Flying in the US is as simple as it gets. We spontaneously decided to follow the sun and add one more destination to our trip before heading back to Europe the day after. The choice was Burlington, Vermont. A very short 40 minutes hop from Portland. The flight planning was completed within minutes and the flight plan submitted and accepted. So drove back to the Portland Jetport, returned the car, walked to the General Aviation Terminal and got the TBM ready for another trip. The weather forecast for Burlington was good, however for our arrival some very low clouds have been reported. Burlington is embedded into some impressive mountains with high terrain. Flying here in low visibility is possible with instruments flying but not necessarily what one is looking for.
We started the engine and took off towards west and after a very short cruise started our decent into Burlington. The weather was clear all the way but low clouds were hanging directly over the airport. The approach here is impressive and leads across some high mountain peaks. We dove into the clouds and slided down the approach to break out of the clouds just a few hundred feet above the runway.
Greeted with a red carpet and very friendly personnell we got our lugage, had the FBO lady drive us to the rental car station and drove directly to the city. As the AirBnB wasnt ready that early we decided to make good use of our time and the beautiful weather and rent 3 bikes to cruise along the shores of Lake Champlain. A beatiful bike track along the shores, beaches through woods and across a long dam. We drove until the trail ended and stopped on one of the beautiful beaches on the way back
After returning the bikes we made our way through the city and to our house for the night. Burlington is a pretty city with a lot of historic buildings, a big university and a beautiful old town. Everything is clean and well maintained. There plenty of ski resorts around the city and it feels a little bit like central Europe or Switzerland. Definitely a recommendation for a short trip.
