70 Airports For His 70th Birthday

To celebrate his 70th birthday, Ray Phelan of Portland, Oregon, planned to land his 1971 Beechcraft B35B Bonanza at 70 airports.

He launched at 5:30 a.m. on June 16, 2026, (the day before his actual birthday) from Troutdale (KTTD) and landed back where he started at 6:40 p.m.

In all, that’s 13 hours, 10 minutes elapsed time and he logged 10.7 flight hours. 

How’d It Go?

All landings, with the exception of four full stops, were touch and goes.

Weather cost Phelan about 10 of his originally planned airports.

While the day was forecast to be VFR, Hoquiam (KHQM), near the Pacific Coast, dropped to a 600-foot ceiling. Phelan filed IFR, then landed at KHQM to sort out his options.

He ended up bypassing a few airports on the Washington coast and filed IFR to Astoria (KAST) for fuel. From there he flew to Tillamook (KTMK) and then he resumed his planned schedule down the Oregon coast.

He flew as far north as Apex Airpark (8W5) near Bremerton, Washington, and as far south as Weed (O46) in California.

Phelan credits his ability to secure permission to land at nine private strips as a big help. Former students and acquaintances helped line up those permissions.

In all, roughly two-thirds of the airports were new to Phelan. He also flew “two instrument approaches and more holding — 45 minutes — than I have possibly ever done in general aviation.” 

That’s a day, for sure.

He also noted the B35 might just be the perfect airplane for such a flight. It’s fast and can still get in and out of a wide variety of airports.

A few days later, someone asked Phelan, “What’s the record for the most airports in one day?” 

He looked it up: For a single pilot, it’s 92.

To which Phelan thought, “Well, hell, I could do that.”

He’s noncommittal at this point on beating the record.

His birthday flight put him just past the 22,000-hour mark in his logbooks.

Phelan retired from American Airlines. He then flew for Virgin America for a few years, followed by three years of bush flying in Australia.

“That was the best of all flying right there,” he said.

Today, he teaches people to fly and ferries airplanes.

When fellow pilots hear about his flight, they respond, “Wow, that’s really cool.” Non-pilots respond by asking, “What?”

Happy 70th Ray.

Ray’s Route