Round Trip Complete!
After a nice relaxing break in San Diego it was back in the saddle again for the long trip north, back to Livermore. We arranged to do some air-to-air work with John and Janice who had hired a Piper for the morning, it was good fun flying so close to another plane and they got some nice shots of our plane!
After peeling off and going on our seperate ways we climbed upto 10,500ft, primarily to get above the Los Angeles airspace and headed along the coast. The marine layer (fog and low cloud) was hanging about but just off the coast, so we had great visibility as we crossed over the numbers of LAX - mixing it with the heavies! Our first planned stop was to be Santa Barbara, but as we planned our descent we realised the cloud had hung in land there. We tried to get below it, but it was really claggy and we decided to turn back before we got completely lost, and selected Santa Paula as an alternate. It was a small but busy airport, but thankfully clear of cloud and we landed and had a nice lunch there. We decided to make another fuel stop further up the coast as the strip here was very short and we were loaded with bags.
Anyway, by the time we got away the clag had drifted out and we made it north for a quick "Splash and dash" at Paso Robles airport, before heading north on the final leg to Livermore! They were pleased to see us arrive and even more so when we had to settle the account!
So we managed 17hours in 6 days and covered over 2000 miles, stopping at 7 airports, across 3 states! A great trip and a great confidence builder for both of us! The plane was a dream to fly, the navigation aided by the GPS and autopilot and the weather (apart from today) was damn good! A brilliant adventure which we will do again for sure!
So now i`m chilling in San Fran for a few days before we head home on Wednesday. Oh, and i managed to break the 100hr TT mark as well!!
posted by Matt @ 4:06 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Many congratulations - that's quite an achievement (the trip and the hours in the logbook). Good skills.
I expect this could become something of an annual fixture in both of your flying calendars?
Next stop France, then the big one.....Australia?
Well have to see about Oz, but definately a regular occurrence!!
Matt,it has been great reading your blogs both in OZ and now back here in the Uk.It sounds as though you have had a real adventure and both thoroughly enjoyed yourselves.As Jonny has said you will probably make this a regular event.Anyway congrats to you both for a safe trip and a great diary.
I have to send you the e-mail I got from my KLM buddy. He's been flying in SA, and it looks like so much fun! You'll have to give a talk at the club this fall about what it's like to fly abroad, we need to get those couch potatoes out of the landing circuit! See you at the BBQ on the 17th! Oh, almost forgot, Eoin's coming to the airshow :-D
Congrats mates!! Pleased and proud of you both!! Sounds like you have had a great time. Beast being in work in rainy Manchester lol :-(
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