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Pilots literally know how to fly in the sky. An amazing ability that requires intense training and nearves of steel. Celebrate flight school graduations, big flight trips and holidays with these 32 best gifts for pilots.
We made this list for both existing pilots and people who want to become pilots. It’s made of fun flight gift ideas, popular aviation themed decor, pilot gag gifts and things we feel every aviation specialist needs.
Airplane Wine Bottle Opener
A clever inexpensive gift, this airplane wine opener exudes aviation spirit with the overall design resembling an airplane and corkscrew turner being the airplane props. Surprisingly comfortable in your hands, this stainless steel silver bottle opener is heavy-duty enough to tackle the toughest wine bottles. This is one of our go-to gifts for pilots.
Scratch Off World & US Travel Map
Pilots travel all over the United States and the world, bringing with them so many worldly stories. Capture those moments and show off all the cool destinations with these scratch-off maps to showcase all the wonderful places they’ve been to. These 24″ x 17″ posters come with both a United States map and a world map for your international and domestic pilot friends!
Departures & Arrivals Welcome Mat
A super cute welcome mat, this is a must-have on our gifts for pilots. It’s stylized in the look of an airport terminal with Arrivals and Departures based on which way you’re facing. Hopefully, you put this 30″ vt 18″ welcome mat in the right direction!
Aviators Parachute Flight Hand Bag
Use an actual parachute bag as a carry-on bag. This fun design with a clever pull tag is a clever design for a handbag to carry your laptop, headset, iPad, and accessories. Its heavy-duty design will ensure safety, and its ergonomic design will be easy to carry around. Again, it’s a useful bag, but more importantly a fun bag for pilots.
Pilot Pull To Eject Keychain
A fun gag gift. This keychain plays off a jet pilot’s actual ejection seat tag design in emergencies. The “Pull To Eject” is on both sides. We love the durable quality of this material and as far as keychains, it’s easy to handle and identify without being too bulky. Plus how fun would this be to give to your pilot friends?
Silicone Airplane Ice Cube Mold Tray Gifts For Pilots
A great gift idea for parties and scotch glasses, these novelty airplane ice cube molds are easy to make fun party ice. Any celebration of flight school, big trips, and aviation themes, these are perfect to bust out for party-goers. The silicone is easy to get the ice out and they’re dishwasher safe.
Vintage Wooden Airplane Propeller Art
With pilots spending most of their time in the skies, this vintage wooden airplane will bring a bit of the sky back home. This is a great art piece to express the aviation spirit in the home. The wooden propeller prop is 48″ long and 5″ wide and can be displayed in a variety of ways to make your wall pop!
Life Is Better Flying Licence Plate Frame
A pilot’s car is like a second, less complicated cockpit. Show off your pilot background with this “Life is better flying” license plate frame. This is one of the more inexpensive gifts for pilots but still makes a fun statement. Perfect for everyday gifts or a stocking stuffer.
Aviation Flight Socks
A wonderful everyday gift or stocking stuffer on our gifts for pilots. These adorable aviation-themed crew socks come in a set of three that fit most adult feet. Our personal favorite is the runway pilot socks that have directional arrows to the ankle runway!
Wooden Prop Plane Whiskey Decanter Set
After a multi-day tour from destination to destination, this wooden prop plane whiskey decanter set is the perfect addition to your gifts for pilots. It comes with an elegant wooden prop plane, etched globe design decanter, and two world map whiskey glasses.
Vintage Wright Brothers Flying Machine Patent Copy
Such a fun piece of history, this is the original patent prints of the Wright Brother’s flying machine. All that’s included is 11″ x 14″ print so you’ll have to get your own frame. However, that will allow you to pick any style frame that fits your favorite pilot.
Oculus Quest 2 For Realistic Flight Simulators
There are some amazing flight simulator games for virtual reality and the Oculus Quest 2 is the most mainstream VR console to play them. This VR console is one of the most popular right now because it’s completely self-contained, needing no wires or computer to play. Plus there are some really great flight games constantly coming out due to the real-world feel of VR.
Pilot Coaster Set
This nickel pilot coaster set makes a great gift idea for pilots. Perfect for coffee tables. These are great conversation starters to dive into your pilot past and provide a helpful function of keeping water stains off the furniture. Oh, and did we mention they look cool with the graphic representation of a pilot cockpit?
Garmin Aviation GPS Smartwatch
There are a lot of fancy aviation watches out there, but they cost thousands of dollars and can’t tell nearly as much as this Garmin Aviation GPS Smartwatch. Besides being a tried and tested Garmin watch, you can get airport weather reports and a number of other reports directly within this digital watch. Plus the 5-day battery life on a single charge will get you through most flight trips.
Smithsonian Collection: 50 History Making Aircrafts
Learn about the historic airplanes that inspired the aeronautical vehicles we have today. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum put together a collection of the top 50 history-making aircraft for flight enthusiasts. This is a perfect coffee table book gifts for pilots or people wanting to become a pilot!
The Pilot’s Pen With Built-In Light
We like this Pilot’s pen due to the strong light at the tip to help with reviewing flight guides, checklists, and additional paperwork while flying. You can’t always have the opportunity to turn on the lights with your flight crew, so this pen is super helpful for reviewing your notes. The functionality makes this one of the more practical gifts for pilots!
Airplane Bottle Opener
An adorable bottle opener or keychain is perfect for pilots and travelers. There are a number of airplane bottle openers out there so if your favorite pilot has a particular plane, you’re sure to find one. We like this gold commercial plane bottle opener for the average pilot and had to include it on our gifts for pilots list.
Cockpit Controls Coffee Mug
A coffee mug as complicated as a pilot’s cockpit. This navigational mug will make your favorite pilot feel right at home with complicated gages. Give one of the best gifts for pilots with a ceramic mug only they would understand! It comes as a 10.8 ounce of 14.8-ounce mug, so you’ll be able to fit a lot of coffee.
Tactical, Multi-Use Aviation Survival Pen
Made with aircraft-grade machined aluminum, this survival pen is a discreet and practical pen to carry on you at all times. It contains a LED flashlight, glass breaker, screwdriver, and bottle opener. A super convenient multi-tool that’s easy to carry in your bookbag.
Pewter Airplane Bookends
Pewter airplane bookends add a vintage aviation motif to any room. These are great gifts for pilots who love to read. They are 6″ in length each, reaching 8″ tall and 4 inches deep to fit most shelves. You’ll want to display these in a visible location as they’ll be a fun conversation piece.
Vintage Airplane Propeller Wall Clock
This metal vintage airplane propeller wall clock provides an aviation theme to any room while doubling as a functional clock. We definitely see it more as a fun art piece due to the small clock face, but completely appreciate how it fits into the overall design.
WiFi Connected Smart Weather Station
Pilots are in tune with the weather as much as meteorologists, their very survival depends on it. Since pilots are minor weather aficionados, get them this wifi-connected smart weather station. The weather station attaches to your roof and transmits detailed weather information to a display panel and also sends the data directly to your phone!
Orienteering Survival Compass
This professional-grade field compass is a must to add to any survival kit. We like the emergency orange coloring, but this compass has the traditional magnetic needle, azimuth bearing, and mini ruler for scale maps. We think this is a fun navigation gift for pilots, travelers, and backpackers.
Emergency Survival Kit
If you’ve ever seen the movie Cast Away with Tom Hanks, you understand planes can crash. It’s not often, but feel a little better giving your favorite pilot a survival kit with everything they’d need to survive. This pre-made 13 piece kit has an emergency blanket, rope, knife, cable saw, and more in an easy-to-carry case.
Pilot Code Aviation Metal Sign
A helpful metal tin sign containing the phonetic alphabet for pilots. This is an atmospheric art piece for garages, man-caves, and home bars. The phonetic alphabet is the words associated with each letter of the English alphabet to provide clearer alphabet dictation over static radio. Instead of confusion over saying “M” or “N”, you can say “Mike” or “November” and people can understand which letter you’re referring to.
Steel Balancing, Rotating Desk Plane
This kinetic art piece balances a small modernized plane design on a steel rig and rotates 360 degrees. What’s neat is its perfectly balanced design on a tiny screw that will allow it to spin for 2-3 minutes until air and friction eventually slow it down. This is the type of art piece usually found on executive’s desks in movies. If you’re looking for some great gifts for pilots who have a central desk, we love this stylish office addition.
Airplane Leather Journal
A leather journal is a classic gift idea and the bronze airplane latch on this journal is the perfect gift for pilots. A very vintage design, the soft leather feels amazing and high-quality think pages are perfect for heavy fountain pens. The journal is 4″ x 6″ so it’s the perfect size for traveling!
Bose A20 Aviation Headset
Nearly every airline provides its own headset to pilots to use in the cockpit, but most pilots carry their own headset. These are both for health and personal preference. As it’s something pilots use every single flight, we recommend buying a good headset that will last. One of the best right now is the Bose A20 Aviation Headset. With so many positive reviews and the high-quality materials that will last, we find this as one of our best gifts for pilots.
TRX Travel Anywhere Personal Gym
As pilots are constantly traveling, we recommend bringing some small gym equipment to keep up their fitness habits. As hotel gyms usually have sparse equipment, it’s never the same from hotel gym to hotel gym. We love this popular TRX home gym system that can be set up on any door frame and provides a multitude of effective exercises. We find this to be one of the most thoughtful gifts for pilots who are fitness-minded.
Flex B4 Swift Black Pilots Bag
It has pockets! So many pockets! As a pilot, you are living out of a suitcase on a regular basis so having everything organized in a perfect way will make traveling easy and forgetting things a thing of the past. This pocket-filled suitcase has a place and zipper for everything to provide access to all our pilot’s favorite things when needed.
RFID Blocking Leather Travel Passport Holder
As pilots are constantly traveling, having everything together makes life easier. This leather passport holder also includes pockets for credit cards and money within an RFID-protected housing. We love the convenience so pilots are fiddling with multiple things when heading through security. Plus this leather case looks so good, it’s one of our more stylish gifts for pilots ideas.
Gel Enhanced Memory Seat Cushion For Pilots
Imagine how rough it is to sit on a multi-hour plane on a single flight. Pilots do this multiple flights a day and day after day. Make all that sitting a bit more comfortable with this gel-enhanced memory seat cushion. This particular cushion has tens of thousands of positive reviews and is great to make flights more comfortable. They’ll be taking this thing everywhere, so it’s one of the best gifts for pilots!
