Sunday, November 29, 2015

Flying to SBA

Today I had a great flight from MYF to SBA using the VFR flight corridors to simplify navigation and communication with ATC in busy SoCal airspace. Since most of the Plus One Flyers aircraft were rented due to the long Thanksgiving holiday, I rented one of the GPS equipped Cessna Cutlass 172RG aircraft for the flight to SBA from MYF. It was not that much more to rent and 10 knots faster than a base 172 so time saved worth it. Plus I wanted to get some instrument training on a complex retract aircraft. Anyways,  I flew the Coastal Route after contacting SoCal approach near OCN on 134.2 and getting my squawk code and clearance. Flew the majority of the flight at 6500' VFR and gorgeous scenery over the coast. I navigated from MYF to OCN VOR to work on my instrument skills. The waypoint near LAX is the Vincent Thomas Bridge (VPLVT) as shown below which we flew abeam then proceed outbound on the LAX VOR 113.6 which I had dialed into the first VOR and flew outbound on the 323 Radial for LAX until past LAX Bravo airspace. ATC gave me a new altitude of 4500' to remain clear of the jets flying into and out of LAX.



The view of Newport harbor is incredible!


Pictures do not do justice to the amazing scenic coastal route!


Once past LAX, I navigated past Pt. Mugu airbase shown below:


En route to Ventura, I flew to the VTU station after dialing in the second VOR to 108.2



Once closer to SBA airport, I received a left base to 15L runway.

Landing was easy and after landing the friendly folks at Atlantic FBO came out to greet us and help us tie down the plane then gave us a ride into town for lunch in their nice SUV Limo. The airport was super crowded with jets and tons of planes!













Since it was the end of Thanksgiving long holiday weekend parking was challenging and tons of private jets at SBA. I had a tasty seafood lunch at the nearby Beachside Cafe which is highly recommended with ocean front views.







The clam chowder, seafood specials and ahi tuna sandwich were particular delicious. Friendly service and walking distance from the airport a major plus. On the return flight, I flew under the hood on an IFR flight plan after receiving my IFR clearance which was great experience toward my instrument rating. When all was said and done the total flight round trip from MYF to SBA and back home to MYF took 4.2 hours. Not the fastest but definitely way less time than driving from San Diego to Santa Barbara and back and far less stressful!



Sunday, May 17, 2015

2015 Salinas AOPA Fly In Event

Dear readers,

I had a fun time this past weekend volunteering at the AOPA local west coast fly in event in Salinas, California near Monterey. Originally I had planned to rent a Cessna 182 to fly from San Jose to Gnoss field to pick up a fellow pilot but due to fairly low ceilings and possible rain we drove down instead. It saved me $300 and weather was marginal VFR anyways. Upon arrival and check in at the volunteer booth, Anthony and I went to the flight line to help direct landing traffic to the parking areas.


I ended up spending a few hours parking dozens of aircraft and it was fun getting experience with the ground traffic signals waving the orange batons. After duty, I went to grab a tasty BBQ dinner. The next event was a sneak preview of the upcoming aviation film Living in the Age of Airplanes from the director of classic aviation film One Six Right directed by Brian J Terwilliger and narrated by awesome movie star and aviator Harrison Ford. I enjoyed the film even though it was quite different than what I had been expecting it to be!

Attendance was great and quite  a variety of aircraft on hand to investigate made it for serious aviation porn.


The plan that day had been to camp in a tent but rapidly dropping temperatures and the thought of freezing all night were not very tempting so I decided to get a motel room and stay warm and not freeze. Good decision and the next day were events and seminars. My favorite part was meeting new pilots and veterans in the aviation field. I enjoyed meeting fantastic aviation educator Rod Machado and he was gracious enough to sign my copy of his Instrument Flying Handbook and a very down to earth nice guy as well!





Local aviator and acrobat pilot from Livermore Yuichi Takagi debuted in his first acrobatic airshow event and it was spectacular! Here is a video of the show:

Pitts Acrobatic demo

I also had a great experience meeting veteran woman aviator performer Julie Clark and her awesome custom T34! She is a pioneer woman aviator and very down to earth smart awesome pilot!




The custom engine on her T34 is nothing short of spectacular!



It looks super pristine and gold plated even!
What a gorgeous plane.


I liked sitting in the glass cockpit brand new Cessna Corvallis TTX.



 The cool display is very high tech and modern.




On the exhibition grounds, my favorite new products were the Lynx ADSB touchscreen transponder and Bendix King AOA unit. My favorite sim is the Fly the Sim touchscreen which I had fun trying out at the fly in. It is definitely on my list and up to 10 hours of dual can be used toward the instrument rating. I figure sims are great way to save time and money in flight training and especially useful for the instrument rating.

It was my very first AOPA Fly In event and while I had originally wanted to fly in, the marginal VFR weather and time factors caused me to drive. It was a lot of fun and great way to learn and meet fellow pilots.

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Cool new Amphibious LSA MVP Aero

I had a chance to catch a sneak peak into the upcoming LSA triphib aircraft from MVP Aero.


The aircraft is very modern with glass cockpit and many options to add a tent, hammock, and the canopy cockpit even pops up.



The cool wow factor is the ability to remove the pilot seat from the cockpit quickly after landing of course and add to the front as a seat for fishing off the seaplane! Very cool indeed.



Now the kicker will be to afford the price tag on one. At close to 200K for the base model most of us cannot afford that price but hopefully with additional sales and investments as production rolls out the cost of future LSA will be less expensive. I really like this compared to the Icon A5 amphibious that comes out this summer and hope that MVP Aero succeeds in mass production so that future aircraft will cost as same as a high end BMW or Mercedes. That would be fantastic for those who want to own a new aircraft on a budget.



Until next time!


Friday, April 10, 2015

Castle Museum Fly In Adventure

So it had been a while since I had been flying due to time and budget constraints. I needed to get my currency back for VFR flying. I had flown into KMER before as a student pilot for one of my long cross country solos but not in a while as a new private pilot. The weather finally cleared up yesterday so I flew direct from KRHV to KMER in the Cessna 172SP. When I landed at KMER, I had a wee bit of a long walk from the terminal to the Castle Air Museum.

Note: bring a bicycle if you don't want to walk half a mile.

The Castle Air Museum is warbird heaven! Outside there are dozens of warbirds old and new from B24 bomber to early fighter jets. It truly is aviation porn.

What amazed me was the level and detail of artwork and craftsmanship of the nose art on these military warbirds that sadly is missing today. Also the massive gigantic size of these warbirds are HUMUNGOUS!




Even the fighter jets are quite large in size BUT the cockpit where the jet pilot sits is TINY!



So warbird pilots had to be fit to fly these. I doubt Americans with super sized bodies can fit in one today.

Here is me next to one of my all time favorite fighter jets the F15!




My favorite however is the SR71 Blackbird one of the coolest all time ever made!








 Getting presidential the Air Force One makes an appearance as well.

















After a busy day of looking at warbirds and lack of real food at Castle Airport or the museum, I decided to hop over to KWVI in Watsonville to try out the new airport restaurant Ellas. I am glad that I did! The burger was amazing and tiramisu as well.