The $100 hamburger For flyers, the trip to get a meal is worth

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- When Bernhard Works hankers for sausage and eggs, he literally flies over to Arnie's in Bloomington.

He'll take a friend or a family member, sit them next to him in the tight quarters of a single-engined Piper Archer kept at Flightstar at Willard Airport, and head to the Central Illinois Regional Airport at Bloomington. That's the location of Arnie's, an institution at the airport and one of the favorite places for pilots looking for a bite to eat.

Pilots become pilots usually for one reason: They love to fly. But pilots also need places to fly to. Add hunger pangs to the quotient and you've got what's known in pilotspeak as "the $100 hamburger."

"I usually just go in the summer, once or twice a month, at least," says Works, a retired University of Illinois professor who's been a pilot for about 25 years. "I'll take someone with me. Arnie's has very generous portions, just wholesome food. The Main Hangar at the Decatur Airport is also very nice. On the weekends they have a breakfast buffet. I usually go on Saturday because on Sundays it gets crowded with people from church."

This is how the process starts for fellow pilot Bruce Chassy: "You get up on a Saturday morning or a Sunday morning and you go, I feel like ..."

If it's an omelet, he might fly to Arnie's. If it's a breaded tenderloin the size of a Frisbee, the choice is simpler -- the Airport Steakhouse at the Coles County Airport between Charleston and Mattoon.

A means to an end

And so the $100 hamburger can just as easily become the $100 omelet or the $100 tenderloin sandwich. The food itself doesn't cost that much, of course. But by the time a pilot tacks on the fuel, maintenance, insurance and other flying costs, a $3.95 hamburger quickly inflates in price.

But the hamburger is only a means to an end, which is getting the chance to fly.

"You have to have a place to go and if you want to share a meal with somebody, a restaurant at another airport gives you a place to go," says Mike Mazzocco, another Champaign pilot.

Each individual has his or her favorite place to fly in for a meal, and those tend to be restaurants located at other central Illinois airports: the aforementioned Arnie's, the Airport Steakhouse and the Main Hangar at the Decatur Airport, along with the rustic Runway 47 Cafe at the Morris Municipal Airport.

A lot of times pilots don't have destinations planned. They just sort of happen.

"Someone says, 'Let's go here and get lunch,' or 'Let's go here and get breakfast.' Some people do it religiously. Every Saturday or Sunday they'll fly someplace just to get a bite to eat," says Harry Rand, a Decatur pilot.