How?s this for the utility of an RV?
Houston to Carlsbad (NM) to San Diego, to Big Bear Lake?.then a return through El Paso and back on to Houston. All in three and a half days, and a total flight time of a little less than seventeen hours. Along the way, we had some nice visits with friends and family, magnificent scenery ranging from deserts to sea coasts to high mountains and mountain lakes. And all flown safely and with lots of options and flexibility. Just try doing a trip like this with an airline ticket?.or a book of them!
I left Houston about noon on Thursday, stopped for inexpensive fuel in the Hill Country (it pays to shop for fuel when you can save $1.00 per gallon!), and pressed on to Carlsbad, NM, arriving easily after a three-hour flight. The whole day was VFR, with a bit of a headwind at the start, diminishing to almost calm at Carlsbad. Total time (including startup and taxi) = 3:24
Friday, Louise and I left Carlsbad at a leisurely pace, headed for Montgomery Field, San Diego. Again, a beautiful VFR day, with 10-15 knot tailwinds, just as predicted by Weathermeister. In all my years of flying GA, very little has been across the southwest, and none of it has been in southern California, so it was fun to see new types of scenery from the air, and to find out what massive restricted areas are like. Fortunately, the airways provide nice paths between them and with the three GPS?s to refer to, and the EFIS coupled to the autopilot, staying in legal airspace was easy, and keeping an eye outside for traffic (and scenery) was a piece of cake. I simply don?t find hand flying hour upon hour of straight and level to be that rewarding anymore, so I welcome the precision and tirelessness of the autopilot to free me for higher level brain functions. Like marveling at the immense nature of the ?basin and range? geology of the area. (It also helps to have a geologist on the back seat to narrate the passing mountains, deserts, and basins?.)
My first interaction with SOCAL approach was actually a bit surprising ? as we slid over the coastal range down into San Diego, I called up VFR for KMYF, and the handling was simple and straightforward. The surprise was when he terminated me to squawk VFR will still a ways out from Montgomery, and left me to fend for myself while I still had another airport?s class D to negotiate. (OK all you SOCAL guys, laugh if you want?.come to Houston, and see what Surly Texans in the TRACON can be like?.) I was glad that Louise, my GIB, has experience in the area, and had briefed me on how it works. Tuning in the tower, I wasn?t sure I could get a word in edgewise, but when I heard him call me as unknown traffic to someone headed my way, I took that as a good place to break in, and I was cleared for a straight in to 28R. The helicopter that wandered across the final approach course in front of me got a thorough chewing out from the Tower, and the rest of the landing was uneventful. With a stop in Casa Grande , AZ (KCGZ) for fuel (not actually needed, but I prefer to have extra fuel when entering a region new to me?), the trip clocked in at 4:29, block to block.
After a nice lunch on the seashore in La Jolla, and an afternoon appointment, we again saddled up the Val and headed out ? this time for a short trip up the coast to Oceanside for dinner. A low layer of clouds was hovering right at the coastline, making it interesting to set up for the noise abatement procedure into KOKB, but once again, local knowledge from the rear seat was invaluable, and we spent only twenty minutes in the air, with a block time of 0:29 for the trip. It pays to be quick with your run-up procedures when there are others slowly going through their checklists and the tower has a hole to launch someone.
In a situation where I have to fly out with the weather threatening to close in on me, I can feel pretty rushed and harried, making it hard to enjoy a nice dinner in a marina restaurant, but in this case, we were dining with family, and I knew that if the fog closed in, we?d just stay with them. Since it didn?t matter to me, naturally, the weather stayed nice, and we were able to take off again a little before 1900 local, headed for Louise?s family cabin at Big Bear Lake, up in the mountains east of LA. Since my exposure to southern California has been the occasional business trip into LAX, or flying into the Antelope Valley (Louise has gotten used to giving me California directions by referencing them to Edwards AFB), I was stunned to find such a beautiful pine-filled mountain retreat so close to the eastern edge of the LA basin. I was also impressed with the utility of an RV?s ability to shrug of a climb up to 8,000? on a short hop from the coast. In the old spam cans I grew up in, a climb to that altitude was a big deal. In the RV ? you just pull back and make the hands on the altimeter go round and round! Approaching Big Bear City airport from the west by coming in over the lake with the sun setting behind presented a gorgeous picture ? now THIS is what we built these airplanes to do! Another 0:39 on the clock, and the day ended in a nice little cabin, the smell of the forest in the air. Carlsbad ? San Diego ? Oceanside ? Big Bear in one day = 5:37 total flying time and great gobs of the U.S. swallowed up by the magic wings.
Saturday was to be spent in Carlsbad (CA) with some of Louise?s family, and we were presented with the classic aviator?s dilemma. Low clouds and visibility predicted until noonish at the destination of Palomar, then beautiful VFR, followed by more low clouds and ceilings in the early evening. Drive or fly? Once again, I hate being the one looking at my watch as the clouds begin to appear, and since we?d had a nice flight up from the coast on Friday, and I?d never seen the roads up to Big Bear, we decided to make it a driving day. I must admit, the scenery on the route is as fabulous from the ground as it is from the air ? albeit in a different way. But still a huge change from the flat Texas coast! The afternoon finished off with some of the family taking biplane rides at Palomar, and a festive time was had by all. And sure enough, a half hour before we were ready to leave, the clouds rolled in - we?d have had to go IFR to get back to the mountains. With my lack of familiarity with the area, I just wasn?t comfortable with that, so the four-wheel vehicle was the right choice.
Continued....
Houston to Carlsbad (NM) to San Diego, to Big Bear Lake?.then a return through El Paso and back on to Houston. All in three and a half days, and a total flight time of a little less than seventeen hours. Along the way, we had some nice visits with friends and family, magnificent scenery ranging from deserts to sea coasts to high mountains and mountain lakes. And all flown safely and with lots of options and flexibility. Just try doing a trip like this with an airline ticket?.or a book of them!
I left Houston about noon on Thursday, stopped for inexpensive fuel in the Hill Country (it pays to shop for fuel when you can save $1.00 per gallon!), and pressed on to Carlsbad, NM, arriving easily after a three-hour flight. The whole day was VFR, with a bit of a headwind at the start, diminishing to almost calm at Carlsbad. Total time (including startup and taxi) = 3:24
Friday, Louise and I left Carlsbad at a leisurely pace, headed for Montgomery Field, San Diego. Again, a beautiful VFR day, with 10-15 knot tailwinds, just as predicted by Weathermeister. In all my years of flying GA, very little has been across the southwest, and none of it has been in southern California, so it was fun to see new types of scenery from the air, and to find out what massive restricted areas are like. Fortunately, the airways provide nice paths between them and with the three GPS?s to refer to, and the EFIS coupled to the autopilot, staying in legal airspace was easy, and keeping an eye outside for traffic (and scenery) was a piece of cake. I simply don?t find hand flying hour upon hour of straight and level to be that rewarding anymore, so I welcome the precision and tirelessness of the autopilot to free me for higher level brain functions. Like marveling at the immense nature of the ?basin and range? geology of the area. (It also helps to have a geologist on the back seat to narrate the passing mountains, deserts, and basins?.)
My first interaction with SOCAL approach was actually a bit surprising ? as we slid over the coastal range down into San Diego, I called up VFR for KMYF, and the handling was simple and straightforward. The surprise was when he terminated me to squawk VFR will still a ways out from Montgomery, and left me to fend for myself while I still had another airport?s class D to negotiate. (OK all you SOCAL guys, laugh if you want?.come to Houston, and see what Surly Texans in the TRACON can be like?.) I was glad that Louise, my GIB, has experience in the area, and had briefed me on how it works. Tuning in the tower, I wasn?t sure I could get a word in edgewise, but when I heard him call me as unknown traffic to someone headed my way, I took that as a good place to break in, and I was cleared for a straight in to 28R. The helicopter that wandered across the final approach course in front of me got a thorough chewing out from the Tower, and the rest of the landing was uneventful. With a stop in Casa Grande , AZ (KCGZ) for fuel (not actually needed, but I prefer to have extra fuel when entering a region new to me?), the trip clocked in at 4:29, block to block.
After a nice lunch on the seashore in La Jolla, and an afternoon appointment, we again saddled up the Val and headed out ? this time for a short trip up the coast to Oceanside for dinner. A low layer of clouds was hovering right at the coastline, making it interesting to set up for the noise abatement procedure into KOKB, but once again, local knowledge from the rear seat was invaluable, and we spent only twenty minutes in the air, with a block time of 0:29 for the trip. It pays to be quick with your run-up procedures when there are others slowly going through their checklists and the tower has a hole to launch someone.
In a situation where I have to fly out with the weather threatening to close in on me, I can feel pretty rushed and harried, making it hard to enjoy a nice dinner in a marina restaurant, but in this case, we were dining with family, and I knew that if the fog closed in, we?d just stay with them. Since it didn?t matter to me, naturally, the weather stayed nice, and we were able to take off again a little before 1900 local, headed for Louise?s family cabin at Big Bear Lake, up in the mountains east of LA. Since my exposure to southern California has been the occasional business trip into LAX, or flying into the Antelope Valley (Louise has gotten used to giving me California directions by referencing them to Edwards AFB), I was stunned to find such a beautiful pine-filled mountain retreat so close to the eastern edge of the LA basin. I was also impressed with the utility of an RV?s ability to shrug of a climb up to 8,000? on a short hop from the coast. In the old spam cans I grew up in, a climb to that altitude was a big deal. In the RV ? you just pull back and make the hands on the altimeter go round and round! Approaching Big Bear City airport from the west by coming in over the lake with the sun setting behind presented a gorgeous picture ? now THIS is what we built these airplanes to do! Another 0:39 on the clock, and the day ended in a nice little cabin, the smell of the forest in the air. Carlsbad ? San Diego ? Oceanside ? Big Bear in one day = 5:37 total flying time and great gobs of the U.S. swallowed up by the magic wings.
Saturday was to be spent in Carlsbad (CA) with some of Louise?s family, and we were presented with the classic aviator?s dilemma. Low clouds and visibility predicted until noonish at the destination of Palomar, then beautiful VFR, followed by more low clouds and ceilings in the early evening. Drive or fly? Once again, I hate being the one looking at my watch as the clouds begin to appear, and since we?d had a nice flight up from the coast on Friday, and I?d never seen the roads up to Big Bear, we decided to make it a driving day. I must admit, the scenery on the route is as fabulous from the ground as it is from the air ? albeit in a different way. But still a huge change from the flat Texas coast! The afternoon finished off with some of the family taking biplane rides at Palomar, and a festive time was had by all. And sure enough, a half hour before we were ready to leave, the clouds rolled in - we?d have had to go IFR to get back to the mountains. With my lack of familiarity with the area, I just wasn?t comfortable with that, so the four-wheel vehicle was the right choice.
Continued....