A Quiet Place: Flying to New York’s Fishers Island

Residents are protective of their 5 square miles in Long Island Sound.

Monday, October 17, 2022 at 04:34 PM ET

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For flights to Elizabeth Field's short runways, you will want an aircraft with decent short-field performance, like our Cessna 172 or the 180 sharing the ramp with us. [Credit: Jonathan Welsh]

Key Takeaways:

The author values traditional sectional charts for their tactile feel, nostalgic appeal, and effectiveness in discovering unique, remote airports, preferring them over purely digital tools for trip planning.
The article details a trip to Fishers Island (0B8), a historic and secluded destination in Long Island Sound, noting its success in resisting mass tourism and the origins of its airport as a World War II military base.
The visit offered a peaceful, uncrowded experience of the island's beauty, though a navigational misjudgment on the return flight humorously prompted the author to reconsider the benefits of modern digital aviation tools like ForeFlight.

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While I long ago gave up phone books and faxes, and more recently let print newspapers and catalogs go, I plan to hang on to my sectional chart subscription for the foreseeable future.

I love the tactile interaction and familiarity that a chart brings to the cockpit. There is also a nice dose of nostalgia that comes with the sectional, protractor, kneeboard, and other analog gear I purchased when I started taking flying lessons. But what I love most about the chart is its spread-across-the-kitchen-table format, which makes it easy to pick new airports to visit.