Fri 29 Dec 2006
After some more tail-wheel training with Bill down in Palo Alto this morning, I drove up to San Carlos and picked up the Diamond Star (N504DS) for my flight to Santa Rosa. I had beautiful weather and a picture perfect flight. First, I crossed over to Half Moon Bay, because I didn’t want to have an in-flight emergency right over San Francisco. Your emergency landing options are pretty bleak over the city, but if you’re over the ocean you can at least turn to the coastline and land on a beach. Flying along the coast was beautiful, as the sun was just starting to fall on the horizon and the entire Northern California coastline was glowing in the sun.
After staying under the SFO Class Bravo airspace I set myself up for an entry to the Bay over the Golden Gate. The picture speaks for itself, but it was spectacular. Being able to fly over that majestic structure is truly one of general aviation’s best selling points. I had to recall the pictures my grandfather had taken of the bridge on his visits to California.
After flying past Alcatraz, I turned north and on my way to Santa Rosa’s airport (KSTS) and the one closest to Sebastopol, where Joan, Dan and Hanna live. Since I was listening to ATC and receiving VFR traffic advisories I heard that there was another pilot, who had also left San Carlos’ airport (KSQL), who was on his way to Santa Rosa. Popular destination! The weather was absolutely perfect and after less than an hour of leisurely flying up north I contacted the tower and was cleared to enter the downwind to runway 14. I hadn’t intended to do this, but as I turned onto base, I rounded out both my turns to a perfect half-circle to final. That’s really not a good thing to do, even at a tower-controlled airport, because you don’t get that extra bit of time to scan for unannounced traffic on final, but it must have looked super elegant to the folks watching on the ground.
After I landed I taxied towards the APEX FBO. Since it had already gotten a bit dark the FBO had sent out a cart to guide me to the tie-down. I could already seen Joan, Hanna and Dan watching me from the side of the tarmac. No sooner had I shut-down my engine and opened my canopy, that I saw Hanna running towards me. Without any hesitation she climbled up onto the wing and crawled into the cockpit behind me as I was still sitting in the front seat. She wiggled her way to the back seats and started exploring the aircraft.
After I got out, she jumped into the front seat, and without any que she grabbed my headset and put it on her head. I don’t think she had even seen me take it off, she just knew that’s what pilots did. Then she pulled down the mic and started talking to ATC, well, that’s what her uncle would like to think anyway.
Hanna was still a little frightened of the plane and didn’t want to go flying quite yet, but Joan was all gung-ho. We hopped in, I went through the pre-flight and we taxied out. After take-off we flew over the town of Sebastopol, over Joan’s house and then out to Bodega Bay. The sun had already set, so it was getting dark and by the time we returned to Santa Rosa it was already night. Joan had a really good time and even mentioned the next day that she was still high from the experience.
I too had a wonderful trip and it was a real joy playing with Hanna and seeing Joan and Dan in Sebastopol again.