The best present my husband got for his 90th was a trial flying lesson. In fact he said it was the best present EVER. I had checked online first and also rung the flying school. Their only restrictions were that he was under I think it was 16 stones weight and could get up into the plane. I found out it was far cheaper to book direct with the flying school than to book through one of the "experience" companies. On his birthday we drove to the flying school, about 30 miles away, (he had no idea where we were going) and he checked he could get up into the cockpit. I went to the desk and they gave me choices. In the end I paid about £20 more to book a four seater plane as it meant that I could also go up with them, in the back at no extra charge. They printed out a voucher and said if I was happy to go up midweek usually a days notice for the flight was enough so that I could wait for a good weather forecast. Even that visit made my husband's day but the actual flight surpassed all his expectations . We picked a beautiful sunny day, got there early and spent half an hour watching anti terrorist police practising dropping out of a helicopter on ropes. Once aboard the plane the instructor gave my husband a choice of routes. He chose to fly out to the coast over where he used to go sailing. The instructor took off. My husband then took the controls and stayed in control until the instructor brought us into land an hour later. Afterwards he was given a certificate which he framed.
Although this was quite expensive it was actually cheaper than I imagined and I'm sure that family could band together to pay for it if needed.
The flying club also had a nice restaurant/bar where we spent the following couple of hours.
Good Morning Good Friday 29th March 2024