Another early start today to be at the airfield for 8:15. I had to be back by 12 and wanted to get to Santa Paula and back which is just beyond Malibu a flight of about 65 miles. This meant another transition of the LAX Special Flight Rules Area, this time with camera at the ready to get some great shots of the airport from 4500 ft. Once beyond Santa Monica, I turned along the coast (being careful not to bust the military zone just offshore), for a fantastic view of the beach on my left and the mountains on my right. Climbing right up to 5000 feet, the air was smooth and calm and the flight was straightforward, turning northwards over Camarillo before starting my descent into Santa Paula.
Santa Paula is a small uncontrolled airfield with a non-standard pattern due to noise abatement for the town and a high mountain ridge just a few miles from and parallel to the one runway. Descending down to 1500ft over the town for an upwind leg, I got a good view of the (relatively) short runway, before turning crosswind and then an early downwind to stay away from the hills. This meant a tight turn from downwind all the way to final which doesn't give you much time to lose your height for the landing. With only a light headwind and a bit of excess speed at the flare, I floated a fair bit past the numbers and was considering going around, when the wheels gently touched down about 1/3 of the way down the runway, leaving me plenty of time to slow and pull off.
The airfield houses quite a few aerobatic aircraft and I got some shots of these, as well as having a look around the hangers and in the clubhouse.
After around 20 minutes on the ground, I was keen to get back in the air, for the trip back to Long Beach. Climbing straight out on runway 04, I put my first call in to Southern California (SOCAL) Approach for a flight following service. This is somewhere between a basic and traffic service in the UK, but with organised hand-offs through the different regions. For such a short flight, it's not really required (in fact you don't need to talk to anyone if you are outside of controlled airspace), but I wanted to practise the RT calls before I actually needed it.
As I approached Santa Monica from the West, I went to the LAX SFR frequency again for my traverse back across the airport, and then gave Long Beach a call for the approach. After a couple of circuits I was done flying for the day, and spent the afternoon wandering down to the seafront.
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