Catalina Island

30West

30West

New Member
I got checked out in a 172RG and took my wife out to Catalina a while back. It was definately wierd getting back into a small plane after not flying a piston engined plane for 6 years. I couldnt beleive how sensitive the contols were. It definately reminded me of why I got into flying in the first place. The GIV is cool, but nothing beats flying low and slow in a small plane.

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Lots of great beaches for camping.
 
Thanks for the pics. I'm from SoCal and have been to Catalina a bunch of times (not for 15+yrs) and have never seen the airport/strip. Very cool - view from the runway makes it look like it dumps right into the ocean.
 
The landing fee is $20, but well worth it. As for MY landing there....Ive done ALOT better, but I guess if you cant laugh at your mistakes you will never learn from them. For someone used to flying a light single it would be an easy landing with plenty of runway. Only thing tricky about it is the approach looks alot different because your flying on to the top of a mountain and the visual cues are not what you are used to.
 
Looks like they repaved the runway finally. I flew there a couple of times, and there were potholes and cracks in that one. Glad to see they finally used the landing fees for something instead of petty cash.
 
Oh, it just doesn't "look" like the runway dumps you off into the ocean...it DOES! Well, sort of anyway. A friend of mine ran off the end of the runway and made S turns through the gravel to stop before plunging over the edge (that's a whole other story).

Another trick to Catalina is that the runway is convex, so when you're touching down the runway looks a lot shorter than it really is. Can cause some seat pucker.
 
Man I miss those days!!! The other thing about Catalina is that you can't see the other end of the runway when you start your takeoff roll. So even though there's no control tower, there's a guy who let's you know it's clear on the other end.
 
Holy crycky! Never flown before, so a runway like that seems completely impossible to me. Lot of respect for you guys! I hope to be there one day.:(
 
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