Marc's Public Blog - Flying

15 years ago, I did a lovely flight around Hawaii's Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, so I figured I'd do it again this time around. It was still fun but unfortunately the winds were strong and greatly limited where I was able to fly, so it was just a quick loop around half the island as it was apparently not safe to go to West Maui, Lanai, or Molokai:

N335SP is what I flew 15 years ago, it's still there

N6009V was my ride this time around

the garden I had been to a few days earlier

Hana airport

Venus pool

Seven Sacred Pools

a good vantage point of the older lava flow

Since the flight was much shorter, the highlight was Molokini:

lots of snorklers :)

It was then time to fly up the coast towards the airport:

I noticed this drag strip

And that was it for the flight, a bit short but better than nothing

got some night training at the same time, did ok on my night landing

here is my blog on the first 10 years (clickme)

Here are all my bestof pictures from the last 20 years: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8EZeGWW6KurJiCAE6

Anyway, here are the 20 year stats:

So yeah, it's really not a lot, but I made the flights count. I also should note that I stopped doing lots of training flights just because, or staying current just to stay current, or getting checked out in more planes that I would reasonably not be able to fly. At this point I pretty much only fly C182, or a 172 when I have to. For the distances I fly, staying current in SR22, the higher prices and lesser availability aren't really worth it (it's the how much time are you saving in flight vs the higher time you spent to be able to save that time).

Highlights for the second 10 years:

Only one unexpected experience in these last 10 years:

So just like I said 10 years ago, I'm going to continue to fly when it makes sense, but it's not my main hobby and I don't see the need to fly myself with weather restrictions if I can fly commercial to the same place (LA area) for a 5th or 10th of the price. But it's nice to know that if there is somewhere unusual to go or the zombie apocalypse happen and all commercial planes are taken down, I have options left :)

And as parting words, some of my bestof bestof pictures:

night flight back from Palm Springs to Palo Alto

Vintage pictures:

Moffett Hangar One

Google new campus

and another new campus on the Moffett side

Apple Spaceship Rainbow

Busy SFO

Typical SF day :)

track day at buttonwillow

some dot.com had a small self driving car test track just in front of KPAO

Plane graveyards:

Mountain flying to/from Burning Man:

Squawpine aka Palisades

Back side of Flatstar (the less flat side)

Welcome home :)

5302N that took me there multiple times until an engine failure

Mountain flying to/from Mammoth:

A very cool flying trip to Madras for the total Eclipse

got to see Lassen on the way

Edwards AFB:

Flight from Duxford plane museum to Cambridge:

Hawaii Big Island:

Flight to Oceano and Hearst Castle

wildflowers

Here is to many more years:

so long

The visit starts with the car and motorbike collection:

One small building on space rockets, because why not? :)

Also an impressive bike and motorbike collection:

Yes, it is a winery, still :) I'm assuming the museum fees don't come close to paying for the upkeep, so I'm sure some of the winemaking fees still help with the upkeep of the entire place:

Relatedly, a collection of tractors used to work in the grape fields:

Then, more random things :)

before getting to the actual plane collection:

Lovely place indeed:

And as luck would have it, 3 rafale fighters flew by on the way out to Orange:

I got copilot seat, but was just passenger

The flight ended with the double/triple Wailua Falls close to the airport:

cool to see the parking lot I had just driven to a hour prior

And after that it was time to head back:

as you can tell, pretty localized weather

Thanks to Ralf for joining me, it was a lot more fun together

I was specifically excited to the the F22 again, my first time seeing it at fleet week:

As usual, some people came better equipped than me :)

The last bit we got lucky to see F35 demo:

Unfortunately after that, fog rolled in and weather went to shit:

too more planes flew

and fat albert was the last one to fly but by then the weather was too low for blue angels to perform

that's all, folks...

On the plus side, I have seen the blue angels many times, I was most excited by the F22 and F35 which did get to perform, so it was all good.