Every hour and every dollar I ever spent learning to fly this or that aircraft was worth this one flight. Israel is a beautiful country, every bit of it, even the dry parts. The people here are as friendly and engaging as Texans and the weather is as good as Southern California. I’m flying north from Tel Aviv along the coast to Haifa, about a quarter mile out over the Mediterranean to avoid the bumps, and as far as I can see the land is green, cultivated and orderly. From this distance Israel is peaceful, quiet and affluent. Reality, of course, is always a little different, but that’s reason #14 for flying airplanes._ Reason #14: Things always look wonderful from the air._
Imagine, for a moment, that all of the flying you’ve ever done or will ever do is confined to the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex, with its roughly 8 million people, 9 thousand square miles, and 15 or so general-aviation-friendly airports, and you begin to get an idea of what it’s like to be a GA pilot in Israel. Like in the United States, pilots in Israel go to the trouble and the expense because they love to fly, they love their airplanes, love being one of a very small community that has mastered these skills, and love being known to their friends as a pilot. There are 6,000 licensed pilots in Israel, a thousand of which are regularly active. That sounds pretty small, but as a percentage of the total population, Israel’s participation rate in GA is about half that of the United States, putting it easily on the list of the top 10 GA countries.
