I think I met a famous pilot yesterday

kimberlyanne546

kimberlyanne546

Final Approach
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Kimberly
I drove down to Palo Alto airport yesterday (KPAO).

I sat right seat, next to the owner, in a privately owned 150 that is leased back to a flight school as a trainer, and the plan was to fly to Half Moon Bay (KHAF), a busy, oceanside, untowered airport with lots of restaurants at the south end, in a town called "Princeton By The Sea."

The flight was awesome, perfect weather, and besides a minor issue with the tire after taxi'ing to the parking spot - so far so good.

We discuss the tire and where to eat, then start walking down an empty taxiway towards the airport exit gate.

My friend (he is on POA) points out an airplane and asks if we can divert and go check it out. All I saw was a few nice planes on some grass (a Stearman and one other plane) but I wasn't looking in the HANGAR.

There was a HUGE plane being tugged by a small vehicle - a shiny P-51 MUSTANG!

So we walked over, and nobody questioned us. There were mechanics, and pilots, and cars, and planes, lots of people taking photos and videos. I am starting to "get" that this guy is an aerobatic air show pilot. Everything has his name painted on it:

Eddie Andreini

http://www.eddieandreiniairshows.com/gallery.html
 
Here is our route:

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Beautiful pictures Kim. What a flight that must have been. Glad you had fun and got to see a Mustang, too... what a great day, huh?
 
gosh, you look so high - how could you see anything?!
Nice P51. Wait, they are all awesome.
 
They did a photoshoot of planes and cars. All I could think was man, I fly a little 150 and a 172. Sheesh.

6952545883_e5d965f169_z.jpg
 
What a gorgeous day. And awesome planes.
 
Here are photos of the same Stearman and Yak, but much better ones, from his website:

Stearman27.jpg



Yak11.jpg
 
Cool, nice flight. I always liked Half Moon Bay. I used to shoot surfers out at Mavericks. When you feel brave and rich at the same time take a flight down to Santa Rosa some weekend; there are some neat planes and good people there.
 
Tracey said:
Beautiful pictures Kim. What a flight that must have been. Glad you had fun and got to see a Mustang, too... what a great day, huh?
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We stayed for HOURS since he was going to fly. He started it up, I asked dumb questions and shook his hand saying something like "Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Kimberly" and "how long have you been a pilot" and "how many G's have you taken in your plane" and "How many hours can you fly that P-51 before you need to refuel, and is that in cruise flight or show performance flight" etc. I joked with the mechanic that every hose and part looked new and he said it was. So I guess you can pretty much have a P-51 built for you these days (new) which made me wonder how much of this plane is new.

I found more information about the plane on YouTube:

(check out how awesome his hangar is, this is where we were):

 
Henning said:
Cool, nice flight. I always liked Half Moon Bay. I used to shoot surfers out at Mavericks. When you feel brave and rich at the same time take a flight down to Santa Rosa some weekend; there are some neat planes and good people there.
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Santa Rosa is "up" not down (North). I go there all the time, see my other thread with the Mooney guys, one of only three fixed gear Mooney's in the world still flying. Santa Rosa airport is also where I went to that EAA meeting, they have a big hangar there. I took my checkride at Santa Rosa, volunteered for the big airshow at Santa Rosa, etc. It is a cool airport but I love untowered airports.
 
fgcason said:
It's easier to hit them from the beach with a rifle. :lol:
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Lol, it be easier to park a boat off next to the break if I was sniping.;)

No lol, I had an oblique survey multi format photo door for where my baggage door goes. I had a 400 2.8 EDIF Nikor and that is about as long as I can shoot aiming with the plane by video monitor.
 
I see both his Mustang and that Yak all the time when I go to Half Moon Bay.

FYI, "the" place to eat there is the Princeton Seafood Company in the marina.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
Santa Rosa is "up" not down (North). I go there all the time, see my other thread with the Mooney guys, one of only three fixed gear Mooney's in the world still flying. Santa Rosa airport is also where I went to that EAA meeting, they have a big hangar there. I took my checkride at Santa Rosa, volunteered for the big airshow at Santa Rosa, etc. It is a cool airport but I love untowered airports.
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That's right, it's another Santa I'm thinking of down central coast, Santa Paula maybe?
 
It was a great day for flying, the weather was awesome and it turned into a mini-adventure of sorts with the warbird. The Dino was kinda cool too. Can't wait to see the videos. Thanks for the company. Now I gotta run to the airport and have that wheel looked at, the fun never ends being an owner.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
If I met Tom Cruise, I'd say I met a famous movie star, not pilot. This guy was a pilot.
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Oops, sorry- you did say pilot in the headline part. I just saw "Mustang" and thought of Tom Cruise. :dunno: Probably shouldn't be my first thought, but it was...
 
Tracey said:
Oops, sorry- you did say pilot in the headline part. I just saw "Mustang" and thought of Tom Cruise. :dunno: Probably shouldn't be my first thought, but it was...
Click to expand...

You know what they say about first thoughts.

Somebody likes Tommy!
 
Aeric said:
It was a great day for flying, the weather was awesome and it turned into a mini-adventure of sorts with the warbird. The Dino was kinda cool too. Can't wait to see the videos. Thanks for the company. Now I gotta run to the airport and have that wheel looked at, the fun never ends being an owner.
Click to expand...

I hope it isn't anything serious. Maybe the mechanic just left his wrench in there when he was working on your tires last time.
 
PS - The videos are taking forever but the first one (you landing and the pattern from downwind onwards at KHAF) is uploading to You Tube right now (it estimates THREE HOURS MORE to go and my fear is there will be an error and the upload will stop). My Mom's internet connection in SF today sucks. Also, the camera shake is pretty bad and distracting, I should have steadied my cell phone against something, lesson learned.

PPS - The other videos are sideways so now I have to figure out how to rotate them in Windows Movie Maker, re-save them, and then upload them.
 
redtail said:
Beautiful! This gives me goose bumps. Now you got me all hyped up for the McGuire AFB airshow this summer! :)

My favorite Warbird! Damn, I'd love to get a flight in one of these:lol:
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You're in luck.

At DAB today the Commemorative Air Force has a B29 and two P51s on display. You can ride in the P51 for $1995 for 30 minutes.
 
redtail said:
Beautiful! This gives me goose bumps. Now you got me all hyped up for the McGuire AFB airshow this summer! :)

My favorite Warbird! Damn, I'd love to get a flight in one of these:lol:
Click to expand...

Wait until you see my video (well, not really, it is just the airplane starting up and taxi'ing but I doubt I'll ever be that close to one again).
 
Here is a video, starting on the downwind leg, of us landing at Half Moon Bay.

I really need to shorten the ending and edit the video, but I know I probably never will have time, so I just wanted to upload it.

On this slow connection it took over 4 hours to upload!

Can't believe my cell took HD video and somehow got the sound from what seems like my headphones (?) and even our voices too.

Enjoy :

 
Again, what an amazing day to fly!!! What gorgeous scenery! Thanks for posting that video. Gorgeous.
 
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