Runway One Two: 2015

L88 New Cuyama (re-opened)

New Cuyama has a newly paved runway and The New Cuyama Buckhorn Restaurant is now open!
L88 is a privately owned, public-use, day-use general aviation airport located in rural Santa Barbara County. The runway and supporting facilities were originally constructed by the Richfield Oil Company in 1950. A Santa Barbara Pistachio farmer has done the repaving, and plans on building a sustainable living center there called Blue Sky.
We left VNY on a nice Fall day, and headed towards SZP, crossed the Ojai valley, and flew a line that basically followed highway 33, over the mountains, then followed the large wash that leads into the Cuyama Valley. The Las Padres National Forest mountains reach heights of 7500', so plan on crossing at least 8500' to give yourself plenty of clearance, smooth air, and radio coverage to LA Center. We had flight following on 135.5 MHz, and ARTCC lost contact with us just after crossing the peak of the ridgeline. There was nobody on the CTAF when we arrived. There is a windsock, if you look hard, it was dirty, and blended in to it's surroundings from overhead, so I missed it. The newly paved runway is nice but not perfect. It's still a bit bumpy as you do your rollout. Gone are the potholes, and nothing that will do any damage. Be sure and bring your wheel chocks. We walked the short walk north from the end of the runway to the small town. The Burger Barn and Cuyama Buckhorn are just a couple blocks from each other next to the main highway. The Buckhorns lunch portions are HUGE! Plan on bringing your eating pants and an appetite. It' decor reminds me of an mini version AJ Spurs or McLintocks, they had a good sized lunchtime crowd for a place in the middle of nowhere. The 1/2 lb burgers and Chicken Quesadillas were awesome!

Approach to New Cuyama from the East

heading West joining the pattern to L88

It's just a short walk down this road to both restaurants

this plane is now the co-star of ABC's "The Bachelor"

What's wrong with this?

The newly remodeled Cuyama Buckhorn.

Crossing the Los Padres National Forest, this was the site of the massive "Day Fire" of 2006.

Heading home over Ojai, looking West at the Channel Islands

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KSEE, Gillespie Field

The San Diego Air and Space Museum and the Warbirds West Air Museum are both at Gillespie. We didn't get to see either, as it turns out they were both closed the day we were there. We ended up having a nice day of just sightseeing along the coast, and having lunch at the Gillespie Field Cafe. My wife saw a whale near the Palomar area. You'll transition from Montgomery (KMYF) Class D to and from Gillespie, and skirting the Miramar Class B, so be sure to study on the comms and airspace in the area.

Lunch at the Gillespie Field Cafe

Dana Point

Newport Beach

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Carlsbad, McClellan Palomar Airport

Burger Run to Palomar Airport

I was happy to learn there is a restaurant and transient parking now at Palomar. My typical route is KVNY>SMO>POPPR>VPLHP>VPLDP>OCN>KCRQ. We took the Special Flight Rules corridor 3,500', then up to 5,500' southeast bound, and did a landing at Oceanside Airport on the way there. Be sure you are on the radio with SOCAL before going through R2503, it's usually open, and they will let you through. I had never landed at Oceanside so figured it would be a good opportunity to get another landing in and add it to my list of airports. They had recently changed the CTAF frequency at Oceanside, but luckily someone got on the radio and gave me the new freq. Be aware of jump aircraft operations, and parachutists landing near the runway at Oceanside. Palomar will typically have you enter right traffic for runway 24 when coming from the northwest. After a great lunch at the Landings, we took a low-level scenic flight on the way back home. Socal gave us flight following along the beach northwest bound, underneath the Santa Ana Class C, and all the way to the Queen Mary. After that, I used the helo freq of 122.85, and PV practice area freq of 121.95 near LA Harbor, and around Palos Verdes, be sure and make announcements on both these freqs as it's a busy area with lots of VFR and touring aircraft.