In 1979 I was seven years old when the Muppet Movie came out and I loved it. Among all the songs there was “Movin’ Right Along” that they sang as they launched out on their road trip and towards the end of the song Fozzie Bear sings “Hey, I’ve never seen the sun come up in the West?” After this flight I can now say that I HAVE seen the sun come up in the West.
California has some spectacular sunsets and having seen some in recent days my wife and I decided to go up for a sunset flight. The sun goes down early this time of year so we needed to get a jump on things. It is great working just a couple miles from the airport some of the time which offered the opportunity to make the flight.
My wife met me at the airport as the sun was getting low in the sky. I had stopped by the airport at lunch to pre-flight the plane but I did another walk around it anyway, even though it had been locked up in the hangar. I pulled the plane out and we grabbed the life jackets and put them on before climbing in and buckling up. Often the best option for an off airport landing along the coast is in the water and after sitting through my friend Andrew’s presentation at the Mooney Summit last year I never fly along the coast without wearing my lifejacket.
I had hoped to be in the air before the sun went down but as we sat in the run-up area waiting for the engine to warm up it was apparent we weren’t going to make it on time. Finally the engine was warm and I completed the run-up and the pre-takeoff checklist as the sun started to dip below the marine layer that was hanging just off the coast.
With everything set for takeoff I called up Ground for taxi clearance and then started down Alpha towards runway 24. The original plan was to fly east and then south along the foothills toward the coast. I thought it would make for a beautiful view with Orange County, the coastline, and Catalina in the distance as the sun went down. However, with the later departure I decided we would just head southwest toward the coast to keep the sunset in front of us. The sun had dipped out of sight when the tower cleared us for a westbound departure. We took the runway and I pushed the throttle in.
As expected we were off the ground before taxiway Charlie, I tucked the gear in and we were on our way. Climbing out at just under 1,000 feet per minute the sun which had dipped below the clouds slowly came back into view. Maybe Fozzie Bear never got to see the sun come up in the West, but we did.
Fullerton tower gave us a frequency change and wished us as nice flight. I thanked him for the help and switched over to Long Beach tower to request transiting their airspace on the way to the coast. We were cleared through and passed right over the airport.
I wanted to keep the sunset in sight as long as I could so we turned west over the Port of Long Beach and flew past San Pedro and Point Fermin before we caught up with the marine layer and rolled into a left bank to fly back to the east.
I love the things you see from the sky. As we made the turn we saw Fromhold Field which sits right on the coast. How cool would that be to play a ball game there and launch a homerun over the cliffs into the ocean!
There were no high clouds for the sun to reflect off but the sky was still a gorgeous mix of red, orange, and gold with the sliver of a moon hanging in the sky.
We passed over the massive container ships anchored outside the breakwater and began a slow descent to 1,000′ to be under John Wayne’s airspace along the coast.
We continued along the coast in the smooth evening air past all the usual sights of Huntington Beach, Newport, and Laguna.
Just north of Dana Point we began a climbing left turn to head back north to KFUL. The sky was darker but the colors were still there as we looked out past the left wing at Orange County.
I called up the tower as usual just east of the water treatment plant over Yorba Linda and we were told to make straight in for runway 24 with the last remnants of the sunset reflecting off the cowling.
It was a nice smooth landing, the kind that you barely feel when the wheels actually touched down. The tower welcomed us back and cleared us to taxi back to our hangar as I started to turn off the runway. I thanked him and wished him a good night, grateful for the blessing of getting to fly and enjoy the beauty around us.