Need help planning fun flight in CA

grkero

grkero

fer yer health
I have a student that is requesting I plan something good for our 1 year anniversary of his discovery flight (don't laugh!). The problem is, we've done a LOT of flying, such as:

-Several SF bay tours
-Flown to San Diego twice
-Flown over LA a few times
-Flown to Tahoe
-Flown to Shelter Cove

I can't come up with any ideas right now, but he gave me a budget of $500. Any creative minds out here that are familiar with California flying?
 
Flying out of Sac?

Here are some ideas that should fit the budget.

Fly into SFO. I've talked to Signature and it's about $200 landing fees and ramp fees included. Plus they have a huge fleet of courtesy cars you can take for a spin. Plus if it's busy and you can't get a 28R at Echo departure, they'll route you down Charlie all the way around the end of 10L/R and past all the terminals to 1L/R. That'd be pretty awesome in a single.

Land at every Bay Area airport you can, including SFO if you want. From Sac, you can do SAC-CCR-OAK-HWD-RHV-SJC-PAO-SQL-SFO/HAF(if you don't want to pay for SFO)-DVO-APC-SAC.

Do airwork over the SF Embarcadero. I've done it a bunch of times, NorCal doesn't care if you don't do it at peak times. Stalls, steep turns, all that stuff. In fact, I've spent over an hour over downtown SF at night doing steep turns and slow flight all around SF and they didn't care. Super fun.

Head to the coast and fly all the way down it, over Santa Cruz, then on to Watsonville or Salinas and back at the lowest altitudes you legally can. You see all sorts of cool stuff like Elephant seals. Plus, if you look for it, you'll spot one of the coolest strips I've ever seen called "Las Trancas" which is a private strip owned by a lumber company. Its super gnarly built on the side of a drop off cliff against the ocean, dirt strip to boot.

If you can get that far without spending over $500, check out a boneyard like VCV or MHV.

These are all thing I've done or plan to do around here.
 
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Catalina Island
Mojave Spaceport (pretty cool graveyard there, plus the SpaceX buildings and other fun test flights)
Route 66
Death Valley/Henderson/Yosemite (KMMH) (not anytime soon with the fires out that way)
Lone Pine (between Death Valley and Yosemite) is pretty cool. They filmed a ton of movies in that area. The really small FBO (a singlewide filled with cats, if I remember correctly) had a courtesy car. Went to see where several movies were filmed, a "museum" with prop cars/trucks/tanks/airplanes/etc... were left behind, etc.. Pretty cool. It is also site in a canyon between 2 mountain ridges. Good flying and very scenic.
 
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grkero said:
I have a student that is requesting I plan something good for our 1 year anniversary of his discovery flight (don't laugh!). The problem is, we've done a LOT of flying, such as:

-Several SF bay tours
-Flown to San Diego twice
-Flown over LA a few times
-Flown to Tahoe
-Flown to Shelter Cove

I can't come up with any ideas right now, but he gave me a budget of $500. Any creative minds out here that are familiar with California flying?
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Mountain flying? :> Mammoth? Tahoe? That little airport south of SBP with the campground on it? A USFS strip somewhere?

Lunch in Arcata? Might blow that $500 though.

-Fox
 
Acrofox said:
Mountain flying? :> Mammoth? Tahoe?
-Fox
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I don't think I want to fight with the DA at Mammoth in a 172. Had enough of that in Tahoe which is 1000 ft lower lol
Oceano is that airport south of SBP... he's been there unfortunately.

mshunter said:
"You plan the flight."
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He usually does, but of course he dropped this bomb on me. He's had his Private for a few months now, he just likes flying with me.

Tld said:
Half moon bay....walk to the end of the runway and down into town for fish and chips on the waterfront.
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Been to HMB a lot, but it's so damn good I don't think it ever gets old.
 
O42 has a good restaurant on the field and you can check out the southern end of Sequoia NP, including Moro Rock. It's not quite as good as AVX, but a lot closer to you.
 
SZP is a really fun airport to fly into also, but if you're gonna go all the way down there, might as well do Catalina. If you do Catalina, and you plan on taking the van ride down to the city, it was nice knowing you.

The 20-25 minute ride takes you down winding roads with steep drop offs that are barely wide enough for the 9 passanger van. The only other car we encountered was a pick up truck, and the bed was loaded with a bunch of guys. The older gentlemen who was driving us ran that truck off the road. By off the road, I mean he almost ran them off a cliff and the poor guys inside probably thought they were going to die. My friends (@Todd-sfo , @trickeriche ) and I just all looked at eachother with a look that said "OMFGWTFLOL", then Todd piped up and said "Gee, that sure was a close call with that truck, huh?". To which the driver, to our relief, responded with, "What truck?". His monotinous tone that heavily implied there was of course no truck or he would have seen it, which he clearly did not, lead to a peaceful and relaxing silent trip down the rest of the mountain. However, the night of nonsense that followed was well worth the trip, and I highly recommend a trip to town.
 
Go to Oceano. Walk to the beach and rent ATV's for a couple hours and go on the dunes. One of my favorite trips I've done so far.
 
ChasenSFO said:
SZP is a really fun airport to fly into also, but if you're gonna go all the way down there, might as well do Catalina. If you do Catalina, and you plan on taking the van ride down to the city, it was nice knowing you.

The 20-25 minute ride takes you down winding roads with steep drop offs that are barely wide enough for the 9 passanger van. The only other car we encountered was a pick up truck, and the bed was loaded with a bunch of guys. The older gentlemen who was driving us ran that truck off the road. By off the road, I mean he almost ran them off a cliff and the poor guys inside probably thought they were going to die. My friends (@Todd-sfo , @trickeriche ) and I just all looked at eachother with a look that said "OMFGWTFLOL", then Todd piped up and said "Gee, that sure was a close call with that truck, huh?". To which the driver, to our relief, responded with, "What truck?". His monotinous tone that heavily implied there was of course no truck or he would have seen it, which he clearly did not, lead to a peaceful and relaxing silent trip down the rest of the mountain. However, the night of nonsense that followed was well worth the trip, and I highly recommend a trip to town.
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haha the only time I've been to AVX we missed the shuttle so I've never taken that trip down. We've been to SZP twice and that is a cool airport, especially coming from the south east and you can't see the airport because it is literally at the foot of those mountains.
 
I vote for Catalina. We did a fly in there with a past employer some years ago from HND. It was a ton of fun. I think I posted pics of it somewhere in the pic section.
 
grkero said:
haha the only time I've been to AVX we missed the shuttle so I've never taken that trip down. We've been to SZP twice and that is a cool airport, especially coming from the south east and you can't see the airport because it is literally at the foot of those mountains.
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Next time you hit up SZP try to do it on the first Sunday of the month. It's like an open house for old airplanes, we all open up our hangars, the public is invited to come check it out and walk the airport. Hopefully we'll have the restaurant up and running again soon it's been closed for a bit. PM if you want any more info, or other places to eat in town.
 
If you're up in NorCal, Trinity Center (O86) is pretty cool.

There's also Chico (CIC), you can go tour the Sierra Nevada Brewery.

There's Monterey (MRY), You got cannery row, the wharf & Aquarium


Down South...

There's Oceano (L52)

You can go rent quads & dune buggies. Restaurants with in walking distance. On-airport camping is available & there are showers at the RV park just across the bridge.

Frazier Lake Airpark (1C9) Just North of Hollister. Not much around, just a nice grass runway and a cool airport with a parallel water "runway" for sea planes.

Harris Ranch (3O8) is a good place to over night if camping is not your thing. I'd recommend Columbia (O22) but its on fire...

The Owens Valley is awesome, but there is nothing really quick or convenient next to any of the airports. And once you're there, thre really isn't a whole lot to do unless you have your fishing, hiking, shooting, etc... gear with you. And it's hot this time of year.


There's Bacon Strip Ranch, http://www.baconstrip.net

If you like shooting & the desert its a great time. (Still hot)
The equivalent to Bacon Strip up in NorCal would be Gravely Valley (1Q5), another really cool place.

You can always check out Trona (L72) and see the city time forgot. I was there about a year ago and there was still no cell service, and barely TV.


For some good breakfast & lunch check out Woodlake (O24) it's just north of Porterville. It's a fun little airport and & good stop.


If you do camp and/or just need a cheap place to crash for the night check out Tehachapi (TSP) Fully stocked, air-conditioned pilot lounge with showers, TV, WiFi and Lazy Boys to sleep on. They have a really nice camp ground too stocked with fire wood, fire pits, lots of shade trees, AC power, green grass and picnic tables. There's also a really good BBQ joint called the Red House within walking distance, in town.

This was at TSP

543540_10151233396817868_430520866_n.jpg
 
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