I flew!
http://www.snakeden.org/flighttomickey.html - pictures of the occasion!
We took off from DVT at about 1700Z on Saturday. By around 2000Z, we were touching down at SNA John Wayne Airport in Orange County. SoCal approach was polite and friendly. When they gave me instructions to fly relative to landmarks that I was clueless about, a simple "16L is unfamiliar" netted me a vector towards the landmark, and then upon arrival at said landmark, a description of "Signal Mountain is that peak ahead, 12 o'clock, 3 miles, with all the antennas on it". My confrimation and thanks for the extra effort put my way was met with a smile you could hear over the radio and a handoff to the tower.
This was a dream of a mini trip for Christy and I. Me for actually getting us into and out of L.A. under more cloud consideration than I'm used to (I.E. in Arizona...no clouds) and with SoCal approach/Class C to an unfamiliar airport, and for C-girl, because, well, hey...impromptu Disneyland! This was only a 3 hour flight, yet it is the second farthest I've ventured out in one sitting, bested only by my flight home to Lubbock, TX a couple of years ago. Disneyland itself wasn't too crowded, especially considering it was a Saturday in the summer. The high was a nice 86 degF, with a low down to 66 degrees. That was all just an insanely and mercifully cool escape from Phoenix heat.
At take-off, I called out some large debris on Runway 19L in the center of the runway right at the Kilo taxiway intersection that I had to taxi around. It looked like it was about half the size of a soda can, but it appeared to be a hunk o' metal and glass. I didn't figure that'd be pretty getting smacked by a propeller, run over by a wheel at landing, or worse sucked into a 737's turbine. In any case, it was interesting to hear the maintenance truck on the tower frequency scurry out onto the runway while several 737s stayed hold short of 19L until they saw it and scooped it up. :)
On the return flight Christy even took several photos of El Toro AFB. It is closed down, but as you'll recall it was destroyed by the ID4 aliens back in '96, so there wasn't much sense keeping it open.
We took off from DVT at about 1700Z on Saturday. By around 2000Z, we were touching down at SNA John Wayne Airport in Orange County. SoCal approach was polite and friendly. When they gave me instructions to fly relative to landmarks that I was clueless about, a simple "16L is unfamiliar" netted me a vector towards the landmark, and then upon arrival at said landmark, a description of "Signal Mountain is that peak ahead, 12 o'clock, 3 miles, with all the antennas on it". My confrimation and thanks for the extra effort put my way was met with a smile you could hear over the radio and a handoff to the tower.
This was a dream of a mini trip for Christy and I. Me for actually getting us into and out of L.A. under more cloud consideration than I'm used to (I.E. in Arizona...no clouds) and with SoCal approach/Class C to an unfamiliar airport, and for C-girl, because, well, hey...impromptu Disneyland! This was only a 3 hour flight, yet it is the second farthest I've ventured out in one sitting, bested only by my flight home to Lubbock, TX a couple of years ago. Disneyland itself wasn't too crowded, especially considering it was a Saturday in the summer. The high was a nice 86 degF, with a low down to 66 degrees. That was all just an insanely and mercifully cool escape from Phoenix heat.
At take-off, I called out some large debris on Runway 19L in the center of the runway right at the Kilo taxiway intersection that I had to taxi around. It looked like it was about half the size of a soda can, but it appeared to be a hunk o' metal and glass. I didn't figure that'd be pretty getting smacked by a propeller, run over by a wheel at landing, or worse sucked into a 737's turbine. In any case, it was interesting to hear the maintenance truck on the tower frequency scurry out onto the runway while several 737s stayed hold short of 19L until they saw it and scooped it up. :)
On the return flight Christy even took several photos of El Toro AFB. It is closed down, but as you'll recall it was destroyed by the ID4 aliens back in '96, so there wasn't much sense keeping it open.