Runway One Two

How to fuel a Cessna Skylane

Fueling up Cessna N233ME at the KVNY prop park at Van Nuys Airport. This was my acting debut! 😅

Make your Flight Plan at SkyVector.com

I didn't fly out to this one, but always wanted to. I was always concerned about the "last mile" transportation. No problem nowadays with Uber and Lyft! We drove out to stay at Morongo, and I made a point to visit the airport for some pics and spoke with the airport manager while in town. This is a perfect fly in destination, they have overnight tie downs where the Bonanza is parked the pics. You can grab a rideshare from the airport office and stay at the giant Morongo hotel only 5 minutes away. Morongo has a Casino, Lazy River, pools, waterslide, 2 jacuzzi's and 3 restaurants. There is a bowling alley, Cabazon outlet and the huge Desert Hills malls on either side of the hotel, all are walking distance away. We also visited the Thursday night street fair called Village Fest in Palm Springs. We had a wonderful dinner and desert there, and it's only a 20 minute drive from Morongo.

Be sure and fly here in the MORNING, Banning airport is in a huge mountain pass with the 10,834' Mt. San Jacinto on one side and the 11,499' Mt. San Gorgornio on the other side. It's a big FUNNEL, so be concerned with the high winds and turbulence. It won't be "fun" for your passengers flying in the middle of the afternoon here. Note SOCAL TRACON has no radio, or radar coverage inside the pass, so expect them to drop flight following if you transit thru the pass. Enjoy!

Snow Covered San Jacinto in the backround of the Banning Airport Office.

Banning/KBNG airport office.

Morongo Hotel in the backround of Banning airport.

Desert Hills, and Cabazon outlet malls.

Our little one loved the slide, lazy river, and pools at Morongo.

Make your Flight Plan at SkyVector.com

Grand Canyon Trip, overnight stop at Havasu KHII

Williams to Havasu

After a windy and bumpy morning departure from Williams, it turned out to be a smooth ride to Havasu. We had flight following with Albuquerque Center on 127.675 pretty much the whole way...over some very barren landscape, with no highways in sight. It was about an hour flight, so it was wayyy faster, and more direct than driving. We got fuel and a tie-down at Desert Skies FBO, their service is awesome and are very GA friendly. London Bridge resort is right next to the London Bridge, they have a pool, with a water slide, free breakfast, and were kind enough to pick us up from the FBO, and take us back to the airport the next morning.

The London Bridge at Havasu

The Desert Skies FBO was awesome, even popcorn and slushy machines!

London Bridge Resort

Topock Gorge, departing Havasu airport

Make your Flight Plan at SkyVector.com

Flying over the Grand Canyon

Laughlin to Grand Canyon

I loaded the Zuni and Dragon corridor entry and exit points in our brand new Avidine GPS. The flight from KIFP to the Grand Canyon was about an hour, and smooth as glass the whole way. I'm thinking "this is going to be great tour" Surprise, NOT the case at all once OVER the canyon. LA Center stayed with us on the entire trip with flight following on 124.85, even into the corridor. Once we turned and entered the Zuni corridor we got rocked all over the place at 11,500 feet, I couldn't hold a heading or altitude in the corridor, so I bailed out, and headed back to the plateau. I headed to Valle (40G) airport for a landing as soon as possible to give the family a break from the roller coaster. (I had also read there is a museum, Flintstones village and hotel there) Going in this direction we now had some serious headwinds and turbulence. The windsock was all over the place at Valle, and on final I saw the winds reversed, and I had to switch runways. I could feel the reduced performance of the airplane in the high density altitude when doing a go-around. The runway at Valle has lousy pavement, (similar to Catalina airport) and I got it down the centerline fighting some heavy crosswinds.

KGCN, Grand Canyon National Park airport

Zuni Point Corridor

KCMR, HA Clark Memorial Field, Williams, AZ,

our diversion and overnight stop

After landing at Valle to take a break from the bumps, we departed again and headed south to Sedona for our planned overnight. After more rocking and rolling once in the air, I decided it would only get worse the further we went, and diverted to Williams. I knew there were lots of hotels there and it turned out it was a nice place to do an overnight. It was our lucky day, we caught the only Uber in Williams, to get us to the hotel. The driver also turned out to be the same lady who took our reservation over the phone at the newly remodeled La Quinta Inn. We got a ride back to the airport the next morning with a (hotel recommend) taxi called Two Thumbs Up, again...the only taxi in town. Williams Clark airport has a friendly A&P IA on site called, Performance Air Group, self serve gas (I picked up a few gallons) and a nice new terminal building. I found out later that the Grand Canyon tour ops were cancelled on this day due to all the winds. Thanks to Robert for all his training with me, as I used every bit of airmanship learned on this trip.

Make your Flight Plan at SkyVector.com

Grand Canyon Trip, overnight stop at Laughlin, KIFP...

at Signature Flight support right across the river from the hotels

We flew east along highway 40 to Laughlin, LA Center on 134.65 cut us loose about 15 miles west of the airport as we were making our decent to the river. We joined the right downwind for runway 16 near the big bend area of the Colorado River. Signature flight support has fuel and over night parking at KIFP, just call them on their Unicom 122.85 as you taxi in, and they will tell you where to park. The guy on the golf cart will meet you and pick up your stuff. Next time I'll ask them to come back later, as it takes me a half hour to collect all our junk, and secure the plane, and I don't like them having to wait for me. The Riverside Hotel is the only hotel with a free shuttle to/from the airport. I found this out after we made our reservations at the Aquarius. We used it anyway, as it was only a short walk to the next hotel over. Laughlin's a great place to fly to and enjoy all the food, (we like the Hickory Pit at the Edgewater) great prices on hotels, and play on the Colorado River. Departing Laughlin to the east you can pick up flight following once above 4,000' near Union Pass with LA Center on 134.65.

Waverunner rentals at The Aquarius Hotel

Departing KIFP to Union Pass, Lake Mohave

Flying to the Grand Canyon with 414ME's new Avidine GPS

Make your Flight Plan at SkyVector.com

Flying the LA tour with Julian for the Journey of 1

My Nephew Julian produced this video on our last flight doing a tour of LA and the South Bay. His adventures sightseeing all over Los Angeles can be found on his very informative website Journey Of 1.

Point Loma Tour

The "Point Loma Tour" is an a fun way to give your passengers incredible views of San Diego, see below for notes on how to do it...

Passing the Queen Mary and the Blimp as we go southeast bound

my co-pilot

KMYF

Casa Machado at KMYF

Point Loma Tour

View of Southwest Airlines and KSAN from the "Taxiway Delta" transition

Coronado Hotel

North Island NAS

Point Loma

Belmont Park and Mission Bay

Passing Dana Point on the shoreline ride home

After a lunch overlooking the field at KMYF at Casa Machado restarurant, we departed, and did the Point Loma tour, it goes like this:

Tell KMYF ground your planning on a KSAN "TAXIWAY DELTA" transition, they will call KSAN.
After departing KMYF, turn south, and contact Lindberg tower on 118.3, they will clear you to enter the Class Bravo at 1,500' southbound over their taxiway Delta.
Next contact North Island tower on 135.1, request low level transition to HOTEL DEL, then to POINT LOMA.
Expect 800' feet to Point Loma (VPSPL)
After rounding the point and turning northbound along the shoreline. Contact KSAN tower on 118.3 to get Class B clearance northbound transition along the shoreline.
Expect 500' feet to CRYSTAL PIER (VPSCP). Don't confuse this pier with OCEAN BEACH pier which you'll pass first on your way to Crystal Pier.
Report crossing Crystal Pier.
You can continue north along the shore to La Jolla Shores, the Childrens Pool, La Jolla cove, (watch out for hang gliders and parasails) then to Torrey PInes golf course.
Be sure to stay under Miramar's Class Bravo (below 1,800') as you go up the shoreline.
Be sure and use the "San Diego Coastal" frequency of 122.75 and make announcements. You'll hear training aircraft and helos on this frequency.

When flying down to San Diego, I like to fly above the the Santa Ana Class C at 5,500' Southeast bound. And going home, I like to take a low level shoreline tour up the coast and below the Santa Ana Class C going home, makes for a wonderful view out the right window for passengers going northwestbound. I can use flight following with Socal TRACON pretty much the whole way in both directions.

Make your Flight Plan at SkyVector.com

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!