Cool places to fly to within 2 hours of LAX

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Samuel Seidel

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What are some cool places to fly to with a 100 knot airplane within 2 hours of the Los Angeles area?

Unpaved airports are a bonus.
 
Amboy, California? Catalina Island? Camarillo (good airport cafe?) Montgomery Field (San Diego) and Casa Machado? Harris Ranch (3O8)?

Slightly over 2 hours (may be more if windy) is Henderson, NV (KHND) if you want to stop and enjoy the Las Vegas scene.
 
Kern Valley, L05. Lone Pine, O26. Those are two my favorites. Read up on flying through the Owens Valley and its winds, if you try Lone Pine.
 
+1 for Catalina. Though, as a fellow resident of the southeast, pretty much anywhere around there would be cool to fly around.
 
Catalina, Big Bear, Vegas, Chicken strip (if you can land that short).
@FlyingMonkey has a youtube channel that covers some cool trips in that area (though his 6 has a bit more speed and range).
 
You could land on El Mirage dry lake bed if you are feeling adventurous. very close to L.A. My favorites are Big Bear, Catalina, Camarillo, Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez (Solvang). I have videos on a few of these places on my youtube channel. let me know if you want more details on any o them.
 
FlyingMonkey said:
You could land on El Mirage dry lake bed if you are feeling adventurous. very close to L.A. My favorites are Big Bear, Catalina, Camarillo, Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez (Solvang). I have videos on a few of these places on my youtube channel. let me know if you want more details on any o them.
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Is there a recent video from a visit to Catalina/Avalon? May go there this Xmas. Thank you.
 
MountainDude said:
Is there a recent video from a visit to Catalina/Avalon? May go there this Xmas. Thank you.
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I have not published one yet about Catalina. Definitely will be making one about a trip there at some point. Let me know if you want any pointers on Catalina...airport, landing, things to do, etc. It's worth flying to for sure.
 
Chicken strip. Here's my landing there. Watch that mound of dirt on the left short final. That surprised me.


Johannesburg, CA Not my video...

 
Greg Bockelman said:
Can you even get out of the LA area in two hours, even in an airplane?
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Easily. No problem. Lots of choices. Been there, done that.

But I guess that partially depends on what you call the LA area. Your definition might be more broad than mine.
 
SkyDog58 said:
Easily. No problem. Lots of choices. Been there, done that.

But I guess that partially depends on what you call the LA area. Your definition might be more broad than mine.
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I was looking for a emoji but can’t find them. The LA area is quite vast it seems you could fly for a week and still be over it b:)
 
Greg Bockelman said:
I was looking for a emoji but can’t find them. The LA area is quite vast it seems you could fly for a week and still be over it b:)
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Yeah, I get that. Some folks think LA= SoCal while others do not. Many, including me look at LA as just being a subset, albeit a large one, of SoCal. So there are many locales or destinations in SoCal or close by that are not LA. I think that the area suffers from this misconception more than any other in the US.

As I have posted before, I lived in Torrance and flew out of TOA for awhile. While Torrance is its own city, I would consider it the LA area and when I tell people that I lived in Torrance and they ask where that is, I just say the LA area and seldom get a request for more precision. So I get it.

However the following places that I flew to while living in Torrance, I would not consider to be LA. Catalina, Chino, Camarillo, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Borrego Valley, French Valley, Redlands, Victorville, Apple Valley, Barstow.

Now not all of those are great destinations that would appeal to everyone but I enjoyed flying to them and they were all under two hours.

But at the end of the day, what is and isn’t LA is probably open to interpretation and mine is not necessarily any more valid than the next guy’s.
 
FlyingMonkey said:
I have not published one yet about Catalina. Definitely will be making one about a trip there at some point. Let me know if you want any pointers on Catalina...airport, landing, things to do, etc. It's worth flying to for sure.
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Yes, I'd like to know the cost of the taxi ride to Avalon for 3 people.
Thank you
 
MountainDude said:
Is there a recent video from a visit to Catalina/Avalon? May go there this Xmas. Thank you.
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Here's a video to Catalina in my friend Levi's C182:

And Ensenada also fits the 2-hour assignment:
 
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