Hi Guys,
The Fly-In to Santa Paula (SZP) on Sun, Dec 9th was terrific. We had
great
weather with severe clear skies which were ahead of a cold front that was
moving down from the North West.
Nine people in five planes made this Fly-In. One plane from Gillespie
(SEE) with Jeff Cary & Warren Lovell in a 172. And four planes from
Montgomery (MYF) which was Gary Ghio & Paul Dolan in an Arrow, Dennis
Cullum
in an RV4, Chris Claborne & Chuck Lerman in a 172, and Jim Newport and
Tony
Tex in a 172.
Finding SZP is NOT a "no-brainer" if you haven't been there
before. The
2700' mountain, just a 1/2 mile south of the airport, completely blocks the
view of the small runway when you're south of the airport. Many pilots fly
right by it, then spot Camarillo runway dead ahead and wonder why "SZP
runway" is so huge. I did exactly that a number of years ago, but I have
a
lame excuse, it was before the days of GPSs. Anyway, understandably a couple
of our pilots did the same thing on this Fly-In, until their GPS showed they
were passing SZP.
Flying the downwind leg at SZP at 850' is always exciting. You're
looking
down on one side of the plane at the runway that's only 245' high, and then
LOOK UP on the other side at a mountain that's 2700' high and only a 1/4
mile away. Definitely gives you the sense of speed. The traffic was usually
light compared to other weekends. Dennis Cullum in his speedy RV got there
first and put a couple tables together for us at the Logsdon Restaurant. The
food was good, but the service was a bit slow in view of the small crowd
there. Unfortunately the many hangars with experimental and classic
airplanes that are usually open to the public were closed this weekend.
On the way back to San Diego, the cold front started catching up to us
very quickly. What was severe clear skies four hours earlier, changed with
fast moving clouds to broken to overcast around 5-6000' with 38F temp at
6500' in the LA area. By the time we got back to the San Diego area, we were
getting squeezed down to 1500'. And MYF ATIS, which was only 30" old, was
still calling it "clear". Overall it was a good Fly-In and I'm ready
for the
next one in five weeks.
And in five weeks the Fly-In will be on JAN 13th (ya, got the date
right
this time) to Calexico (CXL), where the food is good and the service is bad.
Info on this one will be coming out on our website:
Incidentally, got a good suggestion from you guys. With the variety of
planes we have, some pilots want a short flight for a Fly-In and others want
a long one, so why not alternate a short and long one every other month.
Sounds good to me. So CXL on JAN 13th will be the short one and then a long
one for February, with the destination to be decided by the executive
steering committee.
Best of clear skies and tailwinds,
TONY TEX
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