Life has been busy… We had plans to fly to St. George, UT today for a day trip but the weather wasn’t going to cooperate. There was a storm that moved in and although it looked like the ceilings might have been high enough to get in and out, there were rain showers forecast and with the freezing level starting at the surface that made the chances of icing high. Translation = No Go.
What do you do when it has been almost three weeks since you flew last and you have no where to go? Simple, go out and bore holes in the sky… It turned out to be a solo flight, but the air was smooth and the views were beautiful. I took off just before sunset and flew south, west of Santiago Peak and over Irvine Lake. While staying below the outer shelf of John Wayne’s airspace I headed for the coast. Once past the hills I pushed the nose over for an easy descent, ending up at 1,200′ over the ocean as I made a right turn up the coast. I trimmed it out, pulled the power back, and just enjoyed the sunset and the views as I flew past Newport Harbor, Huntington Beach, and the offshore oil platforms before eventually reaching the Port of Long Beach and the Queen Mary.
I rolled into a climbing left turn and leveled out at 3,000′ heading northwest over Los Alamitos Army Airfield and around the north side of Disneyland on my way back to Corona. Enjoy some pictures from the trip.
-
- Irvine Auto Center – Shameless Plug for Simpson Chevrolet of Irvine
-
- Sunset over the coast
-
- Crystal Cove State Park – Newport in the distance
-
- Sunset over Catalina
-
- Newport Harbor
-
- Newport Harbor
-
- Lido Peninsula and Lido Isle
-
- Port of Long Beach
-
- Container Ships off the Coast at Sunset
-
- Los Alamitos Army Airfield and Sunset Beach
-
- Port of Long Beach and Queen Mary