Flight To Oakland

On Our Way North

On November 12th I got to do something that I don't get to do enough. I took the Arrow out and flew it on an over-night trip. We departed from Redlands airport early in the afternoon. Our flight plan took us through the Cajon Pass, through the Antelope Valley over Lancaster and Palmdale, beyond the Tehachapi's and Bakersfield, up through the Central Valley, over the coastal hills and ultimately to Oakland International Airport (OAK). Our final destination was San Francisco. We stayed over night in 'Frisco' and returned to Los Angeles on Sunday.

The flight up was absolutely wonderful. You couldn't have asked for a better day to go flying. The weather was clear. The visibility had to be at least 150 miles (at 10,500 feet that is). We flew with Class C services which turned out to be a good thing. Center handed us off to Oakland Approach and then to the tower without incident. Much better to have them know you are coming than to show-up, 20 miles out and want to land. Oakland is an extremely busy airport. It is right across the bay from San Francisco International (SFO) and there was traffic all over he place. If you listen carefully and do as Air Traffic Control says, you'll be fine.

We encountered these clouds past the Tehachapi mountains
trapped in a pocket at the south end of the Central Valley.

Its kind of hard to see because I couldn't get my camera out and on fast enough. That white speck in the middle of the pictures was a Beech Bonanza that passed about 500 feet below us. ATC was talking to both of us so we got plenty of warning that our paths were going to cross.

Even at 10,500 feet up, we're not all that! The corporate jet you see flying above is cruising at over 40,000 feet.

The sun is beginning to sink low into the sky over the Monterey Bay.

We're on a ten mile final to Oakland International. We look closer don't we...

Here's a zoom-shot. Can you see the San Francisco skyline in the background?

Short final, we're about to land.

On Our Way South

The flight home was better than the flight up if you can believe that. We left around 4:30 in the evening. The sun was low in the sky and we weren't going to have much light left. On our way out there was even more traffic than the day before. The commercial flights were all over the sky. Every where you looked you could see the dark cigar shaped silhouetted against the late afternoon sky. Once we cleared the Bay Area air space it got real quiet. Sometimes 10 minutes would pass with no radio communication on Center's frequency.

Once the sun went down and the full moon came out the cities and towns below lit up with a soft amber glow. The street lights form grids that looked like circuit boards printed on the ground below.

Home was visible in the distance. While flying over Fresno at 11,500 feet we could see the soft glow of Los Angeles over the Tehachapi Mountains.

We flew directly south following the 5 freeway. Our ground-speed averaged about 170 knots (about 195 mph). Since it was night we decided to do the LA cruise over Southern California. We flew south of the San Gabriel Mountains soaking in the lights below. LA looks beautiful at night.

I love night flying.

The sundown sky over the San Luis Reservoir

You'll never see a sunset that beautiful on the ground!

The moon was so big and so bright you could almost touch it.