On Sunday I got two visitors today at the airport from Texas and the Czech Republic, so took them for a sightseeing tour around the LA basin. With three of us in the aircraft and a hot day, we were very slow to climb and had to circle before reaching our cruising altitude so as not to bust the Class B airspace. We passed over LAX and turned along the coast at Malibu, before turning back towards Beverly Hills, descending over Brentwood and Bel-Air and gawking at the huge houses in the hills.
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| Boeing 737 traffic 1000ft below me (centre) |
Turning towards the west, we had to duck down to 1800ft to remain out of controlled airspace and after a great view passing the Hollywood sign we turned over Dodger Stadium and back towards Long Beach via downtown. We grabbed an awesome lunch afterwards, with the biggest burger I think I've ever seen, although I could barely move after eating.
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| C17 Globemasters at March ARB |
Monday I had planned to fly down to San Diego for the morning, but when I woke, I found a blanket of low cloud and fog was all down the coastline. I decided instead to head inland to Borrego Valley - a small uncontrolled strip near Palm Springs. The upper winds were fairly strong so I made good progress climbing up to 7500 feet and cutting through the Banning Pass with 10,000 ft peaks on either side of me. There was a fair bit of traffic so I had to be vectored a couple of times to avoid other aircraft descending into Palm Springs International, but soon I was 10 miles from my destination and ready to descend. I contacted the airport on their frequency but received the news that they were closed to traffic for the day. A good chance to plan a diversion in the air. As I was planning to go to another nearby airport tomorrow (Thermal) and had already studied the approach plates for it at the weekend, and as it also happened to be the nearest airport to me, I diverted there, and announced my intentions to join the pattern and land on the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF).
Thermal Airport is located at 150ft below sea level so it is strange to see the altimeter hit 0 while you are still in the air on your final approach. I followed a Pilatus PC-12 in the pattern - an 8 seater luxury single turbo propellor aircraft, and on the apron bumped into the pilot and got to take a look inside as well.
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| Pilatus Cockpit |
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| Pilatus Cabin |
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| Pilatus PC-12 |
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| Gulfstream loading for departure |
There were also a number of Gulfstream Jets on the tarmac, waiting to ferry their wealthy owners back from their Spring Breaks to their hometowns.
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| Gulfstream |
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| Disneyland |
I only had time for a quick stopover as I had to get the plane back for 1pm for the next renter, and as I saw one of the Gulfstreams getting ready to depart I wanted to get out ahead of them. The headwinds on the way back were up to 30kts at some points and the turbulence was quite strong (for a small plane) so I had to slow it up and ended up doing just 70kts ground speed which made the journey back take a lot longer than outbound. As I got back towards Long Beach, I did manage to get a quick shot of Disneyland, before making a straight in approach to land.
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| Snow-capped mountains in the Banning Pass |
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| Departing Globemaster at March ARB |
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