Marc's Public Blog - Flying

I remembered how much of a clusterfudge it was to drive there and park last time, so I didn't try too hard to get closeby parking, and after picking up Ralf who was happy to join me for the show, parked fairly far from the waterfront, but with the bikes, it was a quick enough ride, even if I was kind of loaded with the big foldable chairs :)

this time went directly for an advance front row seat

cookies help :)

nice water cops came to chase the jetskis that weren't bothering anyone, yeah to silly laws

we were in time for the show this time

good climb power without passengers :)

pelicans tried to compete :)

that's some low flying

the middle plane is facing the wrong way :)

more competition :)

And finally came time for the F35-B Demo:

slowing down for hover

Then it went back into forward flight:

More planes and demos:

Last, but not least, the thunderbirds came back:

oh noes, two of them are out of order :)

Nice show overall, even if quite similar to the one 2 years ago, weather was perfect (not so much the day after), glad I was able to go despite the crappy SF traffic and parking. Thanks to Ralf for joining me.

2007

2017

2022/03

The boneyard was still there of course:

2023/04

First time landing there:

FOG members had a good time in the FBO Million air:

golf, even :)

obligatory group picture

Then it was my group turn's for the van tour of the grounds (it's big). During the tour, I found out that indeed part of the airport is used for scrap, planes that exceeded their safe design limits, and that can be used for spare parts, or recycling of the metal. There are also boeing planes that are being parked there until they can find a new customer (planes that were ordered during covid and then the orders cancelled).

so long Victorvile, it was a very cool visit, thank you to Million Air for the private tour.

that was more than 20mn into my walk in, at least by then I was in the base and going towards the visitor entrance

The flight line and displays were interesting:

first time I see a B1 outside of a museum

cool to still see snow in the background

It was definitely warm and sunny, thankfully I found a tent to hide in :)

The airshow was quite good, here are some pictures:

had never seen a B1 fly before

So happy to see a F35 fly for the first time, both an F35B (vtol) and F35C:

short field takeoff

Nice to see this performer again with precision flying, including landing on the top of a van:

And the show ended with the thunderbirds:

All in all, a good show, nice to see some planes I had never seen outside or in flight

that's a *lot* of flowers

and they go far

even the hills

Once it got to to the hills towards LA Coast, it was over though (and also a nice overcast):

Pao to Oceano

Moffett hangar is being re-skinned

the quary in the hills is definitely making big holes

Santa Cruz

can go for house shopping

hopefully erosion is not a problem :)

whale watching boat going out

Hwy 1 is cool

Was able to fly around Hearst Castle:

Then on the way to Oceano:

had not seen diablo nuclear power plant before, cool sight with cooling pool above and hole in the hill for storage

Oceano ATVs

san dunes to play on

Oceano to Paso Robles

San Luis Obispo

Paso Robles

Paso Robles to Santa Ynes/Solvang

Santa Ynes back to Palo Alto

able to see the oceano dunes

Apple spaceship buildings

new google campus and sports field

Very nice flights and fun trip.

I got a slightly better camera 15 years later, so the shots were a bit better. It was cool to see an airliner flying so close to the ground/water:

yeah for energy management, cool that the flight by wire allowed this

low enough to buzz the boats

coast guard

damn, that's a lot of control authority

Outside of driving through San Francisco and terrible parking (had to park a long ways away and bike in), it was fun :)

There are multiple Imperial War Museums in the UK, and Duxford is likely the biggest plane museum in the country, 7 hangars and next to an active runway used to demonstrations and flights you can rent/pay for. I was there for opening time (took an uber from cambridge as it's not convenient to go by public transport):

first impression: it's big

I had a tour booked to get a private tour of a spitfire and sit in the cockpit. I didn't know that for just 60 times more money, I could have flown in one for 30mn. A bargain :)

this was the actual aircraft, recovered on the beach in normandy

I then went to sit in it

After my tour, I went to visit the hangars:

auto gyro

I went back to hangar #1 to see the concorde that closes earlier:

They had one of the 6 concorde prototypes in the world. I had seen severals, but prototypes are always special, so it was worth seeing:

it never had passengers, it was a test airplane for multiple systems including anti-icing and engine management

the seats in the passenger versions, were much smaller

lots of test equipment

cockpit was off limits

the numbers were references to see how much icing happened

harrier engines are awesome

Next, I went to the restoration hangar, lots of planes being worked on:

Next was a small control room that re-enacted the only real air attack from Germany that was stopped:

Further down was a very nice hangar filled with US planes. Not as interesting to me since I had seem them all many times in the US, but still worth the walk through:

Last, but not least, was land warfare, this was a war museum, not just a plane museum:

And that was it for the visit, I finished just 30mn before closing time.
Also, while I was there, I got to

Those planes did inspire me to do my own flight Over Cambridge From IWM Duxford.

Getting back home was also not easy, no ubers at all, and taxis were a 45mn wait. I got lucky and shared a cab with a woman who had already called a cab herself and was also going to the train station in cambridge.

I was a bit worried about how much time I had as I wanted to see the entire museum, so in the end I settled for a 30mn scenic flight, but there were none, so I rented an old carburated C172 with CFI since I am not legal to fly in the UK and know nothing about radio work, or airspace there.
I hadn't flown a plane like that for about 10 years, but ended up remembering pretty well how to do it. After landing the CFI said he didn't have to touch or correct me on anything and all he did was the radio work.

at least it had a garmin 430, but no autopilot legal to use in the UK

taxing amongst warbirds

good view of the multiple museum hangars

weather/lighting was not great, but a typical UK day. At least, no rain

overflying cambridge airport

weird that they don't use 23L and 23R

We then made it to Cambridge. Forgive the heavy color correction, the original colors were very dull due to the poor weatherpit

Flying over the colleges was very nice.

this delta is where I went punting with Louis, very nice views from the river

We then flew away for a few other views

american cemetery

And back to the airport for an easy landing

the plane still had an ADF antenna