Not your typical layover
Airline pilot enjoys his GA roots in his free time
By Julie Belanger
Ask a long-haul airline pilot what they do in their free time, and they might say anything but flying. But for Paul Zwatz, 52, a senior first officer for Lufthansa Airlines, his landing after a long flight is just the beginning of his flying adventures.
Zwatz has been with Lufthansa since 2007 and currently flies the Airbus A350-900 based in Munich. He is also a type rating instructor for the A350, conducting simulator training in Munich, Helsinki, and Abu Dhabi. Additionally, he is part of the fleet’s maintenance check flight team, which retrieves aircraft after major maintenance or delivery from Toulouse, France.
When he has a long layover, sometimes up to 72 hours in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Orlando, Zwatz trades the cockpit of a widebody jet for a rented Cessna or Piper, flying “low and slow” across the United States.
He developed his fascination with layover flights in 2014 when he joined the West Valley Flying Club in Silicon Valley. The club’s FBOs at Palo Alto (PAO) and San Carlos (SQL) are both within an easy Uber ride from San Francisco International Airport (SFO).
“The club has a Hall of Fame wall where I’m listed in the ‘100 airports’ column,” said Zwatz. “There’s also a ‘200 airports’ column with only six pilots. It’s my goal to be on that list, too.”
Sometimes Zwatz flies solo, but often there’s added fun when some of the flight crew come along.
In August 2023, Zwatz had visited 78 California airports, needing just 22 more to reach his first goal. “With the help of my captain, assisting with frequencies, runway direction, and traffic patterns, we visited 22 new airports in a day and a half.”
One memorable Christmas layover in 2022 saw
nine crew members join his holiday trip to Northern California’s wine country, with breakfast at the coastal airport of Half Moon Bay (HAF) and a picnic in Napa Valley (APC).
“It took three flights to ferry the nine crew members because everyone wanted to fly,” said Zwatz.
Not everything goes smoothly, though. On one flight to Shelter Cove Airport (0Q5), a remote strip on the rugged northern California coast, fog swept in sooner than expected. “Some places are so far that you really can’t take a taxi to get back,” he said. “Since then, I’ve not stayed overnight too close the coast. It’s just too risky.”
Sometimes his flights are personal and life changing. In October 2014, Zwatz flew his then-bride-to-be, Susi, to Las Vegas for an only-in-America wedding, followed by a flight over the Grand Canyon.
Other trips stand out because of the people he meets and their hospitality. A favorite flight was to Borrego Valley Airport (BXS) out of Torrance, California, where the owner of the airport restaurant, The Propeller, turned out to be the former manager of the rock band Black Sabbath and singer Elton John. When he discovered the group worked for Lufthansa and had no transportation, “he just gave us the keys to his yellow Jeep and told us to drop it off at the airport the next day.”
On a hot August day in 2020, a flight to Lake Havasu (HII) had Zwatz and friends cooling off in the Colorado River. “We hadn’t brought any food or drinks, but everyone around us opened their ice chests for us,” said Zwatz. “They said, ‘Our cooler is your cooler!’”
On one flight to Half Moon Bay, Zwatz landed to find police cars blocking the taxiway. Unsure what was happening, he began taxiing in the other direction until one squad car, lights flashing, came straight toward him.
Uh, oh, he worried. Have I done something wrong?
No, Half Moon Bay Airport doubles as a training ground for local law enforcement. The police cruiser became their “follow-me” car, then offered a “ride to the gate.” What followed felt straight out of a Hollywood chase scene: squealing tires, hard braking, and full-throttle turns.
“Nobody back home will ever believe this,” Zwatz said. “Things like this would be unthinkable in most of Europe.”
For Zwatz, general aviation flying isn’t a break from his airline career; it’s a return to the joy of flight that started it all. With more airports waiting to be logged on his personal Hall of Fame tally, his U.S. layover adventures aren’t likely to stop anytime soon.
Zwatz reached 20,000 flying hours in September 2025, just around the thirty-fifth anniversary of earning his pilot certificate. As of this writing, he has flown to 197 California airports with 251 flight attendants, pilots, and friends on 145 separate layover trips: 450 landings in all, every one in a Cessna 172 or PA–28. 
Julie Belanger is an aerial photographer and private pilot. She has been flying for more than 50 years, has logged more than 1,100 flight hours, and owns a 1969 Cessna 182.
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