What an awesome flight! We met at the airport restaurant at 1 pm in the afternoon. It was raining in Chicago, but sunny in beautiful Southern California. The airport restaurant specializes in buffalo burgers.
After hundreds of hours of nothing but steam gauges, I was excited to check out the panel in Joe's Cirrus. Those displays are easy to read. I have to admit, I kept looking for the steam gauges for verification (old habits die hard).
The wild thing about the airport, it goes uphill for the first 2/3rds of runway 22, then levels out. As you start the takeoff roll, it looks like you don't have very much runway left. That was wild, considering the mountaintop runway is surrounded by precipitous cliffs on all sides.
Joe has extensive experience with this airport, so he was pretty comfortable. That made Dave and me relax.
After departure, we swung around the island. Most of Santa Catalina is a nature reserve. Outside of the town of Avalon (which is 1 square mile) there is not a lot of development.
At one point, we thought we spotted a large school of tuna in the water. Our fishing take had been limited to smaller fish and a couple sharks, so we were excited.
Joe then headed north to the Los Angeles basin. Like Phoenix, LAX has a vfr corridor which tracks right over the top of the airport. There was not a lot of traffic at LAX, but I may not have been able to see all the airplanes from 4,500 msl.
We flew over Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Dodger Stadium and the Rose Bowl. I got a kick from seeing Sunset Strip from the air. It was a little hazy, but I did not see any forest fires. They must be out by now.
Joe is from Michigan. He reminded me of my cousins from Flint. We enjoyed his company. We got to see the hospital where he worked for many years. His Casio camera worked well. I am going to have to get one of those.
This was a great treat to fly over this dramatic part of the country. I lived in Phoenix, but never visited the LA basin. It is amazing how populous that LA is.
On the way back to Santa Catalina Island, we ended up following another Cirrus into the pattern. Unicom hailed us as we were halfway across the ocean to the island. They said that we had better hurry if we wanted to make the 3:30 pm tour bus.
The other Cirrus offered to let us cut in front of him. "Thanks, dude!"
People in California are really nice. The approach to the airport is wild because the mountain rushed up to meet you as you settle in to final. There is a damaged Cessna on the side of the runway. I do not know why they leave it out there, unless it serves as a warning to the uninitiated. Joe set it down neatly, despite the poor condition of the runway.
We made the tour bus and got back to the harbor in time to set sail on Uncle Dave's boat.
Joe was a great host. I hope that I can someday repay his hospitality. Uncle Dave, whose wife passed three years ago, really enjoyed the flight. He could not stop talking about it.
The cirrus flew stable and steady. It was really fast (even faster than my old 1957 Apache!):wink2:
Thanks, Joe!
ApacheBob
That guy in the back looks happy. 
