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!

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

Make your Flight Plan at SkyVector.com

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

Make your Flight Plan at SkyVector.com