Northeast Ohio Couple Launches Fly-n-Eat App

The Rzepkas have given the outdated “$100 hamburger” guide a digital upgrade with the launch of Fly-n-Eat, an app that transforms the aviation term for a purely-for-fun flight to grab a meal — where the journey often costs more than the meal — into a streamlined way for pilots to find airport restaurants and turn their cravings into a coordinated flight plan. 

Rick Rzepka, a Mayfield native, and his wife, Vikki, have been flying across the country for over 25 years, often with the destination determined by where they can grab their next bite to eat. 

“I like to hop in an airplane and go somewhere that I can eat. Then, we hop back in the airplane and we come back, ” Rick, 62, says. “I like to find airports that have a restaurant right on the airport.”

Rick, a private pilot and dentist, got the idea after asking a staff member at his flight school for recommendations of good places to fly and eat. The response, he recalls, was a typed list that felt decades out of date.

“I thought ‘There’s got to be an app for that,' so I started looking for apps, and there was no up-to-date app for all the restaurants on airports to fly and eat,” Rick says.

The couple’s passion for aviation and dining led them to create Fly-n-Eat — their contribution to the aviation world, he explains. 

Fly-n-Eat launched in May 2025 and covers the entire continental U.S., featuring over 450 local restaurants at airports. 

The app allows pilots to search for restaurants within a selected number of nautical miles from their home airport or along a point-to-point route. Each listing includes hours of operation, menus, on-airport location details, airport call signs, photos and links to restaurant websites. 

One of the Rzepkas’ favorite dining spots is the Tin Goose Diner at the Erie-Ottawa International Airport in Port Clinton, since it’s only about a 30-minute flight along the lakeshore, is aviation themed, and it is connected to the Liberty Aviation Museum.

The couple also recommends visiting the Carroll County Airport Restaurant in Carrollton, Ohio, and Serventi's On the Runway at the Pittsburgh-Butler Airport in Butler, Pennsylvania. 

Vikki Rzepka is dedicated to updating the app weekly, often incorporating feedback submitted by users. According to the couple, Fly-n-Eat has been received incredibly well by the aviation community and has gained more than 4,500 users in its first year. 

“[Pilots] are loving it and a lot of pilots are really coming back saying ‘This is just a home run,’” Rick says. “It is making me try to make this app better and better.
I'm always trying to improve it, and in the future, add more to it.”

Fly-n-Eat is available on the App Store and Google Play for $4.99 a month or $49.99 annually — ​​receive 50% off a yearly subscription with promotional code FLYNEATYUM2026.