Lafayette Aviation Inc

Laf Av is not associated with Purdue's Flight School. They are however great to work with. Their instructors are professional and incredibly helpful, their front desk staff is very nice and always seem to have smiles on their faces, and their line crew will bend over backwards for you. Their rental fees are very reasonable and flying in and out of LAF is a lot of fun. more

Here's a place that'll take you up in the sky, let you fly a plane, get you back on firm ground (which is the difficult part), and take your picture doing the flying for all of $35 (there's a coupon of their website). All you have to do is book a day with a clear sky (there' s a regulation that you can't fly through clouds until you're certified), and have a great time. Works great for gifts, too. They won't teach you to fly planes in half an hour, but you'll get a good idea as to whether you like it or not (and will be able to pull off Indiana Jones lines - "I didn't know you could fly planes!" - "Fly? Yes! Land? NO!") more

It's really a flight schol, in conjunction with Purdue University aviation program; they do actually give pilot's license and all. But if you have never flown an aircraft, and want to know what you'll be spending the $4000 to $5000 on before you enroll in flight school, they offer a pretty neat intro lesson. You can choose the type of aircraft, and decide if you want to take someone with you (they can snap some pictures, but I'm told life in the back seat of a Cessna is pretty rough). You get an instructor who'll interact with traffic control and land the plane for you; everything else you can do on your own, if you want to - takeoff, picking direction, turns, etc. All you need is good weather. I had fun watching birds fly - from above them... more