Fort Myers, FL
Opened 1983, replacing the older Page Field. Serves Fort Myers, Cape Coral, and Sanibel Island. Spring training home of the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins. Hurricane Ian devastated the region in September 2022; the airport was a critical recovery staging point.
Adjacent winter homes of Thomas Edison (built 1885, "Seminole Lodge") and Henry Ford (purchased 1916, "The Mangoes"). The Edison Botanical Research Laboratory — where Edison researched alternative rubber sources for the war effort — still stands. 20+ acres of historic gardens; the Edison museum holds prototypes and inventions. Two miles from Page Field (KFMY); pilots can lunch in Fort Myers, tour both estates, and be back at the airport for a 4 PM departure.
Fly into Fort Myers (KFMY) and Sanibel is the barrier island just offshore; the Ding Darling refuge is the eastern two-thirds of it, 6,400 acres of mangrove that read clearly from the air. Jay "Ding" Darling was a Pulitzer-winning political cartoonist who drew the first federal Duck Stamp and founded the National Wildlife Federation, and he talked Truman into protecting this land in 1945 when developers wanted to drain it. The four-mile Wildlife Drive runs through the mangrove flats; over 245 bird species have been logged here, including the roseate spoonbill, the pink one with the spatula bill. Hurricane Ian hit Sanibel head-on in 2022 and tore up the causeway and much of the refuge; recovery construction runs through 2027, so check current status before you go.
At 730 square miles, Lake Okeechobee is the largest freshwater lake in the southeastern US — so large that from low altitudes over its center, you cannot see the far shore. Remarkably shallow at an average of 9 feet deep, it is completely encircled by the 143-mile Herbert Hoover Dike, built after the catastrophic 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane that killed over 2,500 people. From the air, the dike appears as an unnatural straight line separating the lake from surrounding sugar cane fields. The lake is the liquid heart of the Everglades ecosystem.
The Sebring International Raceway is built directly on the bones of Hendricks Army Airfield, a WWII B-17 training base. From the air, the connection is unmistakable: the main straightaway is the old primary runway, and the tight turns trace taxiway intersections. At its WWII peak, over 6,000 personnel trained here to fly Flying Fortresses in formation bombing runs over Europe. Today it hosts the 12 Hours of Sebring, one of the most prestigious endurance races in motorsport, running since 1952. The WWII control tower still stands trackside.