he was domiciled at is the field with the most hours in it; if he flies for pleasure, it is the small airport he drives to on a Saturday; if he learned decades ago, it is the field where he soloed, the one still attached to the story. You know which of those three he is, and that is the whole advantage you have over a catalog.
How do I find out which airport to choose without asking?
The answer is usually already in view. The identifier of the field they learned at repeats down the first page of the logbook; a pilot who flies for pleasure keeps the airplane at the nearest field with fuel and a hangar; and a working pilot's bag carries the three letters of the base on its tag. If all you have is a town, search the site by city and match the airport name against the story you were told.
How long does it take, and will it arrive in time?
Every piece is made to order in 2 to 3 business days, and delivery time is added on top, depending on the destination and the shipping method. Standard US shipping is free, and express shipping is offered at checkout, priced for the order. For a holiday or a birthday, order about two weeks ahead, and use express when the date is closer. All physical prints carry a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Can I add a digital file, or send one instead?
Both. A digital file can be added to a physical order for $10, sized to match the print you chose, or bought on its own at $29, sized for 24 × 30 printing. Files are delivered by email, which is what makes the digital version the fallback when the date arrives before the print can.
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