aviate

For an aircraft to successfully aviate Earth's atmosphere, it must be able to control, power and sustain its own flight.

Many instructors drill their students with a maxim: aviate, navigate, communicate.

("What a pleasant place over which to aviate must Babylon have been with its hanging gardens!"

"Avian," incidentally, comes from the Latin word for bird ("avis"), and has been extended in modern times to "aviate" and "aviation," which have to do with human flight.

There may not be many opportunities to aviate in winter, but those that do appear can provide the best flying of the year - light winds, excellent power and density altitude conditions and a razor sharp horizon.