We're heading down to San Diego next week for spring break, visiting friends and going to LegoLand with the kids. Should be fun!

I've flown in and out of Gillespie before, but this time Oceanside looks more convenient. I've studied the noise abatement stuff, and it looks pretty straightforward otherwise. Anyone here have any inside info on Oceanside beyond that?

On the way home, we're visiting some friends in SF. I'm hoping to land at Oakland and get on BART from there. If anyone has some good inside info on Oakland, and/or how best to get to the BART station from the GA area, I'd really appreciate it. For the basics, I'm studying the Alameda Aero Club website.

We'll be VFR with flight following.

Thanks!

Oregon 180,
Not a lot of info for you on your destinations. But, the family here (Roseburg) is planning a similar trip this Saturday to the LA basin (Long Beach) to escape during spring break as well, and return around next Friday. Problem is the wx looks like crap going and coming. I've had to leave the plane in Redding and rent a car to get home one too many times, so we are looking for alternate plans for our getaway.
If the forecast starts to change quickly I'll be looking for you on the down. Have a good trip.
Tom

Oregon180:

You may be using Oceanside for other reasons, but I believe CRQ is closer to Legoland. I would not be afraid to use CRQ now that they have self serve and County transient parking again. The transient is right below the tower, super easy access and if I remember correctly $3 a night. I was last there over Christmas and self serve fuel wasn't bad, about the same as Oceanside. Having the ILS is nice, even Special VFR, as the coastal stratus can come in leaving only the approach end of 24 clear.

Can't help much with KOAK ground transportation, flown in a few times but haven't left the airport from the GA side. BART isn't far, just up to the Coliseum, and the passenger terminal runs a shuttle back and forth. Can't imagine a taxi ride costing too much..

Hope you have a great trip! We might be heading down to Legoland in a couple weeks for my son's birthday.

Flynengr

Hi O180,

I learned to fly out of the north field at Oakland in the 80s. It was great and convenient back then. It's still convenient to SF, but it's no longer friendly to GA and has gotten quite expensive. Fuel is pricey and service fees run $30-$55. BART takes you right into downtown SF.

You might consider San Carlos as an alternative. San Carlos (SQL) is about 7 miles southeast of SFO. It's about a 30 minute drive to downtown SF during non-commute hours. It's also a mile away from the CalTrain station, so if you're committed to using public transportation, Rabbit Aviation will probably give you a lift over to the Caltrain station and you can take the train into San Francisco. The train station in SF is a few blocks from the ball park, and either a nice walk down the Embarcadero or a reasonable cab ride to downtown. You can get a rental car delivered to SQL, or there's an Enterprise office close by and Rabbit aviation will shuttle you there.

Fuel at San Carlos is among the lowest-priced inside of the Bay area--more than a dollar less per gallon than Oakland. If you don't need gas, want the quickest public transit ride into downtown SF and don't mind paying more for parking, then Oakland is probably faster to SF. Whatever you decide, have a good trip and have fun.

CAVU

TomW wrote:Oregon 180,
Not a lot of info for you on your destinations. But, the family here (Roseburg) is planning a similar trip this Saturday to the LA basin (Long Beach) to escape during spring break as well, and return around next Friday. Problem is the wx looks like crap going and coming. I've had to leave the plane in Redding and rent a car to get home one too many times, so we are looking for alternate plans for our getaway.
If the forecast starts to change quickly I'll be looking for you on the down. Have a good trip.
Tom

I'm returning the rental car to Redding tomorrow in hopes of bringing the 180 home from my trip to the Santa Barbara area last week. Lots of weather rolling through Norcal this past week and this weekend looks like more of the same I don't mean to discourage you, but it is March (and I'm stranded).

I also second San Carlos in the bay area.

Hope you have a great trip!

CW

If you have time to spare go by air. We have all been stranded because of wx. Friday I am headed to Death Valley, then Palm Desert with the family for some sun. We are driving. Unlike me the family has to be back for school.

Have fun 180

Palomar is closer to lego land ad mentioned. Very easy airport to get into. Much more up to date and busy than Oceanside.

Oceanside is also a nice but as mentioned before a little farther away. Both airports are subject to a low marine layer rolling in as both are less than 1/2 to the ocean.

I got some pictures on my blog flyingcalifornia.com

Thanks for all the info, guys. We have a 3-day wx buffer both coming and going, but the weather is Boss. If it's not looking good, we won't fly. This time of year it's tough to do long trips.

The info posted about OAK is not correct.
OAK is very GA friendly and full service. Landmark
Will wave the 8buck nightly fee with a fuel purchase.
They have a nice facility with all the extras and are
open 24/7 with van service to Bart. The fuel is going to be
a little more expensive than surrounding airports.

San Carlos is about a mile from Bart and transportation
is not guaranteed.

I fly into Oak regularly. It is the easiest airport to get
to/ from Bart and the city. If you are going IFR it is also the easiest airport
in the bay to get in/out of.

You may keep Fallbrook (L18) in the back of your mind headed to Oceanside. When the Wx is crap on the beach it is usually doable at Fallbrook, because it's up high on a bluff . And it isn't 15 minutes from Oceanside

Take care, Rob

And if Fallbrook is fogged in French Valley is usually good. About 40 minutes away. All joking aside if the weather does go down French valley is usually is good bet. The Cleveland national forest that runs north south really does keep French Valley and much of the inland empire clear from low level clouds. There been many time flying around Hemet/French valley with great visibility and seeing a solid deck right over the small hills by Fallbrook, and trying to spill through the low passes and the Santa Rosa Platue.

Probably more info than you need but just some options.

FYI Hemet's got a great cafe and on a good Saturday or Sunday tons of planes come taxing right up to the door. Almost every weekend there's 180's, 170's, a few piper cubs, tons of home builts, and recently a very nice 172 TW "skywagon" (name on the plane). Not many airport cafe's (food and setting) like this one.

Thanks again for all the info. We made it down to Oceanside today, leaving a day
early to take advantage of a break in the weather. Smooth and clear the whole way.

Good for you! It sounds like you have a fun trip planned! I'll miss taking my family on a trip to socal this year because I had to go it alone due to circumstances out of my control. We usually like to stop in Monterey and courtesy car it to the aquarium. So many fun things to do along that route. Can't wait to hear a trip report when you get back! Fly safe.

CW

We're back home from our trip to San Diego. Everything went great! While not backcountry, I figured I'd write up a quick trip report.

The weather this time of year isn't all that reliable, especially for long trips like this, so we'd planned for three weather buffer days both coming and going. We ended up heading south a day early to take advantage of some good weather and had a great flight down to San Diego from southern Oregon. We stopped for fuel and lunch in Merced, and had a nice late afternoon flight over southern California, staying inland of the LA airspaces and instead flying over Techahapi with it's many windmills.



We landed in Oceanside just as the sun began to set and were met by our friends. We stayed at their house in Cardiff, which is a cool surf town on the coast. They're both surfers and musicians and have an amazing house with an ocean view. We were treated to a house concert with the talented Barbara Nesbitt and her band at their house, which was pretty unreal. Our 11-year old daughter, who's a budding rock guitarist, got to play for the band after all the other guests had left. I'm pretty certain she'll never forget that experience!

We spent a day at the San Diego Zoo. I could spend a whole day just hanging out with the Giraffes. Is there a cooler animal? The next day we just explored the coast. We went for a hike at Torrey Pines and played on the beach, watching the surfers.





We spent two days at LegoLand, which was a ton of fun for all of us. Our four year-old son is completely obsessed with two things -- Lego and Star Wars, despite the fact that he hasn't seen any of the movies. Getting to see the elaborate Lego Star Wars miniland, and go on all the cool rides was a ton of fun for him.






As anticipated, the weather outlook heading home wasn't all that great, so we decided to skip stopping in the Bay Area. Instead, we headed north, making it as far as Sacramento before the weather turned sour. Visibility started going down as we drew closer to the rain, and eventually entered it. We landed in Colusa before it got any worse and spent the night there. One of my favorite things about traveling by light plane is these unplanned stops in towns I'd probably never otherwise see and meeting the locals. The nice owner lady from the hotel picked us up from the airport. Turned out that she and her husband were from Zambia. We had a nice dinner in town and a good night's sleep.

We took off the next morning but the weather in the mountains north of Redding was a no-go for us. We turned around and landed in Chico, figuring that that would be a fun town to spend some time while the weather improved. We ended up spending two nights there, checking out the children's museum, the downtown and the Sierra Nevada Brew Pub. The weather was pretty nasty the whole time we were there with 30-knot gusts and rain, so being within walking distance to some of the best beer anywhere was pretty nice.




We left Chico on Sunday and had a fairly uneventful flight up to Yreka. Our last mountain pass over Soda Mountain and Siskiyou pass was obscured in a snow shower, so we landed at Siskiyou County to see if it would clear. The kids played with their Legos while we waited, and the snow passed. We were finally able to make the last 15-minute flight into Ashland between showers.

Having lots of flexibility with our time made this trip possible and really enjoyable. We ended up using our three-day buffer on the return trip. We've flown enough as a family that everyone is used to having to be flexible and respecting the weather. Sometimes those unplanned stops make for the most memorable parts of the trip!

Whoops! Hopefully the pictures should be visible to everyone now. Sorry about that.

Nice TR, Oregon 180. You really make a strong case for the 4-seat family cruiser. Glad you guys had a good time-- Way to exercise superior judgement and flexibility on the weather situation.

Thanks for the report. Followed your progress on FB and was wondering how you were going to get back into Oregon. Nice work getting the family home safe.

Great TR!

Missed you at KCIC yesterday, I landed around 2 pm to drop my kids off at Grandma"s for a spring break visit. The brewery is awesome...It's a favorite lunch stop any time I am in town.

Redding is another great unplanned stop. I need to get my kids up to Turtle Bay before it gets too hot.

Flynengr

Nice trip report!

Your flight home sounds very similar to mine along the same route minus the fact that I needed a rental car from RDD for a week and I didn't get to enjoy my family on the overnighter.

Lego Land looks awesome! My son is hooked on Lego StarWars also right now. You should try the Wii game if you haven't already!

General Aviation is the answer to the TSA!

CW